/&n<  a7-7^'^^-^?-^t«^ 


IN   MEMORIAM 
BERNARD   MOSES 


^^^ 


THREE    CENTURIES 


MODERN    HISTORY. 


THREE     CENTURIES 


OF 


MODERN     HISTORY. 


BY 


CHARLES    DUKE    YONGE, 

v\ 

Regius  Professor  of  Modem  History  and  English  Literature  in  Queen's  College,  Belfast, 
Author  of '  A  School  History  of  England,'  ♦  Three  Centuries  of  Engliah  Literature,' 

&c 


*L'histoire  print  le  coeur  humain:  ieit  daru  Thistoire  qu'U 
faut  chercher  let  avantaget  et  les  inconvinientt  des  diffirentt* 
Kgislatiom.'—'^AFOi^oJi!,  Rfiponse  ^  TAdresse  du  Conseil  d'etat, 
Corresp.  No.  19,390. 


NEW  YORK: 
D.    APPLETON    &    COMPANY, 

549   &   551   BEOADWAT. 

1878. 


lS7S 


IN  MEMORIAM  . 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

PAGB 

Plan  and  object  of  the  work 1 

State  of  Europe  at  the  close  of  the  15th  Century         .         .  2 

Discovery  of  the  Mariner's  Compass  and  of  Printing  .         .  3 

Eagerness  of  French  Statesmen  for  a  footing  in  Italy          .  4 

Character  of  Charles  VIII.  of  France          .        .        ,        .  4 

1494.  He  invades  Italy        ........  5 

1495.  The  League  of  V^enice 6 

Charles  retreats  from  Italy 7 

Gonsalvo  de  Cordova  lands  in  Calabria      ....  7 

The  Battle  of  Seminara 7 

The  Battle  of  Fornovo 8 

1498.  Death  of  Charles  VIII 8 

1499.  Louis  XIL  invades  Italy 9 

Frederic  of  Naples  submits 9 

Consalvo  takes  Taranto 10 

The  Battle  of  Cerignola 11 

1503.  Death  of  Pope  Alexander 12 

The  Battle  of  the  Grarigliano 13 

1508.  The  League  of  Cambrai 14 

1511.  The  Holy  League 16 

1512.  The  Battle  of  Ravenna       .         .   ^ 16 

1513.  Death  of  Pope  Julius          .        .  * 17 

1515.  Death  of  Louis  XII 17 

1516.  Death  of  Ferdinand 17 

Characters  of  the  two  Monarchs 18 


CHAPTER  XL 

Character  and  views  of  Columbus 20 

1492.  He  sails  from  Spain .22 

He  reaches  the  Bahamas 24 

AndHayti         , 25 

1493.  Returns  to  Spain 26 

Sails  on  his  Second  Voyage 27 

1498.  In  his  Third  Voyage  he  reaches  Guiana     ,         ,        ♦        ,  38 

His  ill-treatment  by  Bobadilla 20 


^1150:57 


VI 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


FAOK 

1502.  His  Fourth  Voyage 30 

1506.  His  Death 30 

1517.  Discovery  of  Yucatan         .         .         .         .         .         .         .31 

1519.  The  Expedition  of  Cortez .33 

He  reaches  Tabasco   .         .         •        .         .         .         .         .       33 

High  Civilization  of  Mexico 34 

Alarm  of  Montezuma 35 

Cortez  destroys  his  Fleet 37 

Treachery  of  Montezuma 38 

The  Spaniards  arrive  in  sight  of  Mexico  .  .  -  .  .39 
Submission  of  Montezuma  .  .  .  .  ,  ,  ,41 
■Cortez  attacks  and  defeats  Narvaez 42 

1520.  Uprising  of  the  Mexicans 43 

Defeat  of  the  Mexicans ,         .44 

1521.  Arrival  of  reinforcements 46 

Guatemozin  succeeds  to  the  Mexican  throne  ...  46 
He  is  taken  prisoner .        ■.'.'..         ,         .         .47 

-Wise  Administration  of  Cortez 48 

1547.  Death  of  Cortez 49 


CHAPTEK  III. 

1515.  Francis  I.  succeeds  tp  the  throne  of  France 

1516.  Charles  succeeds  to  the  throne  of  Spain 

1515.  Francis  invades  Italy 
Takes  Colonna  prisoner      . 
The  Battle  of  Marignan 

1516.  The  Treaty  of  Noyon 

Mutual  Jealousies  of  .Francis  and  Charles 

1519.  Death  of  Maximilian 
Charles  is  elected  Emperor 

1520.  Francis  declares  war  against  the  Emperor 
Loyola  is  wounded  at  Pan^peluna 
Defence  of  Mezi&res  by  Bfvyard .. 
Character  of  Louisa  of  Savoy     . 

Rarity  of  Loyalty  among  the  French  Nation 
1623.  Revolt  of  the  Constable  Bourbon 

1524.  Death  of  Bayard 

1525.  Francis  recovers  Milan 
Pope  Clement  VII.  concludes  a 
The  Battle  of  P'avia  ". 
Francis  is  taken  prisoner  . 

1 526.  The  Treaty  of  Madrid        [. 
The  Holy  League 
'Bourbon  takes  Milan . 

1627.  Death  of  Bourbon 


Treaty  with  him 


51 
51 
52 
63 
64 
66 
67 
68 
69 
69 
60 
60 
61 
62 
63 
63 
64 
65 
66 
67 
68 
69 
69 
71 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS.  vii 

PAOK 

The  Sack  of  Rome 71 

Capture  of  the  Pope 72 

1(344.  The  Battle  of  Cerisolcs 73 


CHAPTER  IV. 

Reformers  of  the  Middle  Ages — WicklifFe — Huss — Sayon- 

arola 74 

1513.  Death  of  Pope  Julius  and  Accession  of  Leo  X.   ...  75 

1517.  Luther  denounces  Indulgences 76 

Importance  of  the  Principles  involved  in  the  Reformation  .  77 

Character  of  Luther 78 

1521.  Diet  of  Worms  .         .        • 79 

1526.  Diet  of  Spires 80 

Confession  of  Augsburg     . 80 

Formation  of  the  League  of  Sraalkalde        ....  81 

1533.  Charles  grants  the  Truce  of  Nuremburg      .         .         .         .81 

Vacillation  of  Charles  and  Francis     .        ,        .        ,        .  82 

1544.  The  Battle  of  Cerisoles '82 

1546.  Death  of  Luther 82 

The  Council  of  Trent 83 

Charles  commences  war  against  the  Protestants           .         .  83 
Maurice  of  Saxony  joins  the  Emperor         .         .         .         .84 

Irresolution  of  the  Protestant  Leaders         ....  85 

1547.  Death  of  Francis  I. 86 

The  Battle  of  Muhlberg 87 

Arrogance  and  cruelty  of  Charles 87 

1548.  Charles  publishes  the  Interim 88 

1551.  Maurice  makes  alliance  with  Henry  II.  of  France        .         .  89 

1552.  They  make  war  upon  the  Emperor 89 

Henry  captures  Metz  and  other  towns  in  Lorraine      .        .  90 

Charles  flees  from  Innspruck 90 

The  Peace  of  Passau 91 

1553.  The  Duke  of  Guise  defends  Metz 91 

1555.  Death  of  Maurice  of  Saxony 92 

Death  of  Joanna         ..'.'.'....  92 

Charles  abdicates  the  Throne     ' 93 

His  Life  at  Yuste      ' 94 

1 558.  His  Death  and  Character 95 


CHAPTER  V. 

1 558.  Success  of  Philip  at  the  beginning  of  hi£  Reign  ...       98 

The  Treaty  of  Chateau  Cambresis 98 

Character  of  Philip 99 

His  zeal  for  Persecution     ,        .        •        .        .        .        .100 


Vlll 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


Regency  of  Margaret  of  Parma  . 

Character  of  Cardinal  Granvelle 

And  of  William  the  Silent 

Popularity  of  Charles  V.  in  the  Netherlands 

The  Compromise 

1566.  Les  Gueux 

Tumults  at  Antwerp  ..... 
William  leaves  the  Netherlands 

1567.  The  Puke  of  Alva  is  sent  to  the  Netherlands 
Execution  of  Egmont  and  Horn  . 

1568.  Cruelty  of  the  Persecution  instituted  . 
Beginning  of  the  Revolt  of  the  Netherlands 
The  Battle  of  Jemmingen  .... 
Philip  approves  the  cruelties  practised  by  Alva 
Alva's  Financial  Devices    .... 

1673.  He  resigns  his  post 

1574.  The  Provinces  renounce  their  allegiance  to  Spai 

1576.  Don  John  succeeds  Requesens  as  Governor 
His  Love  for  Mary  of  Scotland  . 

1577.  The  Spanish  Fury  at  Antwerp    . 
The  Union  of  Brussels        .... 

1578.  The  Perpetual  Edict 

Lukewarmness  of  Queen  Elizabeth 
The  Archduke  Matthias  becomes  Governor  General 
The  Battle  of  Gembloux    .... 
Death  of  the  Dauphin         .... 


PAOS 

100 
101 
101 
103 
103 
104 
104 
105 
106 
107 
108 
110 
110 
111 
112 
113 
114 
114 
115 
116 
117 
118 
119 
120 
121 
122 


CHAPTER  VI. 

The  Duke  of  Parma  becomes  Governor  of  the  Netherlands     123 

1679.  The  Capture  of  Maestricht 123 

The  Union  of  Utrecht 124 

1680.  An  Embassy  is  sent  to  the  Duke  of  Anjou  .         .         .         .125 
Philip  offers   a  reward  for  the  murder  of  the  Prince  of 

Orange 125 

1584.  The  Prince  is  murdered 125 

Character  of  William  the  Silent .         .         .         .         .         .126 

His  son  Maurice  succeeds  as  Head  of  the  Co\incil       .         .     127 
Henry  III.  of  France  is  invited  to  be  Protector  of  the 

Netherlands 127 

Successes  of  Parma 1 28 

The  Siege  of  Antwerp 129 

Parma  bridges  the  Scheldt 131 

1685.  Attack  on  Boislcduc 131 

Gianibelli  builds  explosion  ships 133 

St.  Aldegonde  pierces  one  of  the  Dykes      .        ,        .        .134 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS.  ix 

PAOB 

Defeat  of  the  Enterprise    . 135 

Surrender  of  Antwerp 136 

1586.  Elizabeth  aids  the  Netherlanders 137 

1587.  Misconduct  of  the  Earl  of  Leicester 137 

1591.  Parma  is  removed  to  France 138 

1592.  Is  mortally  wounded 138 

Maurice  of  Orange  introduces  military  reforms  .         .         .138 

1597.  Defeats  Varax '.139 

1598.  Death  of  Philip  II 139 

Interference  of  Barn eveld  in  military  matters     .         .         .140 

1601.  The  Siege  of  Ostend 141 

Exchange  of  Prisoners  is  introduced 142 

1603.  The  Marquis  Ambrose  Spinola  takes  the  command     .         .  142 

1604.  Maurice  takes  Sluys 143 

Spinola  takes  Ostend 143 

The  Netherlanders  destroy  a  Spanish  Fleet  at  Gibraltar      .  144 

1609.  Peace  is  concluded 145 

Character  and  Consequences  of  the  War     ....  145 

CHAPTER  VII. 

The  Reformation  in  France 147 

1525.  Views  of  Francis  I.  and  his  Successors        ....  147 

The  Reformers  attack  the  Images 148 

Vehemence  of  Francis  I.  in  persecution       .         .         .         .149 

1536.  Calvin  publishes  his  '  Christian  Institution '        .         .         .  149 

1544.  The  Peace  of  Crepy 151 

1540.  Francis's  Edict  against  the  Vaudois 151 

1545.  Persecution  of  the  Vaudois 151 

Desolation  of  the  whole  district 152 

1547.  Death  of  Francis  1 153 

Character  of  Francis 153 

1549.  The  French  Parliament  refuses  to  establish  the  Inquisition  155 

The  Protestants  begin  to  resist 155 

1559.  Death  of  Henry  II 155 

Influence  of  the  Guises  over  Francis  II.      .        ,         .         .156 

1560.  Death  of  Francis  and  Accession  of  Charles  IX.  .         .         .  157 

Character  of  Catharine  de  Medici 157 

Meeting  of  the  States-General 157 

1561.  Catharine  at  first  favours  the  Protestants  .         .         .         .158 

The  Conference  at  Poissy  . 158 

The  Duke  of  Guise  makes  alliance  with  Philip  of  Spain      .  158 

1662.  The  Massacre  of  Passy 158 

1562.  Commencement  of  the  Civil  Wars 159 

1669.  The  Prince  de  Cond^  killed 169 

Henry  of  Navarre  is  adopted  by  the  Huguenots  as  their 

leader »        .        .        .  169 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


1672.  Marriage  of  Henry  of  Navarre  . 
The  Massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew 
•The  Murder  of  Coligny 
The  Slaughter  in  the  Provinces . 
The  Pope  approves  the  Massacre 

1573.  The  Duke  of  Anjou  is  elected  King  of  Poland     . 

1574.  Death  of  Charles  IX.  and  Accession  of  Henry  III. 
Renewal  of  the  War  of  the  League 

1687.  The  Battle  of  Coutras 

Death  of  the  Duke  of  Alen9on    . 
1 589.  Assassination  of  the  Duke  of  Guise 

The  Siege  of  Paris     . 

Assassination  of  Henry  III. 


PACK 

160 
161 
161 
162 
163 
163 
164 
165 
165 
165 
165 
165 
166 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

Character  and  Difficulties  of  Henry  IV,      ....  167 

The  League  proclaims  Charles  X 168 

The  Battle  of  Arques 162 

Queen  Elizabeth  sends  Henry  reinforcements     .         ,         .169 

1 590.  Story  of  prodigies  seen  in  the  sky 165 

The  Battle  of  Ivry 170 

Philip  sends  the  Duke  of  Parma  to  support  Mayenne          .  173 

1692.  Death  of  Parma 1^3 

1693.  Honry  becomes  a  Roman  Catholic 173 

1594.  He  is  crowned  at  Chartres 173 

He  enters  Paris 174 

1595.  Mayenne  submits 174 

1698.  The  Peace  of  Vervins  and  Edict  of  Nantes         .         .         .175 

Exhaustion  of  France  produced  by  the  late  wars         .         .176 

Sully  becomes  Minister      .         '. 176 

Three  great  Finance  Ministers  of  France :  SuUy,  Colbert, 

Turgot 176 

1698- Licentiousness  of  Henry 177 

1610.  Energy  and  financial  skill  of  Sully 178 

Political  objects  of  Henry  himself 179 

He  weakens  the  power  of  the  Nobles          .         .         .         .  179 

Biron's  Conspiracy 180 

1600.  Henry  marries  Marie  de  Medici 181 

Henry's  measures  for  the  encouragement  of  trade       .        .182 

Establishes  a  Colony  in  Canada 182 

His  plans  for  humbling  the  House  of  Austria     .        .        ,  182 

601.  His  Negotiations  with  Elizabeth 182 

Different  Views  of  James  1 183 

He  concludes  a  Treaty  with  James 183 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


XI 


PAGB 

1609.  He  recalls  the  Jesuits 184 

1610.  He  is  murdered  by  Kavaillac 185 

Character  of  Henry 186 

Is  the  first  King  in  Europe  to  establish  a  Ministry     .         .  186 


CHAPTER  IX. 


1626.  Ferdinand  becomes  King  of  Bohemia 

Zeal  of  the  Bohemians  for  Independence     . 

1617.  Bigotry  of  Ferdinand,  Archduke  of  Styria  . 

Riots  at  Prague 

1619.  Ferdinand  becomes  Emperor      .... 
Frederic,  Elector-Palatine,  is  elected  King  of  Bohemia 
Beginning  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War  . 

Character  of  Frederic 

James  of  England  refuses  to  support  him  . 

1620.  Spinola  overruns  the  Palatinate. 
Frederic's  army  is  defeated  at  Prjigue 
Ferdinand  annuls  the  liberties  of  Bohemia 
Skill  of  Frederic's  general,  Count  Mansfeld 

1623.  France  and  England  and  the  German  Protestants 

A  Protestant  League  is  formed  in  the  North 
1626.  Wallestein  raises  an  Army  for  Ferdinand  . 

1628.  He  besieges  Stralsund 

Gustavus  Adolphus  aids  Stralsund     . 

1629.  Ferdinand  publishes  his  Edict  of  Restitution 
Richelieu  sends  Father  Joseph   to  mediate  between 

Kings  of  Sweden  and  Poland 
Ferdinand  dismisses  Wallestein 
Milita,ry  Reforms  of  Gustavus    .... 

1630.  Gustavus  invades  Germany         .... 
Gustavus  concludes  a  Treaty  with  Louis  XIII.    . 

His  rapid  successes 

The  Siege  sjnd  sack  of  Magdeburg 

A  British  division  joins  Gustavus 

He  defeats  Tilly  at  Breitenfeldt 

Gustayus  defeats  Tilly  on  the  Lech  and  takes  Munich 

Wallestein  resumes  the  command 

Gustavus  fortifies  Nuremburg    .... 
Gustavus  defeats  Wallestein  at  Lutzen ;  but  is  killed 

1633.  Ferdinand's  jealousy  of  Wallestein     . 

1634.  He  procures  his  assassination     .... 
France  mingles  in  the  war  .... 


1631. 


1632. 


the 


188 
188 
189 
190 
191 
191 
191 
192 
192 
193 
193 
193 
194 
194 
194 
195 
196 
196 
197 

197 
198 
198 
199 
200 
200 
201 
202 
202 
204 
205 
205 
207 
209 
210 
212 


xii  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  X. 

PACK 

1610.  Henewal  of  intrigues  at  the  French  Court  .        .        .        .213 

Favour  of  the  Concini 213 

Sully  is  dismissed  from  office 213 

1614.  Cond6  revolts:  the  Peace  of  St.-Menehould  .  .  .214 
First  appearance  of  Richelieu  at  the  States- General    .         .214 

lie  becomes  Almoner  to  the  Queen 216 

Rise  of  De  Luynes      .         .         .         .         .        .         .,        .216 

1616.  Richelieu  becomes  Secretary  of  State 217 

1617*  Assassination  of  Marshal  d'Ancre  ;  (Concini)  .  .  .217 
The  Queen's  Mother  is  banished  to  Blois    .         .         .         .218 

1620.  Richelieu  mediates  between  the  King  and  Queen        .         .  219 

1621.  Richelieu  is  made  a  Cardinal 220 

1624.  Negotiations  for  the  Marriage  of  the  Princess  Henrietta 

Maria  with  the  Prince  of  Wales 220 

1624.  Richelieu  becomes  Chief  Minister 220 

Revives  the  Policy  of  Henry  IV 220 

Richelieu  attacks  the  Huguenots 222 

1621.  Huguenot  outbreak 222 

1623.  Treaty  of  Montpelier 223 

1625.  Fresh  Insurrection  of  the  Huguenots 223 

1626.  Peace  of  Rochelle 223 

1627.  The  Duke  of  Buckingham  comes  to  the  aid  of  Rochelle  .  224 
Richelieu  besieges  Rochelle 224 

1628.  Distress  of  the  Rochellois 224 

Lord  Lindsey  contrives  an  Infernal  Machine       .         .         .  225 

1629.  Rochelle  surrenders 225 

1630.  Richelieu  is  appointed  Generalissimo  in  Piedmont        .         .  226 

The  Day  of  Dupes 227 

Richelieu's  revenge  on  his  adversaries         ....  228 

1 642.  Death  of  Queen  Marie. 228 

1632.  The  Duke  of  Orleans  betrays  all  his  friends      .         .         .  229 

1 640.  Magnificence  and  rapacity  of  Richelieu       ....  229 

1635.  Richelieu  makes  a  Treaty  of  alliance  with  the  German  Prot- 

estants   230 

He  declares  war  against  the  Empire 230 

1636.  The  Infante  invades  France  and  reaches  Corbie  .  .  .  231 
The  First  Command  of  Turenne 231 

1642.  Richelieu  dies.     His  Character 231 

He  recommends  Mazarin  as  his  Successor   ....  233 

1638.  Birth  of  the  Dauphin 233 

1643.  Death  of  Louis  XIII 234 

The  Battle  of  Rocroi 235 

1645.  The  Battle  of  Nordlingcn 236 

1648.  The  Battle  of  Lens 237 

The  Peace  of  Westphalia 237 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS.  xiii 
CHAPTER  XL 

PAGE 

1600.  Origin  of  the  Establishment  of  La  Paulette         .         .         .238 

Encroachments  of  the  Parliament 239 

Character  of  Mazarin 239 

He  abolishes  La  Paulette 239 

Breaking  out  of  La  Eronde 240 

Arrest  of  Broussel 240 

Character  of  Gondi,  afterwards  Cardinal  de  Retz        .         .241 

The  Citizens  erect  Barricades 242 

Conde  arrives  in  Paris 243 

His  Hostility  to  Mazarin  .......  243 

Beginning  of  Civil  War 244 

Singular  character  of  the  whole  Rebellion  ....  245 

1649.  Effect  of  the  Murder  of  Charles  I.  on  the  Parisians  .         .  245 

The  Peace  of  Ruel 245 

Intrigues  of  de  Retz 246 

Arrest  of  Conde 247 

1650.  Division  of  the  Fronde  into  the  Old  and  New    .         .         .247 
Energy  of  Mademoiselle  de  Montpensier    ....  247 

1651.  Union  of  the  two  Frondes 248 

Mazarin  releases  Conde,  and  quits  France.         .         .         .  248 

The  young  King  is  detained  in  Paris  by  de  Retz         .         .  249 
View  taken  by  the  French  Clergy  of  their  relative  duties 

to  the  Pope  and  to  their  Country         ....  249 

The  Queen  offers  de  Retz  the  office  of  Prime  Minister.         .  250 

Cond6  revives  the  Civil  War 251 

Forms  alliance  with  the  Spaniards     .         .         .         .      •   .  251 

1652.  Seeks  the  alliance  of  Cromwell 251 

Mazarin  returns  to  France 252 

Mademoiselle  de  Montpensier  occupies  Orleans  .         .         .  252 

The  Battle  of  St.-Antoine 254 

Conde  joins  the  Spaniards  in  the  Netherlands     .         .         .  256 

End  of  the  Fronde 256 

1 657.  Mazarin  concludes  a  Treaty  with  Cromwell.         .         .         .  257 

1658.  The  Battle  of  the  Dunes 257 

1 660.  Louis  marries  the  Infanta 258 

He  annexes  Oratige  to  France     ......  259 

1661.  Death  and  Character  of  Mazarin 259 


CHAPTER  XIL 

Louis  resolves  tc  be  his  own  Prime  Minister      .         .         .  261 

Character  of  Louis .  263 

Abilities  of  Colbert  and  Louvois 264 

Colbert's  financial  Policy 265 

His  patronage  of  learned  men 266 


xiv  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 

PAOK 

1683.  Louis  dismisses  him 266 

Policy  of  Loiivois 267 

1671.  Vast  numbers  of  the  French  Armies 268 

1 674.  The  Rivvages  of  the  Palatinate 268 

1683.  The  Queen  dies 270 

Louis  marries  Madame  de  Maintenon 271 

1691.  Louvois  dies  of  apoplexy 272 

1650.  Rise  of  the  Jansenists 272 

Pascal's  '  Provincial  Letters  ' -      .  273 

1683.  Persecution  of  the  Huguenots 274 

Louis  not  however  friendly  to  the  Pope      ,         .         .         .274 

Enactment  of  laws  against  emigration        ....  275 

1686.  The  Dragonnades  in  the  South 275 

Revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes 277 

Extent  of  the  Emigration  ........  277 

Popularity  of  the  Revocation 277 

Persecution  in  the  Cevennes 278 

Insurrection  of  the  Camisards 279 

Extraordinary  cruelty  of  Montrevel 280 

1703.  Clement  XL  publishes  a  Crusade  against  the  Camisards     .  280 
Suppression  of  the  Insurrection  by  Villars         .         .         .281 

Subsequent  Career  of  Cavalier 281 

Vitahty  of  Protestantism  in  France 281 

Prevalence  of  the  persecuting  spirit  in  France.     Dubois. 

St.-Simon 282 

Cruelty  of  the  Duke  of  Berwick 282 

Voltaire's  denunciation  of  the. persecution  ....  283 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

Aggressions  of  the  Turks  on  the  Eastern  provinces  of   the 

Empire 284 

1624.  Capture  of  Belgrade.         .;.....  284 

1626.  Solyman  defeats  Lewis  of  Hungary  at  Mohacz  .         .         .  284 
1646.  Solyman    makes  alliance   with    Francis   I.  and  overruns 

Hungary 285 

He  captures  Rhodes 285 

1 669.  Ho  attacks  Cyprus 286 

Pope  Pius  V.  espouses  the  cause  of  Venice.        .        .        ,  287 

1670.  Nicosia  is  taken. 287 

1671.  Don  John  is  appointed  to  the  command  of  the  Allied  Fleet.  238 

Famagosta  is  taken 289 

The  Battle  of  Lepanto 289 

Superiority  of  the  Spanish  equipment  and  arms.         .         .  290 

Exultation  of  all  Christendom 292 

Corvnntes  is  disabled,  and  writes  '  Don  Quixote  '        .        .  293 


TA13LE  OF  CONTENTS. 


XV 


PAGE 

Continued  hostilities  between  the  Porte  and  the  Empire     .  293 

1660.  The  Grand  Vizier  Kiupriuli  invades  Hungary     .         .         ,  294 

Montecuculi  is  appointed  Commander  of  the  Imperial  Army  294 

Interference  of  the  Aulic  Council 295 

1663.  Montecuculi  receives  reinforcements 296 

He  defeats  the  Turks  at  St.-Gothard 297 

1664.  The  Turks  solicit  peace     .         ...         .         .         .299 

Reforms  in  Hungary ; 299 

The  Revolt  of  Tekeli        .         .- 299 

1683.  The  Turks  again  invade  Hungary 300 

The  Duke  of  Lorraine  is  the  Imperial  Commander-in-chief  300 
The  Emperor   makes    a  Treaty  with   Sobieski,   King    of 

Poland         .         . 300 

The  Turks  are  routed  under  the  walls  of  Vienna        .         .301 

Ingratitude  of  Leopold  to  Sobieski 302 

1687.  The  Duke  of  Lorraine  defeats  the  Turks  at  Mohacz  .         .  302 

Great  losses  of  the  Turks  in  diflferent  quarters  .         .         .  302 

1695.  Mustapha  II.  invades  Hungary 303 

Early  Career  of  Prince  Eugene 303 

1697.  He    is    appointed    Commander-in-chief  of   the  Imperial 

Armies 304 

The  Battle  of  Zenta 305 

Ingratitude  of  the  Emperor 306 

The  Treaty  of  Carlowitz 306 

Gradual  decay  of  the  Turkish  power 306 


1678- 


CHAPTER  XIV. 


1700.    Character  of  the  latter  years  of  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV.  .  307 

1678.    The  arrest  of  Matthioli,  I'Homme  au  Masque  de  Far.         .  308 

Louis  wrests  Avignon  from  the  Pope          ....  309 

1688.  He  declares  war  against  the  Emperor 310 

The  Capture  of  Philipsburg 310 

Duras  ravages  the  Palatinate 311 

Catinat's  successes  in  Piedmont 312 

1611.  Luxembourg  commands  in  the  Netherlands        .         .         .313 

1693.  The  Battle  of  Nierwinden 313 

1695.  Death  of  Luxembourg 315 

Boundless  extravagance  of  Louis 316 

General  distress  of  the  country 316 

1697.  The  Peace  of  Ryswiek 317 

Performance  of  Racine's  'Esther* 317 

1698.  The  Review  at  Compiegne .         ......  318 

The  Partition  Treaty. 319 

Death  of  the  Prince  of  Bavaria 321 

Charles  11.  of  Spain  leaves  his  Kingdom  to  the  Duke  ofAnjou, 

and  dies         .........  321 


1700. 


XVI 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


PAGB 

1701.  Louis  acknowledges  the  Pretender  as  King  of  England      .     322 

1702.  William  in.  of  England  dies .322 

Disasters  of  France  in  the  War  of  the  Succession       .         .     322 

1711.  Death  of  the  Emperor  Joseph  1 323 

1713.  The  Peace  of  Utrecht 323 

1 700-  Louis  persecutes  the  Jansenists  and  destroys  the  Conyont 

1716.        ofPort-Royal 324 

Numerous  deaths  in  his  family 324 

1716.  Death  of  Louis  XIV .325 

Character  of  Louis  XIV 326 

Literary  brilliancy  of  his  reign 327 


CHAPTER  XV. 

1697.  Russia  was  a  party  to  the  Treaty  of  Carlowitz  .         .         .  330 

Russia  was  known  to  the  English  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.  330 

1660.  Designs  of  the  Czar  Alexis  against  Turkey.         .         .         ,  330 

1682.  Accession  of  Peter  to  the  Throne 331 

1689.  He  imprisons  the  Princess  Sophia 331 

He  resolves  to  civilise  his  subjects 332 

He  resolve's  to  organise  a  navy 333 

1694.  He  takes  Azov 333 

He  enters  Moscow  in  triumph 334 

1697.  Travels  to  Holland  and  England 334 

He  visits  Vienna 336 

1698.  Conspiracy  of  the  Clergy  and  Strelitzes  ....  336 
Peter  declares  himself  Head  of  the  Russian  Church  .  .  337 
He  reforms  every  part  of  the  Empire  ....  337 
He  organises  a  powerful  army 338 

1697.  Accession  of  Charles  XII.  to  the  throne  of  Sweden  .  ,  339 
Rigour  of  the  Swedish  Government 339 

1 698.  Augustus  of  Saxony  becomes  King  of  Poland     .         .         .  339 

1700.  Russia  and  Saxony  declare  war  against  Sweden  .  .  ,  339 
Charles  defeats  the  Duke  of  Holsteiu  and  Augustus  .  .  340 
Peter  besieges  Narva  .,....,  340 
The  Russians  are  defeated  by  Charles        ....  343 

1701.  Peter  prosecutes  liis  reform  and  recruits  his  army       .         .  343 
1702- He  raises  an  efficient  fleet 344 

1703.  Condition  of  Poland 344 

1704.  Charles  compels  the  Diet  to  depose  Augtistus  .  .  .  344 
Charles  the  First's  friendship  is  courted  by  every  Sovereign 

in  Europe 345 

1706.  Potor  foimds  St.  Petersburg 346 

I7O8.  Charles  invades  Russia 347 

Defeats  the  Russians  at  HoUosin 348 

Petor  lays  waste  the  country  in  his  line  of  march  .  348 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


XVil 


Charles  is  joined  by  Mazeppa    . 
Peter  defeats  Levenhaupt  . 
The  Battle  of  Pultava 
Peter  replaces  Augustus  on  his  throne 
Charles  takes  refuge  in  Bender  . 
Charles  makes  peace  with  Peter. 
Is  killed  at  Frederickshall. 
The  Death  of  the  Czarovitch     . 
1725.  Death  of  Peter. 

His  Character   .... 


1709. 


1715. 

1718. 


PAOK 

348 
349 
351 
352 
352 
352 
352 
353 
355 
355 


1700. 


1688. 

1725. 
1740. 

1740. 
1741. 

1745. 

1745- 
1755 
1753. 
1754. 

1756. 
1756. 
1757. 

1758. 

1759. 
1760. 
1761. 
1763. 
1763- 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

Frederic     Margrave  of   Brandenburgh  becomes  King  of 

Prussia 357 

Origin  of  his  Family 357 

Albert  of  Brandenburgh 358 

The  Great  Elector 359 

Policy  of  Frederic  1 360 

Character  and  Policy  of  Frederick  William  I.     .         .         .361 

The  Treaty  of  Hanover 362 

Death  of  Frederic  William  and  Accession  of  Frederic  II.  .     364 

Death  of  Charles  VI 365 

Frederic  invades  Silesia      .......     366 

The  Battle  of  Molwitz 366 

Maria  Teresa  at  Presburg 367 

The  Peace  of  Dresden 368 

Frederic  is  hailed  by  his  people  as  the  Great      .         .         .     368 
Institutes  great  reforms  and  improvements  at  home    .         .369 

Severity  of  his  Military  Code 372 

Voltaire's  Visit  to  Berlin 373 

Kaunitz  becomes  Prime  Minister  of  Austria       .         .         .     374 
Austria  makes  alliance  with  France  and  Eussia .         .         .375 

The  Seven  Years'  War 376 

Frederic  defeats  the  Saxon  Army 376 

The  Battle  of  Prague 377 

The  Battle  of  Kolin 377 

The  Battle  of  Rosbach 379 

The  Battles  of  Lissa  and  Leuthen 380 

The  Battles  of  Zorndof,  Hochkirch,  and  Kunersdof  .         .381 

Berlin  is  taken 382 

Death  of  the  Empress  of  Russia 382 

The  Peace  of  Hubertsburg         .         .         .         .         .         .382 

-86.  Frederic's  exertions  to  repair  the  ravages  of  the  war     .     383 


XVlll 


TABLE  OF   CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

PAGE 

1715-Wcakness  of  the  Reign  of  Louis  XV 3S4 

1774.  Character  of  the  Regent,  Duke  of  Orleans.         . '       .         .384 

1727- Fleury  becomes  Prime  Minister 385 

1 743.  Advantages  derived  from  his  peaceful  policy       .         .         .  387 

1730.  Louis  marries  Maria  Leczinski 387 

1736.  Death  of  the  Duke  of  Berwick 387 

1738.  Peace  of  Vienna 388 

1737.  Henry  aids  the  Genoese  to  crush  the  Revolt  of  Corsica      .  389 
1743.  Fleury  dies 389 

The  Campaigns  of  Marshal  Saxe 390 

Profligacies  of  Louis  XV 390 

1746.  The  Battle  of  Raucoux 391 

Great  distress  of  the  lower  orders  ' 392 

1753.  Indications  of  a  coming  rebellion 392 

1750.  Infidelity  of  the  scholars  of  this  reign       .         .         .         .392 
Career  and  character  of  Voltaire 393 

1751.  Rousseau  and  the  Encyclopaedists 394 

Renewal  of  the  Quarrel  between  the  Jesuits  and  Jansenists  395 

1754.  Birth  of  Louis  XVL           : 396 

1765.  Renewal  of  religious  Persecutions 396 

Cruelty  of  Richelieu  in  Languedoc 396 

Defeats  in  Canada  and  in  India 397 

Descents  of  the  British  Fleet  on  the  coast ....  397 

1763.  Administration  of  Machault 398 

1771.  Factious  Conduct  and  Suppression  of  the  Parliament          .  400 

Abolition  of  the  Order  of  Jesuits 401 

1774.  Death  of  Louis  XV 401 


CHAPTER  XVIIL 


Influence  of  Russia  in  Poland    .... 

Ancient  power  and  glory  of  Poland   . 

Vices  of  the  Polish  Constitution 
1572.  Henry,  Duke  of  Anjou,  is  elected  King  of  Poland 

1693.  Sobieski  is  elected  King 

1709.  Augustus  of  Saxony  is  King  of  Poland 

1763.  Death  of  Augustus  II 

1762.  Catharine  II.  becomes  Empress  of  Russia 

Alliance  between  Russia  and  Prussia 
1770.  Proposal  of  the  Partition  of  Poland   . 

Former  plans  for  that  object 
1772.  First  Partition  . 
1786.  Death  of  Frederic  the  Great 

Beneficent  wisdom  of  his  later  y( 

Previous  C.irecr  of  Souvarof 


403 
404 
404 
405 
406 
407 
407 
408 
409 
410 
410 
411 
413 
414 
415 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


XIX 


1788.  He  defeats  the  Turks  on  the  Kimniks         , 

1790.  Siege  of  Ismail 

The  town  is  stormed  and  sacked 

1792.  The  Peace  of  Jassy 

1780.  Death  of  Maria  Teresa       .... 

1790.  Death  of  the  Emperor  Joseph     . 

1791.  The  Poles  reform  their  Constitution  . 

1792.  The  anti-reformers  appeal  to  Catharine      . 
.The  Russians  invade  Poland 

1793.  Second  Partition  of  Poland 

The  Diet  of  Grodno 

Early  Career  of  Kosciusko 

1794.  He  raises  his  standard  at  Cracow 
Souvarof  takes  the  command  against  him  . 
Storm  of  Praga,  and  end  of  the  Insurrection 
Final  Partition  of  Poland  .... 
Subsequent  History  of  Poland  .         .         . 
Causes  of  the  ruin  of  the  nation         ,         , 

1817.  Death  of  Kosciusko 


PAOB 

416 
416 

417 
418 
418 
418 
419 
420 
429 
420 
420 
421 
421 
422 
423 
423 
424 
424 
425 


CHAPTER  XIX. 


1774. 


1777. 


1778. 

1783. 
1787. 

1788. 


1789. 


in  America 


Character  of  Louis  XVI.    .         ,         .         , 
Character  of  Marie  Antoinette  . 
Great  difficulties  of  the  Government  . 
The  Parliament  is  restored 
Turgot  becomes  Finance  Minister 
Great  wisdom  of  his  Government 
His  plan  of  Constitutional  Reform 

He  is  dismissed 

Necker  becomes  Minister  .... 

Character  of  him  and  of  Calonne 

France  concludes  a  Treaty  with  the  Insurgents 

Character  of  La  Fayette     .         .         .         .         , 

Distress  of  the  Country     .... 

Demand  for  the  States-General 

Ministry  of  Lomenie  de  Brienne 

Necker  returns  to  office     .         .         .         , 

Necker  grants  all  the  demands  of  the  extreme  party  among 

the  Reformers    ,         .         .         .         • 
Grievances  under  which  the  People  laboured 
Moderation  of  the  Nobles  .... 
Composition  of  the  States-General 
Ill-feeling  of  the  Lower  Classes  towards  the  Nobles 
Character  of  the  Duke  of  Orleans 
Jacobin  Club.     Robespierre       .         .         , 


426 
427 
428 
429 
429 
430 
431 
431 
432 
432 
433 
434 
434 
435 
435 
435 

436 
437 
437 
437 
438 
438 
439 


XX  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 

PAOK 

Character  and  early  career  of  Mirabeau      ....  440 
Mirabeau  offers  to  support  the  Grovernment,  but  is  rejected 

byNecker 442 

Mirabeau  connects  himself  with  the  Duko  of  Orleans          .  442 

Louis  abolishes  the  chief  abuses 443 

Kesemblanco  of  his  measure  to  the  Charter  of  1814    .         .  444 
The  States-General  adopt  the  name   of  the   National  As- 
sembly      .........  445 

Destruction  of  the  Bastille          ....%.  446 

Emigration  of  the  Count  d'Artois 446 

Louis  visits  Paris 446 

Disturbances  in  the  Provinces   ..,,,.  447 

Abolition  of  all  privileges  and  exclusive  rights  .         ,         ,  448 

Character  of  Madame  Kobind 449 


CHAPTER  XX. 

Louis  refuses  to  transfer  the  Assembly  to  Tours         .         .  450 

Disgraceful  conduct  of  Lafayette 451 

Pillage  of  the  Hotel  de  Ville 451 

The  Mob  march  on  Versailles 452 

Louis  assents  to  the  Declaration  of  the  Rights  of  Man         .  452 

The  Mob  force  the  Palace 453 

Valour  and  loyalty  of  the  body-guard          ....  454 

Heroism  of  the  Queen 455 

The  King  and  Royal  Family  go  to  Paris     ....  445 

Emigration  of  the  Nobles 456 

Change  of  Mirabeau's  views 457 

The  Assembly  abolishes  the  Parliament     ....  458 

1790.  Louis  sanctions  all  that  ha«  been  done       ....  459 
The  Assembly  swears  fidelity  to  the  Constitution        ,         .  459 

All  Titles  are  abolished 459 

The  Assembly  deprives  the  King  of  the  power  of  peace  and 

war 460 

The  Ceremony  in  the  Champs  de  Mars       ....  460 
Mirabeau  advises  Louis  to  quit  Paris          .         ,         ,         .461 

Nocker  resigns  his  office 462 

A  now  Ecclesiastical  Constitution  is  framed       .         .         ,  462 

1791.  Death  of  Mirabeau 463 

The  Mob  prevent  the  King  from  going  to  St. -Cloud    .         .  464 
The  Assembly  prohibits  his  going  more  than  fen  nailes  from 

l^'iris 464 

The  King  quits  Paris 464 

Ho  is  stopped  at  Varonnos 465 

Barnavo  defends  the  King's  Conduct 466 

Violence  of  Robespierre  and  the  Jacobins  .         .        .        .  467 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


XXI 


PAOR 

Dissolution  of  the  Assembly       ......  467 

Composition  of  the  new  Assembly 468 

Else  of  the  Girondins 469 

1792.  A  Girondin  Ministry  is  formed 470 

Character  of  Dumouriez 471 

Dissolution  of  the  Constitutional  Guard      ....  472 

Louis  refuses  to  consent  to  a  Decree  against  the  Priests      .  472 
Dumouriez  resigns  his  office       .         .         ,         .         .         .473 

Battle  of  Neerwinden ,         .  474 

Exile  of  Dumouriez 474 


CHAPTER  XXI. 


Eise  of  the  Cordeliers 475 

Character  of  Dan  ton  and  Murat 475 

The  Cordeliers  and  Girondins  organise  a  new  riot       .         ,  477 

The  Mob  force  the  gates  of  the  Tuileries    ....  479 

Heroism  of  the  King  and  Queen 480 

Plans  for  the  Escape  of  the  Eoyal  Family  .         .         .         .481 

Corruption  of  all  the  Cordeliers  and  Girondins   .         .         .  482 

A  fresh  attack  on  the  Tuileries  is  organised        .         .         .  483 

Treason  of  many  of  the  troops 484 

The  Eoyal  Family  take  refuge  with  the  Assembly       .         .  485 

Slaughter  of  the  Swiss  Guard 487 

Honour  paid  to  their  valour  in  their  own  country         .         .  488 

Scene  in  the  Assembly         ...                 ...  488 

The  Eoyal  Family  is  removed  to  the  Temple       .         .         .  488 

Meeting  of  the  Convention 490 

Imbecility  and  cowardice  of  the  Girondins.         .         .         .  490 

The  Jacobins  demand  the  Trial  of  the  King       .         .         .  491 

Louis  is  brought  before  the  Convention       ....  492 

Difference  between  his  conduct  and  that  of  Charles  I.         .  492 

Louis  makes  his  "Will 494 

De  Soze  speaks  in  his  Defence 495 

1 7 93,  Vehemence  of  the  Debates  in  the  Convention      .         .         .  496 

Efforts  of  Lanjuinais  in  favour  of  Louis    ....  497 

Louis  is  condemned  to  death 498 

His  last  Interview  with  his  Family 499 

Execution  of  the  sentence 600 

Character  of  Louis  and  comparison  of  him  with  Charles  1 .  501 


XXii  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

PAOK 

The  Reign  of  Terror 502 

Frequency  of  Changes  in  the  Government.         .         .         .  603 

Rise  of  Napoleon  Buonaparte 603 

1793.  Siege  of  Toulon 504 

1796.  Buonaparte  marries  and  obtains  the  command  of  the  Array 

of  Italy    ,..,...,..  505 

Rapidity  of  his  Victories  :   Montenotte,  Mondovi,  Lodi,  &c.  506 

He  plunders  the  Italian  cities  of  their  works  of  Art   .         .  507 

He  drives  the  Austrians  from  the  North  of  Italy        .         .  508 

1797.  Completes  the  Treaty  of  Campo-Formio     ....  508 
The  Directory  fear  him 609 

1798.  He  takes  the  command  of  an  Expedition  against  Egypt      .  609 
Declares  himself  a  Mahometan 510 

1799.  He  is  repulsed  from  Acre 610 

Disasters  of  the  French  Armies  in  the  North  of  Italy         .  610 
Divisions  in  the  Directory.         .         .         .         .         .         .611 

Buonaparte  returns  to  France 512 

The  Revolution  of  the  1 8th  Brumaire          ....  513 

Comparison  of  Napoleon's  Conduct  with  Cromwell's  in  1653  614 

Buonaparte  becomes  First  Consul 614 

1800.  He  occupies  the  Tuileries 515 

He  offers  peace  to  England  and  Germany  .         .         .         .616 

He  invades  Piedmont 616 

Sacrifices  the  Army  of  Mass^na 617 

The  Battle  of  Marengo 618 

1800.  The  Battle  of  Hohenlinden 520 

1801.  The  Treaty  of  Luneville 520 

1802.  The  Peace  of  Amiens 620 

Buonaparte's  power  is  prolonged  two  years         .         .         .  620 

His  activity  in  civil  and  legislative  reforms         .         .         ,  521 

Ho  re-establishes  Christianity  as  the  Religion  of  the  State.  522 

1801.  He  proposes  a  Concordat  to  the  Pope         ....  623 
His  perfidy  to  Consalvi 624 

1802.  Signature  of  the  Concordat 625 

CHAPTER  XXIII. 

1802.  Napoleon's  Foreign  Policy 626 

1803.  Renewal  of  War 627 

Detention  of  the  English  Travellers  .....  628 

1804.  Buonaparte  becomes  Emperor 628 

He  puts  the  Duke  d'Enghien  to  death       ....  629 

He  arrests  Moreau  and  Pichegru 530 

Pichegru  is  murdered 631 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


XXlll 


PAOK 

The  Pope  visits  Paris 631 

Coronation  of  Napoleon 632 

1805.  He  is  crowned  at  Milan  as  King  of  Italy   .         .         .         .632 
He  plans  an  Invasion  of  England      .....  633 

The  Battle  of  Trafalgar 633 

Napoleon  transfers  his  Army  to  the  Danube         .         .         .  633 

Mack  surrenders  at  Ulm .  634 

Napoleon  takes  Vienna 634 

The  Battle  of  Austerlitz 635 

1806.  Francis  renounces  the  Title  of  Emperor  of  Germany.         .  637 
Prussia   forms   an  alliance   with    Napoleon    and    obtains 

Hanover 638 

The  Execution  of  Palm 638 

Prussia  declares  war  against   France 638 

The  Battles  of  Jena  and  Auerstadt 632 

Capture  of  Berlin 639 

The  Battle  of  Eylau 639 

The  Peace  of  Tilsit 639 

The  Berlin  Decrees 640 

Renewal  of  war  with  Austria 641 

The  Battles  of  Essling  and  Wagram 641 

Napoleon  divorces  Josephine      ......  642 

He  marries  an  Austrian  Archduchess,  Maria  Louisa  .         .  642 

Napoleon  strips  the  Pope  of  his  Dominions         .         .         .  643 

Victories  of  the  British  in  the  Peninsula  ....  643 

Napoleon's  attacks  on  Portugal  and  Spain  ....  644 

1807-8.He  kidnaps  the  Spanish  Princes 645 

1808.  He  makes  Joseph  King  of  Spain 645 

Beginning  of  the  Peninsular  War 545 

Unvarying  Success  of  the  British  Troops     .         .         .         ,*  646 


1807. 


1809. 


1810. 
1809. 


CHAPTEE  XXIV. 

1811.  Napoleon  annexes  to  Frances  extensive  territories  in   the 

North 647 

1812.  He  declares  war  against  Eussia 648 

1811.  Birth  of  his  Son,  the  King  of  Eome 548 

1812.  Vastness  of  the  force  assembled  for  the  Invasion  of  Eussia  549 
Alexander's  plan  for  resisting  the  Invasion         .         .         .  650 

Napoleon  enters  Moscow 651 

Alexander  refuses  to  treat 651 

Miseries  of  the  French  Eetreat 652 

Intelligence  of  the  Battle  of  Salamanca       ....  553 

The  Passage  of  the  Beresina 65  4 

Mallet's  Conspiracy  ....••••  555 

1813.  Prussia  unites  with  Eussia         ...•«.  5o6 


XXIV 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


and  Dennewitz 
and  invades  France, 


Napoleon  returns  to  Germany 

Battles  of  Lutzen  and  Bautzen 

Armistice  .... 

Battle  of  Vittoria      . 

Austria  and  Bavaria  declare  war  against  France. 

The  Battle  of  Dresden 

Battles  of  the  Katzbach,  Culm 

.Wellington  crosses  the  Bidassoa, 

Napoleon  prepares  to  retreat 

The  Battle  of  Leipsic 

Exhaustion  of  France 

1814.  Characters  of  Schwartzenberg  and  Blucher 
The  Allies  invade  France  .... 
The  Congress  is  opened  at  Ch&tillon. 

Paris  capitulates 

Napoleon  is  dethroned,  and  becomes  King  of  Elba 
Napoleon's  unpopularity  in  the  South  of  France 

1815.  Napoleon  quits  Elba,  and  returns  to  France 
Insurrection  in  La  Vendee 
The  Duke  of  Wellington  and  Blucher  command  in  Flanders 
The  Battles  of  Lignyand  Uuatre  Bras 
The  Battle  of  Waterloo     . 
Napoleon  is  sent  to  St.  Helena  . 

1821.  He  dies 

His  Character 


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Errata. 
Page  163,  line  ii/or  eastern  read  western 
„    169,    „    11    „    saw  „    seen 

f,    174,    „    13  after  af^ainst  insert  him. 
„    182,    „    16    „      calls        „        'the  great  design' 
„    185,    „    13 /or  intercept    read  interrupt 
„    186,    „   35    „    on  „     or 

„    105,    „   27    „    freedom         „     prudence 
„    197,    „    34    „    unsurpassed  „  snrpassed 
„    200,    „   18    „    rejected         „  rejecting 
„    205,    „   15    „    juncture       „  junction 


THREE    CENTUKIES 


MODERN    HISTORY. 


CHAPTER  I. 
A.D.   1485  —  1515. 


rpHE  object  with  wlilch  the  present  work  has  been  undertaken 
JL  is  to  give  the  youthful  student  some  idea  of  the  general  history 
of  Continental  Europe  in  what  may  be  called  modern  times.  It  is 
not  designed  to  present  a  complete  history  of  any  one  country,  nor 
even  of  any  one  period  in  the  history  of  any  country.  It  may  be 
compared  to  a  skeleton  chart  of  Europe  on  which  the  boundaries 
of  the  different  countries,  the  courses  of  a  few  great  rivers,  and 
the  situation  of  some  of  the  chief  cities,  are  marked  out  sufficiently 
to  guide  the  student  in  fillrng  up  the  outline ;  but  which,  for  a 
more  precise  knowledge  of  any  separate  coyntry,  leaves  him  to 
consult  maps  more  elaborately  filled  up.  On  a  somewhat  similar 
principle  it  is  here  endeavoured,  by  presenting,  in  a  connected 
series,  a  set  of  sketches  of  some  of  the  transactions  of  the  most 
conspicuous  interest  or  importance  in  the  annals  of  the  different 
nations  of  Modern  Europe,  to  shew  how  real  the  connection  often, 
it  may  perhaps  be  said,  generally,  is  between  the  events  of  one  age 
or  country  and  those  of  another,  and  to  induce  some  readers  to 
follow  out  for  themselves  the  investigation  of  the  causes  of  action 
thus  suggested  with  greater  minuteness,  to  study  the  history  of 
the  difi'erent  countries,  or  of  some  of  them,  in  greater  detail. 
There  can  be  no  more  interesting  study  than  that  of  History,  even 
if  it  be  regarded  merely  as  an  intellectual  employment ;  while, 
if  considered  with  a  view  to  its  practical  usefulness  as  the  great 
lesson-book  of  statesmen,  it  can  hardly  be  superfluous  occasionally 
to  remind  its  students  that  nations  cannot  stand  alone  anymore 
than  individuals  ;  that,  like  individuals,  they  too  have  responsibili- 
2 


:2 ^".MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.b.  1485. 

ties;  tlia't  in  Ihefn'alao  misconduct  in  one  ajre  is  nearly  sure  to 
entail  suffering  in  another,  and  that  themostmag'nanimous,  humftUH, 
and  unselKsh  policy  towards  others  is  the  wisest,  not  only  for  their 
reputation  but  Cor  their  material  interests. 

Ilallam  closes  his  IIis*ory  of  the  'Middle  Aires '  at  the  moment 
when  '  the  dark  and  wily  Ferdinand,  the  rash  and  lively  Maxi- 
milian are  preparinf^  to  enter  the  lists,'  Italy  being  the  chosen  field, 
of  battle,  and  it-s  fairest  province.^*  the  prize  of  victory.  'J'he  great 
series  of  events  of  whiih  he  thn?>  indicates  the  approach  may 
therefore  for  our  purpo.^e  be  looked  upon  hs  the  connnencenient  of 
Modern  as  di.-stinguisjied  from  Medi;eval  History.  But  the  Italian 
wars,  long  and  exciting  as  they  were,  and  illustrated  by  such 
striking  Incidents  as  the  captivity  of  a  king  and  the  storm  and 
sack  of  the  time-honoured  metropolis  of  the  Christian  -world,  are 
yet  not  the  occurrences  which  give  the  most  distinctive  features  to 
this  new  period  or  division  of  history.  Those  are  impressed  upon 
it  by  other  transactions  and  events,  some  of  which  had  rf^cently 
taken  place,  and  others  were  immediately  at  hand  ;  some  were  of 
a  character  to  influence  the  subsequent  policy  of  single  but  most 
important  nations,  others  were  destined  to  have  a  powerful  and 
permanent  effect  on  the  fortunes  of  the  whole  world. 

Let  us  look  first  at  those  which  aflected  separate  kingdoms.     In 
France  the  establishment  of  a  standing  army  by  Charles  VII., 
followed  by  the  unwearied  and  unswerving  perseverance  of  Louis 
fhf'-i'YtZ  Sla  "^^o  died  a  few  months  after  our  Edward  IV.,  had  finally 
^.^^^  crushed  the  liberties  of  the  people,  had  for  ever  broken  down  the 

/        feudal  power  of  the  nobles,  and  hadr  rendered  the  crown  for  all 
-  Mv, /.v^>  practical  purposes   entnelyjabsolute ;    while   the    acquisition   of 
l^t.r%-i.  )    ^^"^^""^^y  which    Louis    accomplished,  and   the   annexation    of 
^  .  '  Brittany  which  followed  a  few  years  later,  when  his  son  and  suc- 

i^.W*)*/   cessor  married  the  heiress  of  that  great  Duchy,  were  accessions 
Ij^j^^i/^^s^^  -  to  the  wealth  and  martial  power  of  the  kingdom,  calculated,  if 
•  I    iy»^.*hey  should  bo  employed  with  judgment,  to  give  her,  in  her  cen- 
'jT)        *    7  tral   position,  a  weight  in  the  councils  of  all  the  suiTounding 
States,  which  she  had  not  enjoyed  since  the  days  of  Charlemagne ; 
while  at  the  same  time  Louis'  own  perfidy  and  cruelty  contributed 
to  raise  him  up  a  formidable  rival,  by  driving  Mary,  the  daughter 
of  Charles  the  liold,  to  seek  protection  from  his  treacherous  enmity 
in  a  nnuriage  with  the  Emperor  Maximilian.     Her  splendid  in- 
heritance of  Flanders,   which  the  French  king  could  not  wrest 
from   lier,  greatly  augmented  the  resources   and   power  of  the 
House  of  Austria  on  one  side,  while  Maximilian's  own  sagacity 
and  address,  as  showr  in  the  negotiations  with  Ladislaus,  securet' 
to  his  family  the  succession  of  Bohemia  and  Hungary  on  the  otlrtf 


^,f,XCJi^  ^^y^j^^^w^. 


'ClAfMl'''*^'*^ 


./iH>*  ■»•%.!>«€»■  . 


4.D.  1485.]  STATE  OF  EUROPE.  3 

and  thus  converted  the  Empire  from  a  shadowy  phantom  into  a 
substantial  reality,  which  for  three  centuries  roused  the  fears  and 
jealousies  of  every  French  statesman ;  and  gave  rise  to  an  almost 
ceaseless  succession  of  wars  in  which,  on  the  whole,  the  fortunes 
of  the  two  nations  were  not  unevenl}'^  balanced. .  On  the  other 
side  of  the  Pyrenees,  the  union  of  the  crowns  of  Ca8tile_aud 
Aragon,  by  the  marriage  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  with  the 
^^  expulsion  of  the  Infidel  from  the  rich  southern  province  of  the 
Peninsula,  raised  Spain,  in  conjunction  with  another  great  event, 
to  be  mentioned  presently,  to  a  height  which  for  a  moment  over- 
shadowed every  other  Power. 

Other  occurrences  belonging  to  the  same  age,  as  was  said  before, 
affected  not  only  the  difierent  nations  of  Christendom,  but  the 
whole  world.     It  may  not  be  possible  to  fix  the  precise  date  at 
w^hich  the  polarity  of  the  magnet  first  became  known  to  Europeans, 
but  it  was  probably  not  till  the  thirteenth  century  that  the  know- 
ledge was  turned  to  a  practical  use  by  the  adoption  of  the  mag- 
netic needle  in  the   mariner's  compass  :  and  it  was  in  the  last 
decade  of  the  century  that  it  bore  its  first  tangible  fruit,  when 
Vasco  de  Gama  and^Colugibus^  by  almost  simultaneous  efibrts, 
opened  to  Europe  the  treasures  of  the  Western  and  the  Eastern/^<»,  ^X^ 
worlds.     A  still  more  momentous  discovery  had  been  made  a  fewr{)^  ^ct*,^ 
years  earlier;  the  second  half  of  the  century  had  but  just  ^^^Af^/;r     SeM« 
entered  upon  when  three  Germans  at  Mentz  prodi^ed  the  firstr- 
volume  (the  Bible  was  the  book  which  with  Jevout  propriety  they 
selected  for  their  first  essay)  in  which  the  letters  w^ere  not  traced     ^■ 
by  the  hand  of  the  copyist,  but  stamped  by  types.     Their  pupils  J/^J'Jr*'**^ 
carried  the  art  into  Italy ;  and,  before  the  date  which  we  have  taken 
as  the  commencement  of  our  present  studies,  all  the  choicest  works 
of  the  great  classical  authors  and  of  the  most  esteemed  among  the  ,^    •      ^ 
early  Christian  Fathers  were  rendered  accessible  to  scholars  of  ry^'^-^ 
every  country,  and  aroused  a  general  spirit  of  study  and  research 
before   which   errors,   however  inveterate,  and   abuses,   however 
favoured  and  protected  by  prejudice  or  interest,  were  destined  to 
melt  away.     The  concurrence  of  these  circumstances  of  local  and 
universal  influence,  if  not  in  itself  tantamount  to  a  general  re- 
volution, at  least  prepared  the  minds  of  men  in  every  country  for 
a  total  change  of  system :  and  the  invasions  of  Italy  by  the  French 
monarchs  are  chiefly  worthy  of  recollection  as  having  given  the 
first  visible  impulse  to  the  new  feeling ;  as  having  originated  the 
shock  which  with  electric  rapidity  communicated  itself  to  every 
nation  exposed  to  the  contact. 

Before  the  century  of  war  with  England  which  grew  out  of  the  ^\  .^ 
marriage  of  Edward  11.  and  Isabella^  the  creation  of  a  predomina-  CM*^  ^  jj 
"^ng  influence  in"  the  north'lorTEly  had  been  a  leading  feature  in  '^  X  Qt 

U         ■        r- I  f    - — .- — • r 1  f^   i     TT^  y  !^. 


4  MODERN  HISTOEY.  [a.d.  1485. 

the  policy  of  more  than  one  French  sovereign.  They  had  con- 
stantly put  themselves  forward  as  patrons  of  the  Guelfjarty, 
perhaps  because  the  Emperors  were  the  acknowledged  heacfsofthe 
Qj^bellines :  they  had  more  than  once  been  acknowledged  as  its 
protectors  'by  the  brave  republic  of  Genoa,  which  had  repaid 
their  protection  by  sending  well  equipped  squadrons  and  skilful 
cross-bowmen  to  fight  in  the  French  ranks  at  Sluys  and  Crecy ; 
and  they  had  even  had  their  feudal  superiority  acknowledged  by 
some  of  the  princes  of  the  Piedmontese  provinces.  But  they  had 
never  imagined  a  claim  to  the  actual  possession  of  any  Italian 
dominions  till  the  death  of  Ken^,  the  father  of  our  Margaret  of 
Anjou,  Count  of  Provence,  and  titular  King  of  Naples,  who  dis- 
inherited his  natural  heir,  and  bequeathed  both  the  estate  which  he 
really  enjoyed,  and  his  title,  which  had  but  a  doubtful  foundation 
in  right,  to  Louis  XI.  Louis,  however,  was  never  inclined  to  risk 
►X^f  9^  a  substance  in  order  to  grasp  at  a  shadow.  He  seized  eagerly 
jLy  enough  upon  Provence ;  but  he  showed  a  complete  indifference  to 

the  legacy  of  a  pretension  to  Naples,  which  he  foresaw  could  not 
be  realised  without  great  difficulty,  and  which  was  too  completely 
separated  from  France  to  be  of  any  value  to  him  even  if  he  should 
succeed  in  acquiring  it.  He  was  ambitious,  and  no  man  was  ever 
more  unscrupulous  in  compassing  the  objects  of  his  ambition  ;  but 
it  is  impossible  to  deny  that  the  ends  at  which  he  aimed  were 
desirable  not  only  for  the  authority  and  grandeur  of  the  king,  but 
for  the  greatness  and  real  welfare  of  the  nation.  Unhappily  his 
son's  ambition  was  of  a  more  visionary  character ;  the  idea  of 
adding  to  his  dominions  a  temtory  on  which  no  French  king  had 
ever  before  set  foot  attracted  his  imagination  ;  from  his  boyhood 
he  had  accustomed  himself  to  study  the  character  and  exploits  of 
CfiBsar  and  Charlemagne,  christening  his  son  Orlando  after  the 
great  emperor's  favourite  paladin,  the  hero  of  Roncesvalles ;  and 
he  had  dwelt  on  the  romantic  achievements  of  legendary  heroes 
till  he  fancied  himself  qualified  to  emulate  them  by  his  own  deeds 
of  arms.  Accordingly,  he  no  sooner  found  himself  emancipated 
from  his  father's  tutelage,  and  uncontrolled  master  of  the  re- 
sources of  a  consolidated  and  powerful  kingdom,  than  he  began  to 
prepare  an  expedition  to  seize  by  force  of  arms  the  legacy  which 
the  prince  who  had  bequeathed  it  to  his  father  had  never  en- 
joyed for  a  single  moment.  It  was  in  his  favour  that  the  reigning 
King  of  Naples,  Ferdinand  of  Aragon,  as  he  was  called,  besides 
that,  being  illegitimate,  he  could  have  had  no  lawful  right  to 
succeed  to  any  crown,  was  so  generally  detested  for  his  arbitrary 
and  cruel  disposition,  that  many  of  the  Neapolitan  nobles  were 
known  to  be  ready  to  join  Charles  or  any  other  champion  who 
•might  aftbrd  them  a  prospect  of  deliverance  from   his  tyranny. 


A.i>.  1494.]  CHAKLES  VIII.   INVADES  ITALY.  5 

Still  he  felt  convinced  that  from  some  quarter  or  other  lie  should 
meet  with  a  sturdy  resistance  ;  and  he  provided  for  the  encounter, 
by  every  expedient,  peaceful  or  warlike,  that  he  could  devise.  . 

Yet  so  great  was  his  want  of  wisdom  that  the  very  measures  Oir^^U^  -^ 
which   he  represented  to  himself  as  pacific,   and  calculated  to  ^jr^        ; 
diminish  the  number  of  his  enemies,  did  in  reality  only  render  the    c!^*^ 
enemy  from  whom  he  had  most  to  apprehend  more  formidable. *^2ZA>«.Jf 
He  was  already  at  war  with  the  Emperor;  his  relations  with  ' 

Spain  were  so  disturbed  that  hostilities  with  that  country  seemed 
probable  ;  and  to  reconcile  himself  with  both,  he  negotiated 
treaties  with  both  Maximilian  and  Ferdinandj  by  which  he 
restored  to  the  one~sovereign  Artois  and  other  territories  of 
importance  on  the  frontier  of  the  Netherlands,  and  to  the  other 
the  still  more  valuable  provinces  of  Kousillon  and  Cerdagne,  the 
occupation  of  which  by  the  French,  from  the  command  which  it 
gave  them  of  some  of  the  passes  of  the  Pyrenees,  was  a  great 
inducement  to  the  Spaniard  to  avoid  a  war.  The  cession  of  them 
only  set  Ferdinand  free  to  follow  the  dictates  of  his  natural 
disposition,  ever  designing  and  ever  treacherous. 

There  is  no  political  necessity  more  imperative  on  a  monarch 
who   contemplates   engaging   in   war,  than   to   acquaint  himself 
accurately  with  the  general  characters  and  present  views  of  neigh-    . 
bouring  princes.     Ferdinand's  character  was  sufficiently  notorious,  %^^*^  •  "^ 
and  it  was  equally  well  known  that  he  recognised  the  claims  of /^^  'h'^'^^ 
his  namesake  of  Naples,  though  illegitimate,  to  be  considered  as  a 
member  of  his  family.     Yet  so  little  was  Charles  able  to  appre- 
ciate either  fact,  that,  as  soon  as  he  had  restored  the  Pyrenean      . 
provinces,  he  addressed  to  the  Spanish  monarchalormal  demand /Ja*>*^Lo'z 
tKat  he  on  his  part  should  carry  out  the  recent  treaty  by  aiding 
the  expedition  to  dethrone  his  kinsman,  and  professed  the  greatest '^'**''*^*^ 
indignation  and  surprise  when  Ferdinand  replied  that  Naples  waa  ^fv^r-w^* 
a  fief  of  the  Church,  and,  being  such,  had  a  claim  on  his  aid  and 
protection  which  no  treaty  with  any  other  Power  could  invalidate. 
He  was  nowise  daunted,  however,  or,  at  all  events,  nowise  turned 
from  his  purpose  by  the  discoveiy  of  the  additional  foe  with  whom 
he  would  have  to  deal,  though  it  may  be  that  he  was  led  by  that 
knowledge  to  make  more  extensive  preparations  than  he  would 
otherwise   have   considered  necessary.      A  thousand   years  had 
elapsed  since  so  mighty  a  force  had  crossed  the  Alps  as  that    f|ij  f,^— 
which,  in  the  autumn  of  1494,  he  led  over  Mont  G«§nevre.     In^'' 
truth,  it  was  irresistible  by  any  force  which  the  Italians  could ^'^^*"^^. 
furnish,  and  unresisted,  though  the  king  whom  he  had  at  first  1   ;     -ijuuu 
designed  to  attack  was  dead,  and  though  AlfonsoJbia-gon,  who  had     r*  ^ 
succii.iM](!d  to  tbo  Neapofitan  throne,  was  a  prince  of  more  warlike**''-^****^ 
character.     It  is  not  worth  while  to  dwell  on  the  details  of  an 


H 


6  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1405. 

expedition,  which  at  first  was  little  else  than  a  triumphal  pro- 
cession, and  subsequently  was  scarcely  to  be  distinguished  from  an 
ignominious  flight.  As  Charles  marched  southward,  Florence 
received  him  with  open  arms  ;  Eome  did  not  dare  to  refuse  him 
admittance ;  on  the  news  of  his  approach  Alfonso  abdicated  and 
j^  fled,  and  in  February  1495  he  entered  Naples  as  its  master.     A 

r^^'^      ^^  "conquest  so  easily  achieved  encouraged  him  to  plan  others.;  he 
^  began  to  talk  of  crossing  the  Adriatic  to  attack  the  Turk :   an 

.<^»*^mhJ  J    enterprise  which  indeed  had  formed  part  of  his  original  design, 
^  s^f--/ V  oy  and  which  Ferdinand  the  Catholic  had  urged  him  to  prefer  to  war 
against  one  of  the  brotherhood  of  Christian  sovereigns.    But  he 
n       thought  he  had  earned  a  right  first  to  indulge  himself  for  a  while 
in  the  pleasures  for  which  the  most  voluptuous  of  capitals  was 
f^"  celebrated ;  and,  while  he  accordingly  devoted  his  hours  to  revelry 

^^  ;»^  ~    and  dalliance,  he  gave  his  enemies  time,  of  which  they  skilfully 
**""  availed  themselves,  to  form  a  league  to  strip  him  of  his  conquests, 
•^^-^  and  even  to  threaten  his  enjoyment  of  his  hereditary  dominions. 

The  sovereigns  whose  neutrality,  if  not  whose  aid,  he  had  expected 
to  purchase  by  his  impolitic  concessions,  were  the  chiefs  of  the 
confederacy.     The  Pope,  the  infamous  Alexander  YI.,  who  was  a 
"-**^/»*-^        Spaniard  by  birth,  eagerly  entered  into  the  confederacy,  and  even 
sought  to  quicken  the  zeal  of  his  native  prince  by  rewarding  it 
with   the  title   of  His   Catholic   Majesty;   Venice  gave  in  her 
adhesion ;  and  was  followed  by  Milan,  whose  Duke,  Ludovico 
vxT"  tt^^^yS^^^^^^J  though  he  had  formerly  been  earnest  in  his  advice  that 
'     y.     Chai-les  should  attack  Naples,  was  alarmed  at  his  succcfs  ;  his 
*'''*'*^        '    fears  not  being  unreasonable,  since  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  who 
^^^^^  eventually  succeeded  Charles  on  the  French  throne,  had  an  incon- 

/  testable  right  to  Milan  as  the  undoubted  heir  of  the  Visconti, 

and  was  likely  to  be  able  to  assert  it  with  effect  if  Charles  should 
permanently  establish  himself  as  the  chief  potentate  of  Italy.  By 
the  end  of  March  all  the  arrangements  were  concluded,  and  a 
treaty  was  siimed  at  Venice,  which  provided  for  the  instant  levy  of 
a  force,  doubling  the  French  army  in  amount,  to  bar  its  return  to 
its  own  country ;  and  further  engaged  Ferdinand  to  invade  France 
through  that  very  province  of  Ilousillon  which  Charles  had  po 
imprudently  restored  to  secure  the  crafty  Spaniard's  permanent 
friendship. 

Charles  had  sense  enough  to  see  that  he  must  at  once  retreat, 
but  not  judgment  sufficient  to  decide  that  he  must  retire  alto- 
gether. Half  measures,  proverbially  dangerous,  never  deserve 
that  character  so  completely  as  in  war ;  and,  of  all  follies,  that  of 
dividing  an  army,  when  threatened  by  a  superior  force,  is  the  most 
inevitably  ruinous.  Ho  did  not  want  warnings:  Qomines,  the 
.^        ^      ablp  adviser  of  his  father,  and  who,  us  his  own  ambassador  to 


►*/c#-v»*y 


/irs^'/y^Y 


A.B.  1495.]       GONSALVO   BE  CORDOVA  IN  ITALY.  7 

Venice,  had  done  all  that  genius  and  diplomatic  skill  could  do 

to  prevent  the  formation  of  this  league  against  his  master,  had 

earnestly  pressed   him   at   once   to   withdraw  every  man  before 

retreat  should  become  impossible  ,•  but  Charles  could  not  resolve^-v  ^^^^^^^ 

to   relinquish  his  hold  on  Naples  and  the  south,  and  determined^ 

to  leave  the  Due  de  Montpensier  in  the  capital  as  viceroy,  withC^v*"*-^^ 

d'xAubigny,  whom,  though  a  Scotchman  by  birth,  he  had  recently 

made  Constable  cf  France,  as  commander  of  the  troops.     It  was  a 

fatal  decision,  though  productive  of  one  brilliant  success,  which 

though  trivial  in  itself,  is  memorable  from  the  deserved  renown  of 

the  Great  Captain  over  whom  it  was  apparently  gained. 

It  was  on  the  twentieth  of  May  that  Charles  quitted  Naples ;  t^  - 
and  we  may  conceive  that  in  his  heart  he  never  expected  to  return  ^M^*^"^ 
to  it,  since  he  stripped  the  city  of  many  of  its  works  of  art  and<|<jk>>A 
relics  of  classical  antiquity,  which  are  at  once  the  most  precious 
and  the  most  portable ;  setting^ an  example  which,  as  if  to  show 
how  little  time  has  cliauged  the  character  of  liis  nation,  was  faitli- 
fullyjbilowed  by  Nap'.lcon  and  his  Marshals  in  both  the  Italian 
an3  Spanish  pt'niiLsulas  in  the  revolutionary  war.  He  did  not 
depart  too  soon.  Six  days  afterwards  Gonsalvo  de  Cordova,  the 
new  commander-in-chief  of  the  Spanish  armies,  landed  in  Calabria, 
with  a  small  division  of  veteran  troops,  which  he  brought  as  a  re- 
inforcement to  the  young  king  Ferdinand,  in  whose  favour  Alfonso 
had  abdicated.  D'Aubigny,  who  was  in  the  same  district,  had  not 
above  3,000  men  at  his  disposal,  while  the  Italians  and  Spaniards 
at  least  doubled  that  number.  But  the  French  were  picked  troops, 
one  battalion  consisting  of  Swiss  pikemen ;  while  Ferdinand's 
regiments  were  composed  of  new  levies,  and  the  small  body  of 
infantry  which  Gonsalvo  had  brought  with  him  he  had  been  com- 
pelled to  distribute  as  garrisons  among  the  different  towns  through 
which  he  had  passed.  So  sensible  was  he  of  the  inferior  quality 
of  those  troops  who  could  alone  be  available  for  a  battle,  that  he 
desired  to  avoid  fighting ;  but  was  overruled  by  Ferdinand  him- 
self, whose  impatience  to  strike  a  blow  for  his  throne  was  further 
urged  on  by  the  fiery  inconsiderateness  of  mnny  of  the  knights 
around  him,  who  thought  of  nothing  but  their  own  personal 
prowess ;  and  in  the  first  week  of  June  the  two  armies  met  at 


mockery  to  call  the  action  that  ensued  a  battle.     Gonsalvo's  own 

tactics,  being  misunderstood  by  the  bulk  of  his  army,  only  ensured 

and  accelerated  its  defeat.     In  their  wars  with  the  Moors  the 

Spaniards  had  learned  some  of  their  manoeuvres,  a  copy,  or  at  least 

a  reproduction,  of  the  old  Farthian  stratagems ;  and  now,  when 

the  French  gensdarmes  charged  in  close  order  across  a  little  stream  ^ 

which  divided  the  armies,  GonsalvcF^wheeled  his  lighter-armed    0.  Z^// 


8  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1495. 

cavalry  round  in  a  rapid  retreat,  hoping  to  disorder  his  opponents 
by  the  fuiy  of  their  own  pursuit.  But  the  Italians  mistook  the 
feigned  retreat  for  a  real  flight,  in  which  they  joined  with  such 
alacrity,  that  no  efforts  of  their  commanders  could  retiieve  the 
day.  Of  the  whole  force,  it  was  with  difficulty  that  Gonsalvo 
could  rally  a  hand  of  400  men,  with  whom  to  secure  his  retreat  to 
Reggio ;  and  had  not  d'Auhigny  himself  been  too  ill  to  take  an 
active  part  in  the  fight,  even  that  handful  could  not  have  escaped. 
It  was  the  only  battle  that  Gonsalvo  ever  lost ;  and  I  have  called 
it  only  apparently  lost  by  him,  because  certainly  a  general  ought 
not  to  bear  the  blame  of  a  defeat  when  he  combats  only  in  obedi- 
ence to  the  orders  of  a  superior,  issued  in  disregard  of  his  own 
waruftigs  and  protestations.  And  he  abundantly  retrieved  it  the 
next  year,  when,  after  a  long  and  laborious  campaign  in  which  he 
never  allowed  his  enemies  to  gain  a  single  advantage  over  him,  he 
established  Ferdinand's  authority  over  the  whole  of  southern  Italy, 
crowning  his  achievements  by  compelling  Montpensier  to  a  capitu- 
lation, which  cleared  the  kingdom  of  every  French  soldier. 

And  long  before  that  time  came,  Charles  had  withdrawn  from 
Italy  all  the  forces  which  he  had  retained  under  his  own  command ; 
fortune  being  so  far  favorable  to  him  as  to  gild  his  own  retreat 
with  a  success  as  decisive  as  that  of  d'Aubigny,  and  more  beneficial 
to  his  army.  He  had  lingered  so  long  at  Naples  that,  by  the  time 
that  he  reached  the  northern  frontier  of  Tuscany,  a  fortnight  after 
the  battle  of  Seminara,  he  found  an  allied  army  of  at  least  three 
times  his  numbers  ready  to  receive  him  at  Fornovo,  on  the  banks 
of  the  Taro  ;  but  he  and  his  soldiers  were  fighting  for  safety,  the 
allies  only  for  victory  :  Charles  himself,  by  many  a  feat  of  personal 
bravery,  showed  that  the  example  of  the  heroes  of  old,  which  he 
had  studied  so  diligently,  had  not  been  lost  upon  him  ;  the  Swiss, 
who  composed  a  part  of  his  army,  proved  as  invincible  as  ever, 
demonstrating  the  soundness  of  the  maxims  which  about  the  same 
time  Machiavelli  was  impressing  on  his  countrymen,  of  the  supe- 
riority of  infantry  to  cavalry  as  the  mainstay  of  an  army  ;  and  after 
a  combat  ot  greai  lierceness  for  ics  duration  Jit  did  not  last  more 
than  an  hour),  the  French  were  completely  victorious.  In  the 
autumn,  Sforza,  ever  treacherous  to  whatever  alliance  he  might  be 
engaged  in,  deserted  the  confederacy,  making  a  separate  peace  with 
Charles  at  Vercelli ;  and  by  the  beginning  of  November,  the 
French  king  had  repassed  the  llhone,  and  was  safe  in  his  owi 
capital  with  but  little  thought  for,  and  no  means  of  succouring 
the  division. gradually  wasting  away  in  Calabria,  before  the  repeated 
attacks  of  the  great  Spaniard. 

Charles  died  in  1498.  But  liia  death  was  only  a  signal  for  the 
renewal  of  the  French  attacks  upon  Italy,  since  the  new  kino*, 


A.D.  1498.]  LOUIS  XII.  INVADES  ITALY.  9 

Louis  XII.,  formerly  known  as  Duke  of  Orleans,  succeeded  to  hia  if^^j^/u  >C. 
claims,  such  as  they  were,  upon  Naples,  and  added  to  them  pre-      j 
tensions  to  Milan  which  in  law  and  equity  were  undeniable,  since  CU-vtv*.*  ' 
he  was  clearly,  through  his  grandmother,  the  representative  and  ^^mul*-^ 
heir  of  the  old  ducal  family  of  the  Visconti.     And  he  was  no 
sooner  master  of  the  resources  of  France  than  he  prepared  to  en- 
force them.     As  Charles  had  done  before,  he  trusted  to  prevent  - 
the  hostility  of  the  sovereigns  most  likely  to  disapprove  and  most</v?^-C£^tt-^ 
able  to  oppose  his  attempt,  by  treaties  of  alliance  ;  hoping,  too,  on  <h«^  4ia<-* 
this  occasion,  to  secure  the  fidelity  of  his  allies  to  their  engagements         ' 
by  giving  them  a  share  in  his  expected  booty.     The  co;;0£eratioii 
of  the  Venetians  was  secured  by  the  treaty  of  Blois,  which  pro- 
mised them  a  valuable  addition  to  {heir  territory  on  the  west; 
while  one,  concluded  a  littlejaier__with  Ferdinand,  divided  ths 
whole  kingTomof  Naples  between  France  and  Spain,  his  Catholic 
Majesty  being  quite  willing  to  aid  in  stripping  his  kinsman  of  all 
his  dominions,  if  he  himself  might  be  enriched  by  the  fertile  though 
distant  provinces  of  Apulia  and  Calabria.     But  the  event  proved, 
as  might  have  been  expected,  that  such  an  arrangement  did  in  fact 
only  make  a  violation  of  the  treaty  between  princes  so  equal  in 
power  and  so  similar  in  ambition  more  inevitable  than  ever. 

In  the  autumn  of  1499,  Louis,  adopting  the  same  line  of  march 
that  had  been  taken  by  .Charles,  crossed  the  Alps  by  M.  Genevre ; 
and  had  no  difficulty  iri  making  himself  master  oT  the  Milanese, 
or  even  in  persuading  the  Swiss  in  Sforza's  service  to  betray  their 
master  into  his  hands,  but  the  whole  of  the  next  year  passed  by 
before  he  had  fully  settled  with  Ferdinand  the  details  of  the 
partition  of  the  Neapolitan  kingdom,  and  before  the  two  confe- 
derates were  ready  to  advance  on  their  prey.  Ferdinand,  of 
Naples,  had  died  shortly  after  the  last  war  ,•  and  (the  fourth  king 
in  as  many  years),  his  uncle^rederic  had  succeeded  to  the  throne, 
but  it  was  indeed  a  heritage^  of  woe.  There  being  no  Christian 
prince  to  whom  he  could  look  for  aid,  since  all  who  were  able  to 
afford  it  were  leagued  for  his  overthrow,  in  the  extremity  of  his 
distress  he  implored  the  assistance  of  the  Turkish  Sultan ;  and, 
when  that  hope  failed,  he  made  terms  with  the  enemy  whom 
he  thought  the  most  likely  to  show  compassion  for  his  misfortunes. 

It  was  a  judicious  policy  which  led  him  to  throw  himself  on 
the  mercy  of  Louis,  for  the  French  king  had  a  natural  generosity 
of  disposition  of  which  Ferdinand  was  destitute ;  and,  amid  all 
his  elation  at  having  Naples  thus  put  in  his  power,  forbore  to 
trample  on  a  fallen  foe.  He  assigned  him  the  Duchy  of  Anjou, 
with  an  ample  revenue,  which  he  was  too  generous  to  withdraw 
even  after  he  himself  had  been  in  his  turn  stripped  of  the  dominion 
which  he  seemed  to  have  secured ;   for,  brief  as  Frederic's  life  in 


10  MODERN  HISTORY.  La.i>.  1502. 

Franco  was,  it  was  protracted  long  enough  to  see  his  despoilers 
arrayed  in  arms  against  each  other.  In  the  partition,  Louis  was 
to  have  the  northern  portion  of  the  kingdom,  with  the  capital, 
and  the  title  of  King  of  Naples ;  the  southern  provinces  were 
assigned  to  Ferdinand.  And  so  little  did  it  seem  possible  that  any 
(Jff'ective  opposition  should  be  offered  to  the  arms  of  either,  that 
Gonsalvo,  wlio  again  was  the  commander-in-chief  of  the  Spaniards, 
passed  on  lirst  to  the  Morea,  to  aid  the  Venetians  against  the 
Sultan.  By  tlie  captu^^e^ofa  fortress  previously  believed  to  be 
impregnable,  he  drove  the  Turks  out  of  Cefalonia,  inflicting  upon 
Bajazet  the  first  check  in  his  career  of  conquest  that  his  arms  had 
ever  sustained  ;  and  it  was  not  till  Gonsalvo  had  thus  enabled  the 
Venetians  to  continue  the  war  in  which  they  were  engaged  with 
him  on  equal  terms  that  he  turned  back  to  take  possession  of 
Calabria  for  his  own  sovereign.  He  met  with  a  resistance  which 
lie  did  not  expect  at  Taranto,  which  a  body  of  nobles,  who  had 
Frederic's  son,  the  youthful  Duke  of  Calabria,  under  tlieir  charge, 
maintained  against  him  with  a  resolution  which  he  was  unable  to 
subdue,  till  he  bethought  him  of  an  expedient  adopted  against  the 
same  city  by  Hannibal  in  the  Punic  wars,  and  carried  a  number 
of  his  smaller  vessels  over  a  neck  of  land  to  a  piece  of  water 
which  washed  the  walls  at  a  point  where,  as  they  seemed  in- 
accessible, they  had  been  left  unfortified.  When  Taranto  fell,  the 
subjugation  of  the  whole  kingdom  was  completed  ;  but  the  time 
which  the  Spaniards  had  lost  in  reducing  it  had  been  taken 
advantage  of  by  the  French  to  appropriate  some  of  the  central 
districts  which,  (so  great  was  the  carelessness  or  the  ignorance 
which  had  presided  over  the  delineation  of  the  boundaries  of 
their  respective  shores)  each  nation  claimed  as  its  own.  Gonsalvo 
was  not  long  in  pouring  forces  into  the  same  district.  Warm 
remonstrances  and  protests  were  interchanged ;  till  at  last,  at 
Midsummer  1502,  Louis,  having  the  advantage  of  assuming  the 
tone  of  an  injured  party,  declared  war  against  Ferdinand,  as  the 
sole  way  of  preventing  his  further  encroachments.  The  armies 
on  both  sides  were  ridiculously  small  to  have  the  fortunes  of  such 
miglity  nations  entrusted  to  them.  Louis'  generals,  the  Due  do 
Nemours  and  d'Aubigny,  liad  not  10,000  men  of  all  arms  around 
their  standards,  while  their  artillery  consisted  of  four  cannons 
(it  was  in  these  wars  that  the  large  field-guns  were  first  spoken 
of  by  this  name)  and  twenty-two  smaller  pieces  ;  while  Gonsalvo's 
force  was  smaller  in  number,  and  still  more  inferior  in  equipment. 
Again,  the  war  was  brief,  and  illustrated  by  only  two  battles 
which  deserve  the  name,  in  which  both  armies  exhibited  in 
striking  contrast  the  qualities  which  have  ever  been  characteristic 
of  each  nation.     The  French  were  fiery  and  well-nigh  irresistible 


A.o.  1502.]  SUBMISSION   OF  NAPLES.  11 

in  their  first  onset  or  when  flushed  with  success,  but  fretful  under 
the  restraints  of  discipline,  an<l  still  more  impatient  of  reverses 
or  even  of  checks.  The  Spaniards  were  perseveiino;  in  exertion, 
stubborn  in  endurance  ;  proving-  their  confidence  in  their  leader  by 
the  most  implicit  obedience  to  his  orders,  even  while  he  wfis 
showing  his  disregard  to  their  prejudices  by  reorganising  his 
battalions  on  a  system  wholly  unlike  any  that  had  previously 
been  seen  in  a  Spanish  army,  and  substituting  for  the  light 
cavalry  (which  had  decided  many  a  field  in  the  Moorish  wars, 
but  which  were  wholly  unable  to  contend  with  the  powerful 
men-at-arms  of  France)  whole  masses  of  infantry,  variously 
armed,  so  that  some  battalions  should  be  available  for  rapid 
charges,  others  impenetrable  in  their  defensive  power. 

The  fiist  battle  was  fought  on  classic  ground.   A  few  miles  from  «  a 

Cannae,  where  the  great  Carthaginian  dealt  the  deadliest  of  his^^c^r  ^-^ 
blows  on  the  legions  of  Rome,  the  little  town  of  Cerignola  crowns 
a  hill,  on  which  Gonsalvo,  hearing  that  Nemours  was  marching 
to  atta,ck  him,  hastily  threw  up  some  entrenchments,  which,  by 
the  time  that  the  French  came  in  sight,  presented  so  formidable 
an  appearance  that  the  duke  would  have  deferred  attacking  it  till 
the  next  morning,  when  his  men,  now  wearied  by  a  march  under 
an  Italian  sun,  might  have  rested,  and  he  himself  might  have  had 
leisure  to  examine  the  strength  of  the  enemy's  position ;  but  a 
fatal  want  of  discipline,  which  prevailed  among  the  superior 
ofHcers  even  more  than  in  the  ranks,  overruled  this  prudent 
intention,  one  of  ths  French  knights,  d'Alegre,  a  warrior  of  high 
reputation  for  personal  prowess,  venturing  even  to  insinuate  that 
the  commander-in-chief's  proposal  had  in  it  at  least  as  much 
timidity  as  skill.  Nemours  could  not  dare  to  chastise  his  insolent 
ofiicer,  but  was  stung  by  the  taunt  into  replying  with  another, 
which  proved  better  founded :  '  AVe  will  fight  them  this  evening,' 
said  he,  '  when  the  boasters  will  be  found  perhaps  to  trust  more 
to  their  spurs  than  to  their  swords  ; '  and  he  at  once  formed  his 
men  in  order  of  battle,  and  led  them  to  the  charge.  His  pre- 
diction was  verified.  So  admirable  was  the  discipline  into  which 
Gonsah^o  had  brought  his  men  that,  though  an  accidental  shot 
from  the  enemy's  battery  blew  up  their  powder-waggons,  they 
kept  their  ranks  undismayed,  while  the  French  were  panic-stricken 
at  the  loss  of  Nemours,  who  were  killed  by  a  musket-ball.  They 
halted,  they  wavered;  and  the  moment  that  Gonsalvo,  seeing 
their  confusion,  moved  out  of  his  entrenchments  to  attack  them, 
the  whole  of  their  cavalry  fled  without  striking  a  blow. 

The  victory  was  followed  by  the  submission  of  Naples,  which 
opened  its  gates  to  the  conqueror ;  indeed  the  city  itself  had  no 
means  of  resistance;  and  the  two  fortresses  which  are  its  only  pro- 


12  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1503. 

tection,  the  Castles  Uovo  and  Nuovo,  were  unable  long  to  hold 
out  against  the  new  mode  of  attack  by  which  they  were  assailed. 
During  the  war  against  the  Moors,  a  Spanish  artillery  officer, 
named  Ramirez,  had  invented  mines  j  and  now  another  engineer, 
Pedro  Navarro,  improved  so  much  upon  his  invention  that  he  left 
little  more  to  be  done  beyond  a  development  and  expansion  of  the 
principles  of  the  construction  of  such  works  as  he  laid  them  down. 
Under  his  energetic  and  skilful  superintendance  a  single  week 
sufficed  to  undermine  the  strongest  of  the  forts.  The  reduction  of 
the  others  soon  followed.  Gonsalvo  lost  no  time,  but,  driving  the 
French  step  by  step  before  him,  before  the  end  of  the  autumn  he 
had  subdued  the  whole  kingdom,  with  the  exception  of  Venosa,  the 
birthplace  of  Horace,  and  the  strong  coast  fortress  of  Gaeta,  which 
still  preserves  the  name  of  the  nurse  of  -^neas,  and  which  was  so 
strongly  situated  that  he  found  all  his  means  inadequate  to  the 
assault  of  it,  and  was  forced  to  content  himself  with  a  distant 
blockade.  And  even  Gaeta  fell  before  the  close  of  the  year, 
though  Louis  made  great  efforts  to  succour  it,  as  affording  the 
only  hope  left  to  him  of  recovering  his  hold  on  the  kingdom.  But 
his  exertions  only  made  his  final  discomfiture  the  more  signal, 
counteracted  as  they  were  by  the  degree  in  which  he  was  presently 
led  to  subordinate  his  military  plans  to  political*  considerations. 
lie  had  collected  a  splendid  body  of  Swiss  infantry ;  the  flower 
of  the  French  nobles  headed  a  magnificent  battalion  of  cavalry  ; 
they  were  supported  by  a  train  of  artillery,  the  most  powerful 
that  as  yet  had  ever  accompanied  an  army  to  the  field ;  and  he 
placed  the  whole  under  the  command  of  the  Marshal  de  la  Tre- 
mouille,  the  ancestor  of  the  Lady  Derby,  immortalised  in  our  own 
history  by  the  defence  of  Latham  House.  All  that  seemed  need- 
ful to  ensure  his  triumph  was  promptitude  of  action ;  but,  while 
the  army  was  on  its  march,  Pope  Alexander  died,  De  la  Tremou- 
ille,  by  his  express  orders,  halted  for  almost  a  month  near  Rome, 
in  the  hope  of  procuring  the  election  of  a  French  cardinal  as  his 
successor,  and  before  lie  was  allowed  to  resume  his  march,  was 
taken  so  ill  as  to  be  forced  to  resign  his  command.  He  was  re- 
placed by  the  Marquis  of  jMantua,  who  after  a  time  gave  up  his 
post  to  the  Marquis  of  Saluzzo  :  both  soldiers  of  experience,  not 
deficient  in  courage,  but  of  very  moderate  skill,  and  utterly  unfit 
to  cope  with  the  Great  Captain,  as  Gonsalvo  was  deservedly  en- 
titled. That  commander  had  pushed  his  way  to  the  Garigliano, 
the  silent  Liris'  of  Horace,  the  old  boundary  of  Campania ;  look- 
ing  on  its  deep  stream  as  affording  him  a  position  strong  enough 

'  rura  qua;  Liris  quiotft 

Mordet  aqu&,  tnciturnus  amnis. 

11  or,  Carm.  I.  31.  8. 


A.D.  1501.]  TREATY  OF  LYONS.  13 

to  be  maintained  even  against  the  powerful  army  whicli  he  knew 
to  be  approaching-.  His  foresight  was  justified  by  the  result. 
Though  greatly  inferior  in  numbers,  he  kept  the  French  at  bay  for 
above  two  months ;  and,  at  last,  having  procured  a  reinforcement 
of  Roman  troops  under  d'Alviano,  a  warrior  animated  with  more 
of  the  old  Roman  spirit  than  was  to  be  found  in  the  generality  of 
his  countrymen,  and  thus  having  placed  himself  on  something 
like  an  equality  with  his  foes  in  point  of  numbers,  in  the  last  week 
of  the  year  he  took  advantage  of  a  dark  night,  to  throw  a  bridge 
over  the  river  and  attack  Saluzzo  on  his  own  side  of  the  stream. 
French  troops  have  not  usually  been  good  at  recovering  from  sur- 
prises ;  but  on  this  occasion  they  made  a  stout  resistance  under  the 
most  disadvantageous  circumstances.  Saluzzo  himself  never  lost 
his  presence  of  mind ;  and  the  French  nobles,  headed  by  the  cele- 
brated Bayard,  who  never  showed  himself  more  worthy  of  his 
renown  than  on  this  day,  with  desperate  energy  rallied  their 
columns,  and  did  all  that  the  most  fiery  courage  could  attempt  to 
arrest  the  disaster.  But  no  efforts  of  theirs,  however  gallant, 
could  counterbalance  Gonsalvo's  superiority  of  skill.  Presently, 
another  division  of  the  Spaniards  crossed  the  river  lower  down, 
and  the  French,  thus  placed,  as  it  were,  between  two  fires,  and 
utterly  disheartened  by  this  fresh  attack,  at  last  gave  way  in  every 
direction  ;  the  battle  became  a  rout :  Gaeta,  which  surrendered 
the  next  day,  was  only  the  firstfruits  of  the  victory.  And  Louis,  ^  r 
alarmed  for  the  safety  of  even  his  acquisitions  in  the  Milanese,  in  AT^^-^ 
February  1504  signed  a  treaty  with  Ferdinand,  by  which  he  re- 
nounced all  claim  to  any  part  of  the  Neapolitan  territories. 

Yet  an  episode  in  or  after  the  war  showed  what  French  soldiers, 
when  fitly  led,  were  capable  of  effecting,  under  the  most  disad- 
vantageous circumstances.  Louis  d'Ars  was  one  of  those  knights 
who  had  fulfilled  the  warning  of  the  i)uc  de  Nemours,  by  flying 
ingloriously  from  the  field  of  Cerignola.  But  he  had  yielded  to  a 
momentary  panic,  and  burnt,  with  a  gallant  resolution  to  retrieve 
his  fame.  He  had  thrown  himself,  with  a  few  hundred  men-at- 
arms,  into  Venosa,  a  town  celebrated  to  the  latest  ages  as  the 
birthplace  of  Horace,  and,  by  its  situation  at  the  foot  of  a 
mountain  chain,  a  place  of  some  strength.  He  held  it  against  all 
attacks  till  the  Treaty  of  Lyons  put  an  end  to  the  war ;  when  the 
gallantry  which  he  had  displayed  extracted  from  Gonsalvo,  who 
knew  how  to  honour  courage  even  in  an  enemy,  as  singular  terms 
of  congratulation  as  any  one  heard.  To  borrow  the  description  of 
Brantome,  whose  pen  is  never  so  vivid  as  when  describing  some 
knight-like  exploit,  '  lance  on  thigh,  and  in  complete  armour,  he 
and  his  little  band  traversed  the  kingdom  of  Naples,  and  the  whole 
of  Italy,  in  all  the  array  of  war,  living  at  free  quarters  all  along 


14.  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1508. 

their  lino  of  inarcli ;  and  thus  he  saved  both  the  lives  and  the 
honour  of  himself  and  all  his  comrades,  their  personal  decorations 
and  jew^els,  and  even  the  booty  which  they  had  gained ;  and  so, 
with  the  admiration  of  all  men,  they  reached  Blois,  and  paid  their 
respects  to  the  king,  their  master,  and  to  the  queen,  their  mistress.' 

But  the  Treaty  of  Lyons  was  an  armistice  rather  than  a  truce. 
Unhappy  Italy,  as  one  of  her  sweetest  poets  complains,  with 
beauty  suflicient  ever  to  invite  attack,  was  destitute  of  strength  to_ 
defend  herself;  ^  and  throughout  the  age  of  which  we  are  speak- 
ing,  and  for  many  succeeding  generations,  was  looked  wpon  by  all 
her  neighbours  as  fit  object  for  all  the  worst  intrigues  of  ambition 
and  covetousness.  It  was  natural  that  Louis  should  feel  that  he 
had  lost  some  credit  by  the  result  of  the  late  war ;  but  it  argued 
a  strange  simplicity,  that  he  should  seek  to  retrieve  his  honour  by 
a  fresh  alliance  of  partition  with  the  very  prince  with  whom  his 
last  treaty  of  the  kind  had  involved  him  in  so  disastrous  a  contest. 
Yet,  as  he  had  before  made  a  league  with  Ferdinand  for  the 
spoliation  of  the  king  of  Naples,  &c.,  in  1508  be  concluded  one, 
known  from  the  time  at  which  it  was  signed  as  the  League  of 
Cambrai,  with  Ferdinand,  Maximilian,  and  Pope  JulTusTt.,  to 
deprive  Venice  of  all  the  towns  and  territories  which  that  proud 
republic  had  gained  during  the  former  war,  partly  as  the  price  of 
her  neutrality  and  partly  in  payment  for  great  loans  which  she 
had  advanced  to  the  conqueror. 

Each  successive  war  was  commenced  on  a  larger  scale  than  that 
which  preceded  it ;  the  Venetians,  remembering  the  force  which 
Louis  had  led  into  Italy  ten  years  before,  collected  for  their  de- 
fiance the  most  numerous  host  that  had  for  ages  been  seen  on 
their  side  of  the  Alps  ;  under  the  same  d'Alviano,  whose  vigorous 
counsels  had  greatly  contributed  to  Gonsalvo's  triumph  on  the 
(jiarigliano,  while  the  army  of  Louis,  though  not  equal  to  it  in 
numbers,  supplied  that  deficiency  by  the  perfection  of  its  discip- 
line and  the  completeness  of  its  equipment.  He  was  his  own 
general,  with  the  Marshal  Trivulzio  for  his  second  in  command  ; 
and,  though  he  was  not  as  yet  joined  by  any  of  the  allies  on 
whoso  support  he  had  reckoned,  fortune  was  on  his  side,  and  more 
than  made  up  for  their  absence.  At  a  place  called  Agnadello  on 
the  Adda,  as  the  Venetians  were  marching  along  the  river  in  two 

*  Deh  fopsi  tu  men  bclla,  o  almen  pih  forte, 
Onde  assai  piii  ti  pnventassc,  o  assai 
T'  amasse  men  chi  del  tuo  bello  ai  rai 
Par  che  si  Btrugga,  e  pur  ti  slida  a  morte ! 


Nd  te  vpdrei,  dol  non  tuo  ferro  cinta, 
Pugnar  col  braccio  di  straniere  genti, 
Per  servir  senipre,  o  vincitricc  o  vinta. 

Filicaja,  Air  Italia^  Sonctto  L 


&.D.  1511.]  THE  HOLY  LEAGUE.  15 

divisions,  he  fell  on  the  rearmost  division,  which  was  commanded 
by  d'Alviano  himself.  From  some  misunderstanding  or  other,  the 
leading-  battalions  could  not  be  brought  back  to  d'Alviano's  support, 
and  he  was  left  with  half  his  force  to  resist  as  he  might  the 
attack  of  the  whole  French  army  encouraged  by  the  presence  of 
their  king.  The  contest  was  too  unequal :  his  division  was  com- 
pletely defeated,  he  himself  being  taken  prisoner ;  and  Venice 
had  no  resource  but  to  submit  for  a  time,  and.  to  trust  to  her 
political  and  diplomatic  address  to  regain  what  she  had  lost  by 
arms. 

No  doubt  the  wily  statesmen  who  administered  her  govern- 
ment foresaw  that  they  should  not  have  long  to  5iait.  However 
divided  on  other  subjects,  all  Italian  States  agreed  in  looking  on 
the  French  as  foreigners,  if  not  barbarians.  Ferdinand,  in  virtue 
of  his  possession  of  Naples,  looked  on  himself  as  an  Italian  prince  ; 
and  when  Pope  Julius  began  to  plan  a  new  confederacy  to  expel 
the  French  from  Italy,  and  when  Louis,  having  accurate  in- 
formation of  his  designs,  anticipated  his  enmity  by  invading  the 
Papal  States,  and  occupying  Bologna,  His  Catholic  Majesty  again 
found  out  that  his  duty  to  the  Head  of  the  Church  was  paramount 
to  any  obligation  to  his  ally  ;  and  in  the  autumn  of  1511  entered 
into  a  fresh  alliance  with  Julius  and  Venice,  which  the  Pope 
honoured  with  the  title  of  the  Holy  League,  and  the  avowed 
object  of  which  was  the  expulsion  i'rom  Italy  of  the  very  king 
whom,  three  years  before,  two  of  the  three  confederates  had  en- 
gaged to  aid  in  invading  that  country.  They  were  nearly  having 
:;ause  to  repent  their  perfidy.  Louis,  the  moment  that  his  sus- 
picions were  aroused,  had  begun  to  strengthen  his  army,  and 
resigned  the  command  of  it  to  a  new  leader,  only  twenty-two 
years  of  age,  but  endowed  by  nature  with  such  rare  talents  for 
war  that  he  was  a  consummate  general  before  he  had  served  a 
single  campaign.  His  name  was  Gaston._de^^ix,  and  he  was 
nearly  related  to  both  the  hostile  sovereigns.  His  sister  was 
Ferdinand's  second  wife  ,•  and  he  was  the  nephew  of  Louis,  who 
had  conferred  on  him  the  Duchy  of  Nemours,  vacant  by  the  death 
of  the  former  duke  at  Cerignola.  In  the  first  week  of  1512, 
Gaston  assumed  the  command ;  and  during  the  short  time  that  he 
was  spared  to  hold  it,  it  was  a  succession  of  triumphs,  all  well 
deserved  by  the  rigorous  discipline  with  which  he  repressed^  dis- 
orders of  the  camp,  and  by  the  unprecedented  rapidity  and  vigour 
of  all  his  operations.  In  ancient  times  Caesar,  but  perhaps 
Cfesar  alone,  had  perceived  that,  of  all  the  means  of  success, 
celerity  of  movement  is  the  most  essential  and  the  most  unfailing. 
In  very  recent  days  Napoleon  owed  the  most  brilliant  of  his 
triumphs  to  the    same  principle;    but    Gaston   de    Foix    seems 


16  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1612. 

fairly  entitled  to  the  praise  of  being  the  first  general  of  modern 
history  who  acknowledged  it  and  proved  its  soundness  by  his  own 
practice.  When  he  reached  Milan  to  take  the  command,  he  learnt 
tliat  a  Spanish  army  was  besieging  the  garrison  which  the  king 
had  left  in  Bologna,  and  was  in  daily  expectation  of  compelling  it 
to  surrender.  He  at  once  hastened  to  relieve  it.  The  winter  was 
one  of  unusual  severity.  The  roads  were  deep  in  snow;  yet  in 
less  than  a  fortnight  he  came  in  sight  of  the  besieged  city,  whose 
assailants  retired  at  his  approach.  Before  the  end  of  the  month 
he  turned  the  tables  on  them,  retracing  his  steps,  and  attacking 
and  capturing  Brescia ;  having  first  defeated  a  large  Venetian 
army  which  was  encamped  under  its  walls ;  and  at  the  beginning 
of  April  he  once  more  moved  southward  to  attack  the  Spaniards, 
who,  under  Cardona,  the  Viceroy  of  Naples,  were  endeavouring 
to  justify  the  plea  which  their  king  had  advanced  for  turning 
against  Louis,  by  occupying,  as  the  champion  of  the  Pope,  those 
provinces  of  the  States  of  the  Church  which  were  most  exposed  to 
the  French  power.  He  came  up  with  them  at  Ravenna,  at  once 
attacked  them,  and,  after  the  most  sternly  contested  and  most 
bloody  battle  that  had  yet  been  fought  on  Italian  soil,  the  Spaniards 
were  utterly  defeated ;  but  Gaston  did  not  live  to  be  conscious  of 
his  victory.  Ho  had  been  gallantly  seconded  by  Bayard,  and  by 
d'Alegre,  who  now  nobly  retrieved  the  honour  which  he  had 
stained  at  Cerigaola,  while  Cardona  was  supported  with  equal 
skill  and  courage  by  Navarro,  who  had  the  principal  body  of  the 
Spanish  infantry  entrusted  to  his  direction.  As  if  to  throw  a 
doubt  on  the  theory  of  those  who  maintained  the  superiority  of 
infantry  to  cavalry  as  the  chief  force  of  an  arni}'^,  the  defeat  of  the 
Spaniards  was  achieved  by  the  French  heavy  cavalry,  led  on  with 
irresistible  valour  by  d'Alegre ;  but  still  a  brigade  of  4,000  infantry 
under  Navnrro  kept  their  ranks  unbroken,  and,  after  the  rest  of  the 
army  was  irretrievably  broken,  was  returning  in  good  order,  when 
Gaston,  thinking  the  victory  but  half  gained  if  so  powerful  a  force 
wore  allowed  to  escape  unmolested,  himself  headed  a  furious 
cavalry  charge  against  it.  It  would  have  been  better  had  he 
allowed  them  to  continue  their  retreat,  even  if,  according  to  the 
proverb,  he  had  had  to  make  a  bridge  of  gold  for  a  flying  enemy. 
They  received  hia  outset  with  a  steady  fire.  His  horse  fell  under 
him,  pierced  with  many  balls,  and  before  his  own  men  could  save 
or  his  enemies  could  recognise  him  he  was  killed ;  all  his  wounds 
being  received  in  front,  good  proof,  as  Brantome  boasts,  that  the 
gentle  prince  had  never  turned  his  back. 

The  victory  was  complete  :  the  number  of  slain  among  the 
Spaniards  doubled  that  of  the  French  dead  ;  while  Cardona  him- 
Bolf,  and  Cardinal  John  de'  Medici,  soon  to  be  known  as  Pope 


A.D.  1512.J  BATTLE  OF  RAVENNA.  17 

Leo  X.,  were  among  the  prisoners.  But  the  very  confidence  with 
which  Gaston  had  inspired  his  followers  now  proved  injurious  by 
the  corresponding  dismay  with  which  his  loss  afflicted  them.  The 
French  army  was  still  the  stronger,  and  there  were  still  able 
leaders  left :  but  the  troops  had  lost  heart  j  the  generals,  unable 
to  rely  on  them,  fell  back.  The  garrisons,  which  they  left  in 
different  towers  and  fortresses,  were  cut  off  and  compelled  to  sur- 
render, and  in  a  few  months  the  whole  army  was  reduced  to 
evacuate  Italy,  Louis's  attention  being  diverted  from  that  country 
to  the  defence  of  his  own  dominions,  which  were  now  threatened 
in  the  north  by  Henry  VIU.  of  England  and  Maximilian,  and 
were  for  a  moment  laid  almost  at  their  mercy  by  the  extraordi- 
nary rout  of  his  army  at  Guinegatte.  But  Henry  was  too  fickle 
and  Maximilian  too  poor  to  persevere  in  a  war  in  which  neither 
had  any  solid  object  to  gain.  In  the  spring  of  1513,  the  most 
warlike  of  all  the  enemies  of  France,  Pope  Julius,  died,  and  was 
succeeded  by  the  Cardinal  de'  Medici,  who  had  been  taken  prisoner 
at  Ravenna,  and  whom  that  misfortune  had  been  quite  sufficient 
to  render  averse  to  war.  In  the  autumn  negotiations  were  set  on 
foot ;  after  a  few  months  a  general  peace  was  concluded,  which 
seemed  the  more  likely  to  last,  that  it  was  followed  at  no  distant 
time  by  the  death  of  the  sovereigns  to  whose  ambition,  faithless- 
ness, and  it  may  perhaps  be  said,  personal  enmity,  all  the  recent 
interruptions  of  peace  had  been  owing.  Louis  died  on  Isew 
Year's  Day,  1515.  Ferdinand  died  in  the  same  month  of  the  next 
year ;  and  three  years  afterwards,  as  if  January  were  destined  to 
be  equally  fatal  to  all  the  belligerents,  Maximilian  also  died,  leav- 
ing the  Empire  to  be  contended  for  by  the  heirs  of  both  Ferdinand 
and  Louis;  and  perhaps  to  prove  a  potent,  though  unavowed, 
cause  of  the  renewal  of  hostilitieis  between  the  two  nations  on  the 
old  battle-field  of  Italy. 

Of  the  first  in  rank  of  the  three  princes  whose  deaths  followed 
one  another  so  closely,  the  Emperor  Maximilian,  it  is  hardly 
necessary  to  say  much.  He  was  reputed  to  have  considerable 
military  skill ;  but  the  impoverished  state  of  the  Empire  prevented 
his  engaging  in  any  warlike  enterprise,  except  as  an  ally  of  some 
other  monarch,  or  following  out  any  political  scheme  with  steadi- 
ness and  consistency.  But  the  Kings  of  France  and  Spain  require 
more  particular  comment.  Perhaps  no  country  has  had  so  few 
rulers  who  can  be  spoken  of  in  any  terms  save  those  of  the  most 
decided  reprobation  as  France.  The  miseries  through  which  it  is 
passingat  this  moment  are  but  the  consequence  of  the  demoralisation 
diffused  through  the  whole  nation  by  a  long  succession  of  worth- 
less sovereigns.  But  Louis  XII.  is  honorably  distinguished  from 
most  of  those  bv  whom  he  is  surrounded.     Before  he  came  to  the 


18  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1515. 

throne  he  had  many  enemies,  for  the  hatred  which  Louis  XI.  bore 
him  was  no  secret ;  and,  after  the  death  of  her  son,  which  left  him 
heir  to  the  throne,  Charles's  queen,  Anne  of  Brittany,  regarded 
him  with  a  jealous  aversion ;  while  in  both  reigns  the  courtiers 
naturally  took  part  against  one  who  was  out  of  favour  with  the 
sovereign.  But  on  his  accession  Louis  frankly  forgave  all  the  in- 
juries which  had  been  done  to  him ;  and  his  expression,  that  ^it 
did  not  become  the  King  of  France  to  avenge  the  wrongs  of  the 
Duke  of  Orleans,'  evinced  a  genuine  magnanimity  such  as  animates 
but  few  of  those  who  have  power  to  avenge  themselves.  He  at 
all  times  professed  and  apparently  felt  a  lively  interest  in  the  com- 
fort and  welfare  of  his  subjects,  and  they  acknowledged  his  affec- 
tionate anxiety  by  the  titles  of  <  The  good  King,'  '  The  Father  of 
his  People.'  In  another  point,  too,  he  set  an  example  to  succeed- 
ings  kings,  which  had  all  the  merit  of  novelty,  and  which,  if  it 
had  been  followed,  would  have  conferred  a  permanent  benefit  on 
the  nation.  Dissoluteness  of  manners  had  long  been  more  pre- 
valent in  the  French  court  than  in  any  other.  The  death  of 
Charles  VIII.  had  been  mainly  caused  by  his  excesses  ;  but  Louis 
neither  allowed  himself  any  license,  nor  countenanced  profanity  in 
others ;  if  vice  could  not  be  entirely  banished  from  the  court  in  a 
single  short  reign,  it  wsis  compelled  at  last  to  conceal  itself,  and 
the  concealment  was  not  only  a  homage  but  an  aid  to  virtue.  He 
was  amply  endued  with  personal  courage,  and  not  deficient  in 
military  skill ;  indeed,  his  chief  fault  as  a  king  was  a  fondness  for 
war,  for  which  it  is  some  excuse  that  his  claim  to  the  Duchy  of 
Milan  was  entirely  well  founded.  It  is  less  easy  to  excuse  his 
simplicity  as  a  statesman,  when  he  trusted  to  an  alliance  with 
Ferdinand,  who  had  turned  against  him  once,  and  was  certain  to 
deceive  him  again.  He  cannot,  indeed,  be  called  a  great  or  a  wise 
king;  but  he  is  certainly  entitled  to  the  praise  of  having  been  a 
virtuous  and  amiable  man. 

No  man  could  resemble  him  less  than  his  rival  Ferdinand. 
While  Louis  was  forgiving  to  his  enemies,  Ferdinand  was  un- 
grateful to  his  friends  and  most  faithful  servants :  to  such  onia- 
ments  of  his  age  and  of  his  country  as  Columbus,  and  Gonsalvo, 
and  Ximenes.  He  was  bigoted  without  being  religious  ;  and  his 
fuitlilesMiess  to  all  who  trusted  him  was  almost  proverbial.  Ma- 
cliiavelli,  who  was  his  contemporary,  had  aiHrnied  that  '  a  prudent 
prince  would  not,  and  ought  not,  to  observe  his  engagements  when 
they  would  operate  to  his  disadvantage,  and  if  the  motives  no 
longer  existed  which  induced  him  to  enter  into  them,' and  no  pupil 
ever  carried  out  a  master's  precepts  as  steadily  as  Ferdinand  in 
this  point.  If  not  timid,  he  had  certainly  none  of  that  fiery  courage 
which  was  the  characteristic  of  so  many  of  his  subjects :  though 


A.D.  151/).]  CIIARACTEE  OF  FERDINAND.  19 

frequently  engaged  in  war,  lie  always  preferred  compassing  his 
ends  by  negotiation ;  and  it  must  be  confessed  that  so  sagaciously 
did  he  time  and  conduct  his  operations  of  both  kinds  that,  during 
his  reign,  >Spain  greatly  increased  in  power  and  prosperity.  How 
great  a  portion  of  the  benefits  his  country  derived  from  his  reign 
should  in  fairness  be  ascribed  to  his  wife,  the  Queen  of  Castile,  it 
is  not  easy  to  determine  with  accuracy.  Unquestionably  it  was 
to  her  rather  than  to  him  that  Columbus  was  indebted  for  the 
patronage  which  enabled  him  to  realise  his  own  noble  aspirations,  to 
the  accomplishment  of  which  the  nation  was  indebted  so  largely 
for  its  chief  successes  during  the  next  century.  It  is  believed  also 
to  have  been  to  her  that  the  country  was  indebted  for  the  discern- 
ment of  the  rare  abilities  of  the  Great  Captain.  But  it  is  probable 
that  her  more  cordial  temper  and  more  aifable  manners  often  in- 
duced people  to  give  her  the  credit  of  measures  which  were  really 
dictated  by  her  husband's  sagacity,  a  sagacity  which,  it  must  be 
added,  rarely  needed  a  monitor.  Ferdinand  had  one  quality, 
frugality,  which  is  so  rarely  practised  by  princes  that  it  deserves 
in  them  to  be  accounted  a  virtue ;  but,  like  his  contemporary 
Henry  VIL,  he  carried  it  so  far  as  often  to  allow  it  to  degenerate 
into  meanness.  Machiavelli  who  brands  him  as  a  miser,  yet  extols 
him  on  the  whole  as  one  who, '  beginning  as  a  feeble  prince,  made 
himself  the  most  renowned  and  glorious  monarch  of  Christendom.' 
His  countrymen  generally,  especially  those  of  his  native  kingdom 
of  Aragon,  exulted  in  and  lamented  him  for  the  same  reason. 
And,  if  we  look  at  his  achievements  and  the  condition  in  which  he 
left  his  kingdom,  than  which  few  tests  of  a  ruler's  merit  are  less 
liable  to  suspicion,  we  must  admit  that,  if  very  far  from  being  an 
amiable  man,  he  very  nearly  deserves  the  praise  of  a  great  king.^ 

^  The  authorities  for  the  preced-  Martin,  Guicciardini's  Istoria  d''lt- 
ing  chapter  are  the  different  Histories  alia,  Brantome's  Memoirs,  Prescott'a 
of  France,  especially  Sismondi  and      Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  &c 


20  MODEEN  HISTOKY.  [a.d.  1490. 


n^jJL 


CHAPTER  II. 

A.D.   1490  —  1547. 

)        .  T  OUIS  was  succeeded  by  a  distant  cousin,  Francis,  Count  d'An- 

"^^^^^  _U    goulerae,  and  Ferdinand  by  his  grandson  Charles,  the  son  of 

>/»fc.w*^^  ?^is  only  daughter  Joanna,  and  the  archduke  Philip  son  of  Maxi- 
milian, who  had  died  when  his  son  was  only  six  years  old.    Charles 
survived  Francis  by  some  years,  and,  during  almost  the  whole  of 
his  reign,  and  indeed  for  nearly  a  century  afterwards,  the  two 
Powers  were  constantly  at  war  :  while,  even  at  and  before  Charles's 
\H  f\!*^^^^  accession,  events  were  in  rapid  progress  that  soon  placed  resources 
for  war  at  the  command  of  Spain  which  were  shared  by  no  other 
nation,  and  which,  had  it  not  been  for  the  diversion  afforded  by 
the  revolt  of  the  Netherlands,  and  the  war  with  England,  would 
*fp    in  all  probability  have  laid  France  at  her  feet.     Before,  therefore, 
^\  y^  S^L.      ^®  resume  the  history  of  these  wars,  it  will  be  as  well  to  cross  the 
"***  *    Atlantic ;  and  for  a  brief  period  to  direct  our  attention  to  achieve- 

ments the  most  astonishing  and  the  most  momentous  of  that  age, 
which  in  regions,  of  which  the  very  existence  was  previously  un- 
suspected, suddenly  gave  the  kings  of  Spain  territories  both  in 
extent  and  riches  far  surpassing  their  hereditary  dominions. 

It  seems  something  like  a  mere  freak  of  fortune  which  conferred 
the  gift  upon  them;  for  the  great  man  to  whose  discoveries  they 
were  in  the  first  instance  indebted  for  it  was  no  native  of  Spain, 
nor,  if  others  had  listened  favorably  to  his  proposals,  would  he 
ever  have  brought  them  to  the  Spanish  Court.  Christopher 
Columbus,  tlie  greatest  name  in  the  annals  of  maritime  discovery, 
was  a  Genoese  by  birth,  and  received  his  education  at  a  school jit 
i^ivia,  wTiere  he  was  distinguished  among  his  fellow-students  for 
his  proficiency  in  mathematics.  His  parents,  however,  were  poor, 
so  that  as  he  gi'ew  up  he  had  to  trust  to  his  own  earnings  for  his 
support,  and  chose  the  profession  of  a  sailor,  in  which  no  nation  in 
the  world  could  at  that  time  vie  with  his  countrymen.  But,  as  he 
advanced  towards  middle  age,  he  became  ambitious  of  a  Avider 
field  for  exertion  than  could  be  allbrded  to,  and  of  a  wider  renown 
than  could  be  achieved  by,  the  captain  of  a  single  trading- vessel. 
As  far  back  as  the  beginning  of  the  fifteenth  century,  if  not  earlier, 


A.D.  1490.]  COLUMBUS.  21 

a  notion  can  be  traced  that  the  western  shores  of  Europe  were  not 
the  boundaries  of  the  world  in  that  direction.  The  celebrated  ^ 
Pulci,  who  was  not  many  years  older  than  Columbus,  had  given  fijJLuj, 
currency  to  the  general  belief  in  his  ^  Morgante  Magrgiore/  ventur- 
ing even  on  a  prophecy  of  dangerous  precision,  but  one  which  was 
accomplished  with  singular  minuteness,  that  vessels  passing  beyond 
the  Pillars  of  Hercules  would  reach  another  hemisphere,  where 
they  would  find  empires  of  ancient  establishment,  and  populous 
cities,  old,  but  undreamt  of  by  Europeans.  Columbus  had  caught 
at  and  dwelt  upon  the  idea ;  which  grew  almost  into  conviction 
when  a  friend,  who  had  addicted  himself  to  geographical  studies, 
presented  him  with  a  chart  of  the  world  which  he  had  delineated, 
and  on  which  he  had  represented  the  eastern  coast  of  Asia  as  con- 
fronting the  western  coast  of  Europe.  Of  what  character  or  extent 
the  countries  might  be  which  lay  between  the  two,  Toscanelli,  for 
that  was  the  geographer's  name,  did  not  venture  to~conJeeture ; 
but,  vague  as  the  ideas  of  either  of  them  must  have  been  of  the 
distance  between  the  two  continents,  he  and  his  friend  agreed  in 
supposing  that  land  must  exist  in  the  expanse  of  ocean,  and  in  tlie 
discovery  of  it  Columbus  saw  a  prospect  of  the  fame  for  which  he 
was  panting. 

He  first  proposed  the_enterprise  to  the  Kinp^  of  Portugal :  but  ^»  4s>v4   V 
John  11.,  tnough  fiilTy  appreciating  the  importance  of  the  object  4-y»-J{,  ^ 
aimed  at,  was  already  engaged  in  promoting  the  expedition  which  «     ^  t    "l 
sought  a  passage  to  Asia  by  the  south,  and  whose  leaders  immor-  *'**'7*^^    ^ 
talised  themselves  by  reaching  and  doubling  the  lofty  promontory 
into  which  Africa  tapers  in  that  direction,  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope, 
as  it  was  named  by  the  king  himself,  who  was  far  from  suspecting 
that  it  was  another  nation,  and  not  his  own,  that  was  to  reap  the 
benefit  from  his  sailor's  success. 

From  Portugal  Columbus  passed  into  Spain ;  but  Ferdinand  and  ^L-  ^^^  i 
Isabella  were  too  fully  occupied  with  the  Moorish  war  to  give 
their  personal  attention  to  his  petition  for  their  countenance  to  his 
enterprise.  They  referred  him  to  a  council  of  pedants  and 
ecclesiastics,  who,  after  months  of  consideration  or  neglect,  re- 
ported his  scheme  to  be  vain  and  impracticable.  And,  rejected  by 
them,  he  turned  to  Henry  VII.,  whom,  a  couple  of  years  before, 
the  Battle  of  Bosworth  had  seated  on  the  throne  of  England,  and 
who  had  already  established  a  character  for  farsighted  sagacity. 
Had  he  gone  himself  to  the  English  Court  his  discoveries  would 
have  been  made  in  the  service  of  England  ;  but  his  brother,  whom  *\^  t,,^^Ck% 
he  sent  to  London  as  his  agent,  when  returning  to  Spain  with  an 
answer  full  of  encouragement,  and  an  invitation  to  Columbus 
himself  to  repair  to  England,  was  captured  by  pirates ;  and,  as  his 
misfortune  was  unknown  in  Spain,  Columbus  was  loft  in  ignorance 


22 


MODERN  HISTORY. 


La.d.  14S>2. 


e.''. 


of  the  reception  he  had  met  with.  Meantime,  his  friends  had  been 
unwearied  in  pressing  upon  the  Spanish  sovereigns  the  probable 
soundness  of  his  calculations,  the  vastness  of  the  prize  to  be  ob- 
tained if  they  should  be  realised,  and  the  peculiar  iBtness  of  the 
man  himself  to  conduct  an  expedition  with  such  an  object  to  a 
successful  issue,  till  at  last  they  prevailed,  not  indeed  on  Ferdinand, 
but  on  Isabella,  who,  though  the  two  kingdoms  were  united,  yet 
governed  her  hereditary  dominion  of  Castile  with  independent 
authority ;  and  who  undertook  to  provide  the  expense  of  the  enter- 
prise out  of  the  Castilian  revenues.  A  curious  agreement  was 
^  entered  into,  which  established  a  sort  of  partnership  between  the 
r%^«l^' Crown  and  Columbus  in  the  risks  and  possible  profits  of  the 
undertaking,  and  which  even  gave  him  a  voice  in  the  appointment 
of  deputy-governor  to  the  territories  which  he  might  discover. 
The  supreme  power  was  of  course  reserved  to  the  Crown ;  under 
which  he  himself  was  to  exercise  an  authority  but  little  inferior. 
Tie  was  to  be  admiral  of  all  the  seas ;  governor-general  of  all  the 
islands  and  continents  which  he  might  discover ;  and  these  offices 
CWC'* '«  and  dignities  were  already  made  hereditary  in  his  family.  It  was 
V  a  strange  accumulation  of  honours  to  be  earned  by  projects  and 

promises  which,  it  must  be  admitted,  were  all  that  Columbus 
had  as  yet  produced ;  but  governments  such  as  that  of  Spain 
are  apt  to  rush  from  the  extreme  of  suspicion  to  the  extreme  of 
confidence. 

However,  the  sanguine  view  the  princes  were  now  inclined  to 
take  of  his  scheme  was  not  shared  by  their  subjects.  It  was  not 
I  .  without  great  difficulty  that  Columbus  procured  volunteers  enough 
0^.%AaA^  to  man  three  small  vessels.  But  at  last  he  overcame  all  difficulties, 
or  made  light  of  those  which  he  could  not  surmount.  And  on  the 
third  of  August  1492,  with  the  '  Santa  Maria,'  commanded  by  him- 
self, the  'Pinta'  and  the  'Nina,'  two  caravels  or  undecked  boats, 
commanded  by  two  brothers  named  Pinzon,  the  crews  of  the  three 
amounting  to  no  more  than  120  men,  he  set  sail  from  Palos, 
and  bent  his  way  across  an  ocean  which,  so  far  as  he  knew,  no 
keel  laid  by  mortal  man  had  ever  traversed.  His  difficulties  began 
from  the  first  moment  he  left  the  harbour.  One  ship  lost  her 
rudder,  and  after  a  day  or  two  the  whole  squadron  was  found  to  be 
80  crazy  that  he  was  forced  to  spend  many  days  at  the  Canaries  in 
making  them  seaworthy.  After  he  left  the  Canaries,  he  had  still 
greater  troubles  to  contend  with  in  the  fears  of  his  men,  unused  to 
sail  on  day  after  day  without  seeing  the  land,  and  growing  the 
more  helpless  and  hopeless  the  more  they  had  time  to  reflect  on 
their  novel  situation. 

It  was  not  long  before  a  real  cause  of  perplexity  was  added  to 
their   visionary  fears.     Tlio   pilot   discovered   not   only  that  the 


<Kv^ 


zr 


TTh 


H^^   >>< 


TTT. 


.A  i-^. 


A.I).  1492.J  DIFFICULTIES   OF  HIS  VOYAGE.  23 

needle  did  not,  as  had  been  supposed,  point  directly  to  the  north, 
but  that  the  farther  they  proceeded,  the  gi-eater  became  the 
variation.  Columbus  explained  it  by  alfirming  that  it  was  the 
polar  star  itself  which  moved  as  it  revolved  round  the  pole  ;  but, 
though  none  of  his  comrades  could  disprove  his  theory,  a  secret 
doubt  of  its  correctness  increased  their  discontent.  Appearances, 
too,  which  when  first  seen  were  supposed  to  indicate  the  proximity 
of  land,  such  as  the  gathering  of  birds  round  the  squadron,  and 
masses  of  seaweed  floating  on  the  waves,  proved  illusory,  the 
latter  being  speedily  converted  into  a  new  ground  of  fear,  since 
they  were  imagined  to  prove  that  the  ships  were  approaching  the 
very  boundaries  of  the  navigable  ocean,  though  in  that  case  what 
was  to  be  met  with  but  land  no  one  condescended  to  explain. 
More  than  once  too  the  look-out  men  had  affirmed  that  they  saw 
land  from  the  masthead,  which  presently  proved  to  be  nothing 
more  than  clouds  ;  and  each  disappointment  only  aggravated  the 
vexation  of  the  crews,  and  excited  their  anger  against  their  leader, 
whom  they  looked  upon  as  its  cause.  Perhaps  their  feelings  and 
conduct  were  not  very  different  from  those  of  other  men  in 
entirely  novel  situations.  They  are  not  the  first,  and  will  not  be 
the  last,  who  base  their  terrors  on  facts  calculated  to  afford 
encouragement,  and  build  their  hopes  on  fallacies.  So  unreasoning 
was  their  discontent  that  some  turbulent  spirits  even  conspired 
against  Columbus  himself,  though  manifestly  the  man  who,  if 
they  really  were  in  danger,  was  the  most  able  to  extricate  them 
from  it.  Unluckily,  of  men  of  mutinous  and  fierce  dispositions 
there  were  too  many  on  board,  for  no  small  portion  of  his  crews 
had  been  tempted  to  follow  him  by  the  pardon  of  their  crimes,  or  O4 
the  withdrawal  of  prosecutions  which  they  had  reason  to  dread. 
Still  amid  all  these  trials  Columbus  never  faltered  in  his  purpose ; 
he  lost  neither  courage  nor  temper.  To  the  well-meaning,  who 
were  only  timid,  he  addressed  conciliatory  argument ;  others  he 
cowed  with  stern  reproof,  and  even  with  menace :  to  all  he 
expressed  his  unalterable  determination  to  persevere  in  his  enter- 
prise, as  being  the  only  course  compatible  with  his  duty  to  the 
sovereigns  who  had  placed  such  trust  in  his  calculations  and 
proposals. 

At  last  his  perseverance  was  rewarded;  and  his  speculations 
were,  in  one  point  of  view,  verified  with  a  curious  precision  by  the 
event  which,  in  another,  proved  them  to  have  been  completely  • 
erroneous.  Two  hundred  years  before,  Marco  Polo,  a  Venetian  \^Jy**y*^^ 
traveller,  had  spoken  of  a  great  islandT^ipango,  the  modern 
Japan,  as  lying  between  Europe  and  India  or  Cathay,  as  he  called 
China;  and  more  than  one  student  of  geography  had  formed  his 
estimate  of  the  distances,  from  a  comparison  of  which  Columbua 


24  MODEKN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  U92. 

from  the  first  had  reckoned  that  Cipango  was  little  more  than 
2,000  miles  west  of  Lisbon.  So  confident  was  he  of  the  correctness 
of  that  calculation  that  on  the  eleventh  of  October,  finding  that  he 
had  now  gone  that  distance,  he  issued  orders  that  the  ships  should 
furl  their  sails  at  midnight,  and  for  the  future  should  only  prosecute 
their  voyage  by  daylight ;  and  he  himself  took  his  post  on  the 
poop  to  watch  for  the  first  sight  of  land.  That  very  evening  he 
saw  a  light  at  a  distance,  such  as  could  only  proceed  from  men ; 
and  the  next  morning  before  daybreak  a  low  well-wooded  coast 
was  plainly  visible.  He  had  accomplished  his  object ;  he  had 
found  land  on  the  western  side  of  the  great  ocean  !  In  reality  he 
had  done  far  more  than  he  had  proposed  to  do.  In  seeking  a 
shorter  road  to  countries  long  known,  he  had  discovered  a  new 
world.  But  it  was  some  time  before  this  was  suspected.  The 
land  which  he  had  then  reached  was  one  of  the  cluster  of  islands 
now  known  as  the  Bahamas,  to  which,  m  his  gratitude  to  God 
wBo  had  guided  him  so  far  in  safety,  he  gave  the  name  of  San 
Salvador.^  To  land  and  take  possession  of  the  country,  the  extent 
of  which  was  as  yet  of  course  unknown  to  him,  with  all  due 
formalities  in  the  name  of  the  Spanish  sovereigns,  was  the  first 
task.  The  natives  offered  no  opposition ;  they  fancied,  indeed, 
that  the  sails  of  the  ships  (they  had  no  boats  themselves,  but  such 
as  were  impelled  by  oars)  were  wings  on  which  the  vessels  had 
descended  from  the  sky,  and  the  Spaniards,  with  their  fairer 
complexions  and  glittering  armour  (their  own  skins  were  tawny, 
and  had  no  covering  but  paint  of  various  colours),  they  looked 
upon  as  beings  of  a  superior  order  of  creation.  Columbus  soon 
perceived  that  they  were  destitute  of  civilisation  to  an  extent  of 
which  he  had  formed  no  conception,  and  also  that  their  island  was 
rocky  and  poor ;  but  a  few  of  them  wore  gold  trinkets,  and  as  gold 
had  been  the  attraction  by  which  the  main  body  of  his  followers 
had  been  persuaded  to  join  him,  he  enquired  of  them  eagerly 
where  those  precious  ornaments  had  been  procured.  They  answered 
by  signs  that  they  were  the  produce  of  the  south,  and  accordingly, 
after  tarrj-ing  a  day  or  two  to  recruit  his  stores  of  wood  and  water, 
he  weighed  anchor  and  set  sail  in  that  direction.  After  touching 
at  one  or  two  more  islands,  before  the  end  of  the  month  he  reached 
Cuba,  whose  beauty  and  fertility  convinced  him  that  this  was  the 
Cipango  which  he  was  seeking ;  the  gaudy  plumage  of  the  birds, 

>  Some  writers  have  recently  con-  tains  the  claims  of  San   Salvador, 

tended    that    Watliuj^'s    Island,     a  allows   that  the  light  seen  on   the 

smaller  ishind  lying  a  few  miles  to  previous   evening   may   have   come 

the  cast  of  San  Salvador,  is  entitled  from   Watling,   close  to   which  the 

to  the  honour  of  having  been  that  on  navigators  must  have  passed.    It  is  a 

which  the  white  men  lirst  landed,  matter  of  no  consequence,  and  impos- 

and  Wasliington  Irving,  who  main-  Bihlc  to  bo  determined  with  certainty 


A.D.  1492.]  HE  REACHES  HAYTI.  25 

the  fragrance  of  the  aromatic  woods,  above  all  the  pearl-bearing 

oyster  with  which  the  coasts  abounded,  were  all  identified  in  his  ^ 

mind  with  India,  so   that  he  never  doubted  his  correctness  in  A-^v/tu^ 

giving  that  generic  name  to  all  the  lands  he  discovered  :  a  name 

which  the  subsequent  ascertainment  of  his  errors  has  not  been 

allowed  to  do  more  than  modify,  and  the  appellation  of  the  West 

Indies  still  preserves  the  memory  of  the  belief  which  led  their 

great  discoverer  to  their  shores.  ^  ^ 

The  natives  of  Cuba  were  far  more  civilised  than  those  of  San  C^-^t^ify^^ 
Salvador,  they  were  also  richer ;  but,  as  on  all  occasions,  Columbus 
prosecuted  his  enquiries  for  gold,  he  collected  from  their  answers 
that  it  was  from  a  country  still  more  to  the  southward  that  that 
metal  was  to  be  procured;  and  once  more  he  set  sail  in  the 
direction  thus  pointed  out,  taking  with  him  several  of  the  islanders 
as  interpreters.  After  a  few  days  he  reached  Hayti,  which  seemed 
a  still  more  desirable  acquisition  than  Cuba.  The  natives  appeared 
to  be  of  a  higher  stamp  ;  they  had  also  far  more  gold,  and  were 
equally  liberal  of  it,  so  that,  in  changing  its  name,  a  liberty  which 
he  allowed  himself  in  every  place,  he  called  it  Little  Spain  or 
ilispaniola,  being  still  under  the  delusion  that  he  had  arrived  in 
the  regions  of  India,  and  flattering  himself  that  he  had  now 
reached  the  Ophir  whicli  had  poured  forth  its  treasures  to  enable 
Solomon  to  decorate  the  Temple. 

But  severe  vexations  awaited  him.    The  elder  Pinzon,  captain  of  A^^^W-^/- 
the  second  vessel,  the  ^  Pinta,'  a  man  of  a  covetous  and  treacherous 


disposition,   deserted   him,  hoping   to   make   some   discovery  by  /»w 
himself,  or  perhaps,. by  returning  to  Spain,  to  rob  him  of  some /<5>v3.,4n«  ( 
portion  of  his  credit  by  being  the  first  to  announce  to  his  country-  ..     i^  ^ 
men  at  home  what  had  been  accomplished.     But  whatever  was  *»••<♦ 

his  purpose,  it  was  baffled,  for  he  lost  his  way  among  the  numerous 
islands  with  which  those  seas  abound ;  and,  a  few  weeks  after- 
wards, was  glad  to  fall  in  again  with  his  commander  as  he  was 
setting  out  on  his  return  to  Europe.  A  calamity  of  a  still  more 
serious  character  was  the  loss  of  the  flagship,  the  'Santa  Maria,'  ^^Z^  •!  i 
which,  shortly  after  the  desertion  of  the  '  Pinta,'  a  careless  steers- »^  ^  ?^ 
man  ran  upon  a  sand-bank,  where  she  went  to  pieces.  Her  loss  put^ik***XJ^  fn^ 
an  end  for  the  moment  to  Columbus's  plans  for  the  further  prose- 
cution of  his  discoveries;  for  the  ^Niiia,'  the  only  vessel  left  to 
him,  was  the  smallest  of  the  squadron.  Yet  hope  for  the  future  was 
to  be  extracted  even  from  this  calamity,  since  it  displayed  in  a  very 
striking  manner  the  friendly  good  faith  of  the  natives,  who  by  the 
most  eager  hospitality  laboured  to  alleviate  a  disaster  which  it 
was  impossible  to  repair.  So  cordial,  indeed,  was  their  treatment 
of  the  Spaniards  that  it  suggested  to  the  admiral  the  idea,  as  it 
was  indicpensable  that  he  himself  should  at  once  return  to  Spain, 


2()  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.o.  1493. 

f^^     oi  leavinj,^  a  party  behind  hira  to  form  the  germ  of  a  future  colony. 
»  The  men  were  willing  to  stay  behind ;  the  plan  was  still  more 

p-t<%%0^  welcome  to  the  natives,  who  were  a  peaceful  race,  and  lived  in 

/  constant  fear  of  the  inhabitants  of  some  neighbouring  islands, 

whom  they  called  Caribs,  and  who  frequently  made  descents  upon 
their  coasts,  but  against  whom  they  felt  assured  they  could  rely 
on  the  Spaniards  to  protect  them.  To  strengthen  their  reliance  on 
them,  lie  brought  on  shore  some  muskets  and  a  cannon,  and  fired 
them  at  the  trees.  The  natives  were  awe-stricken  beyond  measure 
at  the  roar,  which  they  compared  to  thunder;  and  still  more  at 
the  force  with  which  the  balls  shattered  the  largest  trees,  and 
which  strengthened  their  impression  that  the  gods  had  come  down 
among  them  in  the  likeness  of  men.  And  they  gladly  co-operated 
in  building  a  solid  abode  for  their  protectors,  to  which  Columbus 
gave  the  name  of  La  Navidad,  the  Nativity,  in  remembrance  that 
it  was  on  Christmas  Day  that  he  had  escaped  from  the  wreck;  and 
having  fortified  it  with  the  guns  which  he  had  saved  from  his  ill- 
fated  ship,  in  the  first  week  of  the  year  1493  he  set  sail  on  his 
—  J!  return  home.    On  his  way,  as  has  been  mentioned,  he  was  rejoined 

t/v.  ''^•'w*-.**'*^^  ^^^  ^  YiiYto. ; '  and  after  a  stormy  voyage,  in  which  the  *  Nina  ' 

'-ftA-  nearly  foundered,  on  the  fifteenth  of  March  he  re-entered  the  har- 

bour of  Palos,  whence  he  had  left  above  seven  months  before,  and 
•     where,  as  no  tidings  of  him  had  been  received  in  the  interval,  the 
citizens  in  general  had  begun  to  despair  of  ever  seeing  or  hearing 
of  him  again. 
/r^J^^^^^         All  the  honours  which  the  most  punctilious  court  in  Christen- 

'''^^'^^  dom  could  devise,  were  lavished  on  him  at  his  arrival  at  Barcelona, 
where  the  sovereigns  then  were.  They  rose  from  their  thrones  to 
receive  him  ;  he  was  placed  on  Ferdinand's  right  hand ;  a  solemn 

t^L^dt^  thanksgiving  in  the  Koyal  Chapel  proclaimed  the  sense  that  prince 
and  people  entertained  of  his  unparalleled  achievement ;  what 
was  probably  more  gratifying  to  his  own  ambition,  no  delay  was 
allowed  to  interpose  to  the  equipment,  on  a  far  larger  scale  than 
before,  of  an  expedition  to  extend  his  discoveries  and  his  acquisi- 
tions. Acquisitions  to  which  the  sovereigns  took  care  to  procure 
r        .       what  was  then  considered  a  legal  right,  by  obtaining  a  grant  from 

^«C>  5^^^  ths  Pope  of  all  the  lands  which  he  had  yet  discovered,  or  here- 
after might  discover,  so  long  as  he  did  not  trench  on  countries 
which  a  similar  sanction  had  already  conferred  upon  Portugal. 
One  of  the  benefits  to  humanity  that  had  been  promised  as  the 
result  of  Ilia  previous  voyage,  had  been  the  conversion  to  Chris- 
tianity of  the  different  barbarian  tribes  with  whom  he  might  meet; 
and,  to  carry  out  this  part  of  the  scheme,  some  natives  whom  he 
had  brought  with  him  were  solemnly  baptised ;  and  a  body  of 
missionaries  was  carefully  selected  to  accompany  the  new  expodi- 


>r' 


4.D.  1493.]  HIS  SECOND  VOYAGE.  27 

tion,  that  the  difFusion  among  the  savages  of  a  knowledge  of  tho 
true  religion  might  compensate  to  them  for  the  loss  of  their 
liberty,  and  for  their  suhjection  to  a  foreign  master.  In  September 
1493,  Columbus  again  set  sail;  now  in  command,  not  of  three 
miserable  ill-found  vessels,  but  of  a  well-appointed  fleet  of  seven- 
teen ships,  well  adapted  for  the  service,  and  of  1,500  men,  no 
longer  desponding,  but  confident  of  success,  and  glory,  and  riches. 
But  the  news  which  reached  him  on  his  return  to  La  Navidad,  was 
far  from  corresponding  to  the  hopes  which  he  and  they  had  formed.  Al^  Qn^L*^ 
The  men  whom  he  had  left  behind,  the  moment  that  his  control- 
ling authority  was  removed,  had  treated  the  natives  with  a  rapa- 
city and  cruelty  that  turned  the  whole  nation  against  them,  except 
the  king  Guacanahan ;  who  had  conceived  for  Columbus  himself 
an  affection,  which  he  had  extended  to  all  his  countrymen.  But 
the  people  in  general,  gentle  or  timid  though  they  were,  at  last  rose 
in  arms  to  defend  their  wives  and  their  homes.  One  chief,  more 
warlike  than  his  fellows,  the  cacique  of  Cibao,  a  district  which  K»^»«fc*^ 
the  Spaniards  had  invaded,  on  account  of  a  report  of  the  gold 
mines  which  it  contained,  not  contented  with  cutting  off  one  or  two 
parties  of  stragglers,  attacked  La  Navidad  itself,  set  it  on  fire  and 
burnt  it ;  some  of  the  Spaniards  were  killed  in  the  fight,  some 
were  driven  into  the  sea  and  drowned ;  and,  of  the  whole  body 
which  Columbus  had  left  behind  him  at  the  beginning  of  the  year, 
scarcely  one  remained  alive.  It  was  a  state  of  things  far  different 
from  what  he  had  expected  to  find  ;  yet  he  w^as  so  far  from  being 
discouraged,  that  having  discovered  a  spacious  and  well-protected 
harbour,  he  at  once  founded  a  city,  which,  after  the  name  of  the 
Queen,  his  patroness,  he  called  Isabella.  While  its  walls  were 
rising,  he  sent  a  detachment  to  explore  the  interior  of  the  island, 
with  an  especial  charge  to  ascertain  the  position  of  the  gold  mines  ; 
and,  when  they  returned  loaded  with  the  precious  metal  with 
which  they  reported  the  bed  of  every  river  to  be  impregnated,  he  s^*r:  ^  3 
sent  the  bulk  of  his  fleet  back  to  Spain  to  present  to  the  sovereigns  ^^Z 
their  share  of  the  large  treasures  which  he  had  collected,  and  toft'»i^-^ 
beg,  in  return,  for  a  further  supply  of  food,  wine,  arms,  and  horses, 
which  being  hitherto  unknown  in  the  islands,  struck  the  natives 
with  especial  amazement.  He  himself  remained  about  two  years 
in  the  country  ;  enlarging  by  a  careful  exploration,  his  knowledge 
of  Hispaniola,  Cuba,  and  the  adjacent  seas,  in  one  of  his  trips 
discovering  the  important  island  of  Jamaica ;  and  framing  careful 
laws  for  his  settlement  of  Isabella,  so  that  it  was  the  spring  of 
1496  before  he  returned  to  Spain;  to  be  again  received  with  great 
favour  by  the  Queen ;  and  after  a  time  to  prepare  a  third  expe- 
dition. 

But  that  third  expedition  was  fraught  with  great  mortification  /-^jtA*^ 


28  MODERN   HISTORY.  [a.d.  1498. 

to  him.  As  far  as  it  depended  on  himself,  it  was  as  successful  as 
ever.  He  even  added  to  his  discovery  of  the  islands,  that  of  the 
continent  of  America ;  steering  more  southward  than  on  either  of 
his  former  voyages,  and  thus  taking  a  course  which  brought  him 
to  the  mouth  of  the  Orinoco.  On  the  first  of  August  1498,  he 
landed  in  Guiana;  and  having  explored  the  coast  to  the  westward, 
he  then  stood  to  the  north,  and  made  once  more  for  Hispaniola. 
But,  as  on  his  second  return  to  it,  he  found  everything  in  con- 
fusion. No  one  but  himself  could  conciliate  the  natives ;  no  one 
but  himself  could  restrain  the  arrogance  and  lawlessness  of 
^  /  ^  the  Spaniards ;  nor  even  could  he  himself  do  so  entirely.  Before 
*^  his  return  to  Spain  in  1496,  some  of  the  more  unruly  spirits  had 

►/  S«b#iUt«)  been  loud  in  expressions  of  discontent,  which  had  reached  the 
^  ears   of  Isabella  herself,  though  her  confidence  in  his  wisdom 

and  probity  had  been  too  firm  to  be  shaken  by  them.      But, 
during  his  absence  matters  grew  worse.     His  brother,  to  whom 
he  had  delegated  the  chief  authority,  had  founded  the  city  of 
St.  Domingo,  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  island ;  but  the  natives  had 
i-isen  in  arms  to  resist  the  tribute  which  he  imposed  on  them. 
While  he  was  occupied  in  quelling  this  insurrection,  a  body  of 
the  Spaniards  had  taken  advantage  of  his  difficulties,  to  break  out 
into  open  mutiny.     And  though   Columbus,  who  arrived  at  the 
very  crisis  of  these  complicated  troubles,  was  able,  by  his  own 
personal  authority  and  address,  to  compose  them  for  a  time,  some 
of  those  who  rather   concealed  than  laid  aside  their  discontent, 
sent  complaints  of  the  admiral's  conduct  to  Spain,  which  found  a 
support  there,  which  it  is  easier  to  account  for,  than  to  excuse. 
IjC^^,^,,,^      The  fact  was,  that  the  apathy  with  which  his  entei-prise  was  at 
>—         f       first  regarded   had   been   succeeded   by  an   equally  unreasoning 
**»'''**^J^    covetousness.     Public  opinion,  always  apt  to  run  into  extremes, 
i^t^U^^0        was  now  picturing  the  newly  discovered  territories  as  storehouses 
,^  I^M^  "^  wealth  for  all  who  could  obtain  a  position  there  ;  and  many  of 
"     ^'*^***^  the  nobles,  hoping  to  rise  to  governments  and  other  offices  of  trust 
and  emolument,  clamoured  loudly  against  the  agreement  which  gave 
the  chief  posts  to  him  whom  they  did  not  scruple  to  brand  as  a 
foreign  adventurer ;  and  encouraged  and  disseminated  every  com- 
plaint that  was  uttered  against  any  part  of  his  administration. 

One  of  his  measures,  by  which  he  had  authorised  those  Spaniards 
to  whom  he  liad  granted  tracts  of  land  to  employ  the  natives  in 
its  cultivation,  oil'ended  Isabella's  own  sense  of  propriety  and 
humanity.  It  was,  as  she  at  once  perceived,  the  foundation  of  a 
system  of  slavery ;  and  though  the  general  doctrine  ^  of  that  age 

»  One  Spanish  casuijit  even  founds  tlicir  smoking  tobacco,  and  not 
tlio  right  of  his  nation  to  enslavo  trimming  their  hoards  ii  I'Espagnole 
the  Indians,  among  other  pleas,  on      (Montesquieu,  Esprit  dcs  L^nsy  liv. 


A.D.  1498.]  ARROGANCE   OF  BOBADILLA.  29 

was,  that  ignorance  of  Christianity  was  in  itself  a  crime  sufficient 
to  deprive  the  untutored  savages  of  all  claim  to  the  ordinary 
rights  of  manhood,  it  was  not  her  feeling.  When  Columbus  sent 
a  number  of  the  natives  over  to  Spain  to  be  sold,  that  the  purchase- 
money  obtained  for  them  might  be  expended  for  the  good  of  the 
colony,  she  prohibited  the  sale ;  and  beyond  all  question  her  dis- 
approval of  this  measure  greatly  influenced  her  consent  to  send 
out  a  commissioner  to  enquire  into  his  conduct,  and  into  the  state 
of  the  colony.  It  is  quite  consistent  with  the  highest  admiration 
for  the  general  tenor  of  Columbus's  government,  in  which  the 
treatment  of  the  natives  is  the  only  blot  (that  too,  being,  as  has 
been  said,  in  entire  accordance  with  the  feeling  of  the  age),  to 
admit  that  the  appointment  of  such  an  oflicer  might  have  done 
good.  A  man  invested  with  authority  such  as  that  given  to  the 
admiral,  must  be  more  than  human,  if  constant  battling  with  the 
natives  (for  whom  every  true  Spaniard  felt  nothing  but  contempt) 
on  the  one  side,  and  with  his  own  followers  on  the  other,  did  not 
lead  him  occasionally  to  try  and  conciliate  the  latter  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  former.  But  the  instrument  was  singularly  ill  chosen. 
BcTbadilla,  to  whom  the  commission  was  entrusted,  which  invested  ^( 
him  for  the  time  with  the  supreme  judicial  authority  in  the  new^  m\ 

settlements,  was  a  weak  vain  man,  whose  head  was  turned  by  the^*^''^*"'^^ 
power  thus  conferred  upon  him ;  and  who  seems  to  have  conceived 
that  his  mission  was  in  itself  such  a  condemnation  of  Columbus  ^-^^jt-vv  •A 
as  authorised  his  treating  him  as  a  convicted  criminal.  The 
moment  that  he  reached  St.  Domingo,  he  arrested  the  admiral, 
put  him  in  irons,  and  sent  him  back  to  Spain ;  and,  having  done 
so,  proceeded  to  perpetuate  the  very  abuse  which  had  most  moved 
the  government  at  home  to  send  him  out,  the  slavery  of  the 
natives. 

He  was  soon  superseded.  But  before  the  proofs  of  his  incom- 
petency reached  the  mother  country,  his  treatment  of  Columbus 
himself,  as  proved  by  his  arriving  at  Cadiz,  still  in  fetters,  by  ^ 

Bobadilla's  express  command,  had  raised  a  storm  of  indignation  fu^xji/j^i^U^ 
against  him  which  no  sagacity  in  command  would  have  been  able  m 
to  counterbalance.     The  sovereigns  themselves  on  the  admiral's    *^'^»^^'*'^ 
arrival  did  their  utmost  to  redress  the  undeserved  insults  which  he 
had  sufl^ered.     They  again  invited  him  to  court;  enjoined Ovando, 
the  officer  who  was  sent  out  to  supersede  Bobadilla,  to  provide  for 
the  full  indemnification  of  himself  and  his  brothers,  who  had  equally 
fallen  under  Bobadilla's  displeasure,  and  to  secure  them  for  the 
future  the  full  enjoyment  of  all  their  privileges  and  emoluments  ; 

XV.  c.  3.,  quoted  by  Prescott).     It      present     day,    whatever    may     be 
would    be   unsafe   to  lay  too  much      thought  of  the  second, 
stress  on  the  first  argument  at  the 


S^^j^^  ^ 


30  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  150G. 

and  they  showed  their  unabated  confidence  in  Columbus  as  an 
explorer,  by  equipping  for  him,  in  the  spring  of  1502,  a  fresh 
'.f^JUis^^  squadron,  with  which  he  hoped  so  to  carry  out  his  original  de- 
sign as  to  pass  beyond  the  lands  he  had  already  discovered,  and 
still  to  find  a  channel  through  them  which  should  conduct  him  to 
India.  lie  did  not  yet  know  the  vastness  of  the  continent  which 
barred  his  way;  but  the  expedition  produced  him  personally 
nothing  but  mortification  and  suffering,  though  the  disasters  which 
he  met  with  did  not  arise  from  the  unattainable  character  of  his 
object.  It  cannot  indeed  be  said  that  his  voyage  was  wholly 
barren  of  results  ;  for  he  discovered  and  explored  the  coast  of  the 
Isthmus  of  Darien  as  far  as  the  Gulf  of  Honduras,  and  gave  its 
name  to  the  beautiful  harbour  of  Porto  Bello ;  but  when  he  tried 
to  establish  a  colony  on  the  mainland,  where  no  settlement  had 
yet  been  planted,  his  attempt  was  defeated  by  the  warlike  spirit 
of  the  natives. 

He  retraced  his  steps  towards  Ilispaniola,  but  met  with  harder 
weather  than  he  had  ever  previously  experienced.  In  one  storm 
he  lost  two  of  his  ships,  (he  had  but  four).  A  second  tempest 
drove  those  which  the  first  had  spared  on  the  shore  of  Jamaica, 
which  he  had  some  difficulty  in  reaching  alive  ;  and  still  greater 
in  leaving,  no  Spaniards  had  yet  been  settled  there,  and,  when  he 
desired  to  send  intelligence  of  his  situation  and  need  of  aid  to  St. 
Domingo,  he  could  procure  no  means  of  conveying  his  messengers, 
but  the  canoes  made  by  the  savages  of  trunks  of  trees  hol- 
lowed oufc  by  fire,  and  so  rudely  fashioned  as  to  be  scarcely 
manageable.  "While  he  was  awaiting  their  return,  he  was  fortu- 
nate enough  to  establish  his  ascendency  over  the  natives  by  pre- 
dicting an  eclipse  of  the  moon  ;  but,  when  his  messengers  reached 
Ilispaniola,  they  found  Ovando  almost  as  unfriendly  to  him  as 
Bobadilla  had  been.  He  evidently  feared  lest  Columbus's  return 
to  the  island  should  diminish  his  own  authority ;  but  the  admiral, 
who  had  for  some  time  felt  his  health  failing,  was  anxious  only  to 
return  to  Spain.  At  last,  in  the  autumn  of  1504,  he  procured  two 
shijis,  set  sail,  and  after  a  stormy  voyage  reached  the  mouth  of  the 
Guadalquivir  in  November. 

It  WJ18  a  heavy  blow  to  him  to  find  Queen  Isabella,  whom  he 
had  always  deservedly  regarded  as  his  chief  protectress,  on  her 
deathbed.  But  Ferdinand,  though  of  a  far  less  disinterested  or 
liiglj-minded  character,  was  well  able  to  estimate  the  vast  ser- 
vices wiiich  ho  had  rendered  to  the  kingdom,  and  received  him 
with  the  honour  he  deserved,  which  however  he  was  not  destined 
long  to  enjoy.  In  May  1500,  ho  died,  exulting  in  the  conscious- 
ness that  ho  was  leaving  behind  him  an  immortal  name,  as  the 
discoverer  of  a  now  world.     The  full  harvest  of  his  discoveries  was 


*.D.  1517.]       THE  SPANIARDS  VISIT  YUCATAN.  31 

to  be  reaped  by  those  who  should  follow  him,  the  glory  he  felt 
to  be  his  own.  In  his  own  words,  *he  had  opened  the  gate  by 
which  others  might  enter.'  And  posterity  has  been  just  to  him, 
and,  deservedly  as  many  of  those  who  trod  in  his  steps  as  dis- 
coverers and  colonisers  are  honoured  and  admired,  still  places  the 
name  of  Columbus  above  them  all  as  the  man  to  whose  sagacity, 
hardihood,  energy  and  perseverance,  all  tliose  who  followed  him 
are  indebted  for  the  rare  opportunities  of  achieving  their  own 
renown. 

And  many  and  brave  were  those  who  in  the  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury which  followed  the  death  of  the  great  admiral,  sought  fortune 
and  fame  by  the  path  which  he  had  opened  to  them.  The  most 
illustrious  of  all,  whether  we  regard  his  own  enthusiastic  character 
and  lofty  genius,  or  the  splendour  of  the  empire  which  he  over-  _ 

threw,  was  unquestionably  Hernando  Cortez,  the   Conqueror  of  C't'T^v^ 
Mexico.     And,  taking  him  as  a  representative  of  the  rCvSt,  we  may  ^ 

pass  over  the  labours,  energetic  and  fruitful  as  they  were,  and 
devote  our  attention  to  his  exploits. 

The  spirit  of  discovery  was  in  no  degree  quenched  by  the  un- 
fortunate issue  of  the  last  voyage  of  Columbus.  Settlements  were 
established  on  Darien,  and  in  the  Bay  of  Honduras;  and  in  1517 
a  squadron  had  been  driven  by  a  gale  to  Yucatan,  where  the  leader  ('^.-JVv 
Cordova  was  at  once  struck  with  evidences  of  a  higher  civilisation  j 
than  had  yet  been  met  with  in  any  part  of  the  New  World.  The  ^ii  ^**^ 
people  dwelt  in  solid  houses  of  stone,  and  wore  garments  of  a  fine 
texture,  with  abundance  of  gold  ornaments  of  elaborate  workman- 
ship. But  they  were  also  fierce  and  unfriendly  j  they  attacked 
the  Spaniards  not  only  with  courage,  but  with  some  degree  of 
skill ;  Cordova  himself  was  severely  wounded,  and  compelled  to 
make  a  precipitate  retreat ;  but  on  his  return  to  Cuba,  to  which 
island  he  belonged,  he  made  a  report  to  Velasquez,  the  governor, 
of  which  the  portion  which  testified  to  the  evident  wealth  of  the 
.  nation  which  he  had  discovered,  more  than  counterbalanced  that 
which  spoke  of  the  difficulties  to  be  encountered  in  subduing 
them.  The  report  was  coiToborated  in  all  respects  by  the  leader 
of  an  expedition  sent  out  the  next  year  to  the  same  country.  And 
the  agreement  of  the  two  confirmed  Velasquez  (who  in  the  mean- 
time had  procured  full  authority  from  the  home  government  to 
explore,  conquer,  and,  in  whatever  way  might  seem  best,  to  es- 
tablish the  authority  of  Spain  over  the  region  thus  fortunately 
discovered)  in  his  resolution  to  equip  a  force  sufficient  to  ensure,  as 
he  imagined,  the  subjugation  of  a  territory  of  which  he  had  not 
the  remotest  idea  of  the  extent,  or  the  population,  or  the  general 
resources.  He  only  inferred  that  it  was  rich,  and  that,  however 
numerous  its  people,  being  uncivilised  and  infidel  they  could  nol 


^ 


32  MODERN  IIISTOKY.  [a.d.  1518. 

possibly  resist  the  attack  of  the  Spaniard  who  was  at  once  a 
trained  warrior  and  a  Christian.  Had  he,  however,  had  the  most 
accurate  knowledge  of  all  the  particulars  of  which  he  was  igno- 
rant, he  could  not  probably  in  the  whole  world  have  found  a  com- 
mander for  the  force  which  he  designed  to  employ  better  calculated 
to  command  success  than  the  officer  whom  he  selected.  Hernando 
Cortez,  now  in  the  prime  of  manhood,^  had  won  the  governor's 
confidence  by  the  boldness,  presence  of  mind,  and  fertility  of  re- 
source which  he  had  displayed  in  the  contest  with  the  natives  of 
Cuba,  which  had  ended  in  the  secure  establishment  of  the  Spanish 
colony  in  that  great  island  ;  and,  though  he  had  not  hitherto  had 
any  opportunity  of  displaying  these  qualities,  he  was  further  en- 
dowed with  a  force  of  character  which  bent  all  men  to  his  will, 
an  address  which  reconciled  them  to  their  compliance,  and  a 
rough  and  ready  eloquence  admirably  calculated  to  inspire  the 
meanest  of  his  followers  with  a  portion  of  his  own  resolution  and 
confidence.  Ever  since  the  settlement  of  Cuba,  he  had  been  look- 
ing forward  to  the  day,  when  he  too  might  become  the  founder  of 
a  settlement,  which  might  be  at  once  a  source  of  wealth  and 
glory  to  himself,  and  (for  the  two  objects  were  united  in  the  as- 
pirations of  many  of  the  Spanish  cavaliers,  and  influenced  no 
heart  more  sincerely  than  that  of  Cortez),  might  also  conduce  to 
the  glory  of  God,  and  to  the  spread  of  true  religion  among  those 
to  whom  the  name  of  the  Saviour  was  as  yet  unknown.  That 
opportunity  was  now  placed  in  his  reach.  So  sanguine  was  he  of 
the  result  that  he  expended  the  whole  of  his  own  fortune  in  aiding 
to  equip  the  force  which  he  was  to  command,  and  which,  for  those 
days  and  those  regions,  was  well  calculated  to  make  an  impression 
,  /  on  those  who  saw  it  set  forth.  Eleven  ships,  one  of  100  tons 
l^*/~Ct  burden,  conveyed  G80  Spaniards,  200  native  Indians  and  10 
I  horses,  with  14  cannon  of  different  calibre :  a  few  missionaries 

being  added  to  the  soldiers,  that  conversion  and  conquest  might 
proceed  hand  in  hand.  No  such  force  had  yet  been  employed  in 
the  New  World.  But  had  it  been  suspected  that  the  warriors  of 
the  land  which  they  were  preparing  to  invade  were  to  be  counted 
by  tens,  perhaps  by  hundreds  of  thousands ;  amply  endued  with 
native  courage,  and  strengthened  by  all  the  aids  of  organisation 
and  discipline,  even  Cortez  might  have  hesitated  before  undertak- 
ing such  an  enterprise  with  such  means.  Fortunately,  however,  he 
did  not  suspect  the  real  magnitude  of  the  work  before  him  till  he 
had  advanced  too  far  to  turn  back ;  even  had  the  withdrawal  of 
Ilia  hand  from  any  enterprise  which  he  had  undertaken  been  con- 
sistent with  his  firm  unyielding  disposition. 
It  was  on  the  eighteenth  of  February  1510,  when,  mass  having 
*  He  was  born  in  1815,  so  that  be  was  thirty-four  years  old. 


A.D.  1519.]  COUKAGE  OF   THE  NATIVES.  33 

been  solemnly  celebrated  on  board  the  flagship,  and  the  whole  expe- 
dition having  been  specially  commended  to  the  protection  of  St. 
Peter,  the  patron  saint  of  the  commander,  he  weighed  anchor  and 
steered  towards  Yucatan ;  coasting  round  that  peninsula,  till  he 
arrived  at  the  spot  which  Grijalva  had  visited  the  year  before.  It 
was  Tabasco,  a  populous  town  at  the  mouth  of  a  river  bearing  the 
same  name ;  and  he  aJ;  once  had  proof  of  the  correctness  of  that  part 
of  his  predecessor's  report  which  represented  the  difficulties  to  be 
encountered,  for  the  mere  sight  of  his  squadron  brought  down  a  large 
army  of  40,000  men  to  oppose  his  landing  :  a  fierce  battle  ensued  ; 
so  dauntless  were  the  barbarians  that  even  the  artillery  of  the 
Spaniards,  though  they  had  never  seen  such  weapons  hefore, 
failed  to  make  any  impression  on  them ;  they  threw  dust  and 
leaves  into  the  air  in  derision  of  the  smoke,  and  it  might  have 
gone  hard  with  the  invaders  had  not  Cortez,  as  a  last  resource, 
brought  up  his  handful  of  cavalry.  The  Americans  had  never 
seen  a  horse,  and  fancying  him  and  his  rider  to  be  one  animal  of  a 
portentous,  perhaps  of  a  divine  character,  they  were  stricken  with 
an  instant  panic,  and,  throwing  away  their  arms,  fled  from  the 
field  which  they  had  nearly  won.  So  critical  had  been  the 
struggle  that  the  Spaniards  themselves  attributed  their  victory  to 
the  supernatural  aid  of  one  of  the  saints,  who,  as  numbers  of  them 
aflirmed,  had  been  seen  careering  by  the  side  of  Cortez  on  a  white 
charger,  and  aiding  the  general  in  leading  on  his  horsemen  to  the 
charge  ;  St.  Peter  himself,  as  Cortez  maintained,  but,  in  the  general 
belief,  St.  Jago,  the  patron  saint  of  Spain,  thus  sent  forth  from 
Paradise  to  open  to  his  devout  servants  a  new  dominion. 

The  army  thus  defeated  was  the  entire  force  of  the  tribe.  The 
Tabascans  at  once  submitted,  and  even  consented  to  become  Chris- 
tians ;  their  conversion  being  facilitated  by  the  singular  coincidence 
that  they  themselves  held  the  Cross  in  reverence,  being  used  to 
worship  it  as  the  symbol  of  the  God  of  rain,  which,  in  that  climate, 
was  naturally  regarded  as  the  first  of  blessings.  The  next  day 
was  Palm  Sunday ;  and  on  that  morning  the  whole  army,  each 
soldier  bearing  a  palm  branch  in  his  hand,  headed  by  their  priests, 
and  accompanied  by  thousands  of  the  Tabascan  converts,  marched 
in  solemn  procession  to  the  great  temple,  and,  formally  deposing 
the  image  of  the  presiding  deity,  enthroned  the  Virgin  and  her 
infant  Son  in  his  place. 

On  the  Monda}^  Cortez  proceeded  on  his  voyage.  In  reply  to 
his  questions  as  to  the  country  whence  tliey  procured  their  gold, 
the  Tabascans  had  answered  Mexico,  pointing  to  the  west  as 
the  direction  in  which  that  countiy  lay ;  towards  Mexico  therefore 
Cortez  still  pressed  forward.  And  when,  a  few  days  afterwards, 
he  again  halted  at  the  spot  where  he  subsequently  founded  the 


34  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1519. 

city  of  Vera  Cruz,  he  found  that  he  had  reached  territory  subject 
to  the  authority  of  tlie  Emperor  of  Mexico,  though  Mexico  itself 
was  an  inland  country.  Among  the  presents  which  the  Tabascans 
had  brought  to  him  in  token  of  their  submission  were  some  female 
slaves,  one  of  whom  was  a  Mexican  by  birth  and  soon  learnt 
Spanish  enough  to  act  as  his  interpreter.  By  her  assistance  and 
that  of  one  of  his  own  followers,  who  in  previous  voyages  had 
acquired  some  knowledge  of  the  Indian  dialects,  he  was  enabled 
to  communicate  with  the  chief  men  of  the  district  where  he  was 
now  anchored,  who  came  down  to  visit  the  squadron  in  a  friendly 
spint,  bringing  presents  of  game  and  fruit.  The  information 
which  he  thus  obtained  was  of  a  checquered  character.  He  learnt 
how  boundless  and  irresistible  the  power  of  the  Emperor  of 
Mexico,  whose  name  was  Montezuma,  was  believed  to  be  ;  but  he 
also  learnt  that  there  was  a  current  belief  among  the  natives  that 
about  that  time  some  beings  of  a  superior  order,  akin  to  their  own 
deities,  were  to  arrive  in  the  land  and  to  become  its  masters ; 
indeed,  one  of  his  new  visitors  remarked  that  a  shining  gilt  helmet 
worn  by  one  of  the  Spanish  soldiers  resembled  that  on  the  head  of 
the  god  Quetzalcoatl  in  the  great  temple  at  Mexico.  He  also 
learnt  what  was  calculated  to  be  of  at  least  equal  assistance  to 
him,  that  Montezuma  was  regarded  with  more  fear  than  love  by 
his  own  subjects,  and  with  undisguised  jealousy  and  hatred  by  the 
neighbouring  princes:  not  that  his  impopularity  among  the  Mexi- 
cans was  deserved,  for  he  was  skilful  in  war,  strict  in  the  admini- 
stration of  justice  (which,  in  one  respect,  was  better  secured  in  his 
dominions  than  it  was  at  that  time  in  any  nation  of  Christendom, 
by  the  fact  of  the  judges  holding  their  offices  for  life,  instead  of 
during  the  king's  pleasure),  and  judiciously  munificent  in  the 
encouragement  of  public  works  of  utility  and  humanity,  such  as 
roads,  aqueducts,  and  hospitals ;  but  these  real  virtues  were 
neutralised  in  the  eyes  of  the  multitude  by  a  pompous  haughtiness 
not  shown  by  previous  sovereigns,  while  his  architectural  and 
engineering  improvements  necessitated  the  imposition  of  heavy 
taxes,  which  are  borne  with  as  much  impatience  by  barbarians  as 
by  more  civilised  communities.  Cbrtez,  therefore,  had  some 
reason  to  hope  that  in  the  enterprise  •  for  which  he  was  preparing 
he  should  find  not  only  allies  without  but  partisans  within  Monte- 
zuma's kingdom,  both  eager  to  co-operate  in  the  overthrow  of  his 
power. 

That  prince  was  thrown  into  a  state  of  perplexity  and  alarm  by 
liis  arrival,  of  which  he  received  speedy  intelligence,  for  among 
the  marks  of  an  extraordinary  civilisation  in  Mexico  was  the 
existence  of  a  regularly  organised  system  of  couriers,  which  con- 
veyed news  from  the   coast   to   the   capital,   a   distance   of  200 


A.o.  1619.J  ALARM  OF  MONTEZUMA.  35 

miles,  in  24  hours ;  and  some  of  the  Spaniards'  last  visitors 
had  in  this  way  forwarded  him  a  drawing  which  gave  a  suffi- 
ciently faithful  representation  of  their  arms,  their  horses,  and  the 
*  waterhouses,'  as  they  called  the  ships  in  which  they  had  arrived, 
and  which  struck  people  accustomed  only  to  canoes  with  as  much 
amazement  as  any  part  of  their  equipment.  lie  could  hardly 
disguise  from  himself  the  conviction  that  the  strangers  were  the 
supernatural  beings  who  were  destined  to  supersede  his  dynasty, 
and  he  bent  his  whole  efforts  to  postpone  the  evil  day  by  keeping 
them  at  a  distance;  but  the  very  means  which  he  took  helped  to 
defeat  his  object.  Cortez  had  announced  to  the  chiefs  whom  he 
had  met  at  Vera  Cruz  that  he  had  been  expressly  commanded  by 
his  own  sovereign  to  visit  Montezuma  in  his  capital ;  and,  in  reply 
to  this  communication,  the  Emperor  now  sent  an  embassy  to 
express  his  sorrow  that  the  distance  of  Mexico  from  the  coa>t 
rendered  the  visit  of  the  Spaniards  to  his  court  impracticable,  and 
his  advice  or  wish  that  they  should  therefore  return  to  their  own 
country  without  delay;  while  he  most  effectually  counteracted 
this  advice  by  a  pre.^ent,  the  value  of  which  exceeded  the  wildest 
idea  that  had  yet  been  formed  by  them  of  his  wealth  :  gorgeous 
specimens  of  featherwork,  robes  of  cotton,  fine  as  silk,  and  ex- 
quisitely dyed,  helmets  and  cuirasses  of  pure  gold,  and  plates  of 
gold  and  silver  as  large  as  cariiage  wheels,  and  wrought  with  a 
delicacy  of  workmanship  that  no  Spanish  goldsmith  could  equal. 
One  single  piece  of  plate  was  afterwards  valued  at  50,000 
guineas;  and  Cortez  only  spoke  the  most  literal  truth  when  in 
reply  he  assured  the  ambassadors,  that  the  Emperor's  munificence 
only  made  him  the  more  desirous  to  be  admitted  to  a  personal 
interview  with  him.  •<^ 

His  commission  from  Velasquez  had  not  contemplated  an  inland 
expedition  of  such  a  magnitude;  but  the  sight  of  the  Mexican /^ 
gold  had  had  the  same  efiect  on  his  followers  as  on  himself.     A    **^*'*-'*^  •J 
march  of  200  miles  seemed  but  a  slight  labour  when  it  was  to  be  ^-•-••-^ 
recompensed  by  riches  such  as  were   contained  in  the  Mexican 
capital ;  and,  leaving  a  small  force  behind  him  to  lay  the  founda- 
tion of  a  permanent  settlement,  and  of  a  city  to  which  he  gave  -y  "/*-•— 
the  name  of  the  Villa  rica  de  Vera  Cruz,  he  at  once  marched  with  ^J  o^ 
the  main  body  on  the  road  to  Mexico.     It  was  a  most  opportune 
moment  at  which  he  reached  the  first  city  which  lay  on  his  line 
of  march,  Cempoalla,  the  capital  of  the  Totonacs,  a  people  who 
were  vassals  and  tributaries  cf  the  sovereign  of  Mexico.     They  ^H^tJ^,  ^ 
regarded  Montezuma  with  a  mixture  of  hatred  and  fear ;  but  they  ^^^^^    ^ 
had  also  heard  of  the  victory  gained  by  Cortez  at  Tabasco,  and  ^^  *^ 
were  half  inclined  to  trust  in  his  promise  to  relieve  them  from 
Mexican  tyranny,  when,  while  they  were  hesitating,  they  were  (JXCX>.*^ 


36  MODEEN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1519. 

compelled  to  an  instant  decision  by  the  arrival  of  a  body  of  Aztec 
or  Mexican  nobles,  who  came  to  receive  the  yearly  tribute. 
Cortez  urged  them  to  refuse  the  money,  and  to  throw  the  col- 
lectors into  prison.  His  influence  overruled  even  their  long- 
standing awe  of  their  great  neighbour.  The  Mexicans  were  , 
arrested;  and  at  night,  with  a  singular  refinement  of  artifice, 
Cortez  himself  released  them,  and  bade  them  return  to  their  master 
with  assurances  of  his  own  undiminished  friendliness ;  while  the 
Cempoallans,  feeling  that,  after  the  insult  which  they, had  ofi'ered 
to  Montezuma  in  the  person  of  his  ambassadors,  they  had  no 
resource  but  to  rely  on  the  protection  of  the  Spaniards,  at  once 
took  the  oaths  of  allegiance  to  the  King  of  Spain. 

It  was  not  so  easy  to  induce  them  to  embrace  his  religion,  yet 
even  this  too  was  efi^ected.  The  general's  enthusiasm  for  the  work 
of  conversion  was  so  sincere  as  to  be  irrepressible.  The  supersti- 
tion of  the  natives  of  every  part  of  the  continent  was  shocking  to 
his  mind,  since  the  victims  which  they  offered  to  their  gods  were 
prisoners  taken  in  war,  whose  bodies  afterwards  formed  the  chief 

dainties  of  their  religious  feasts.   And,  when  remonstrances  against 

fJ^  ><  -  such  horrors  proved  of  no  avail,  Cortez  made  no  scruple  of  employ- 
^^^  ing  force  to  terminate  them.      He  sent  one  body  of  soldiers  to 


^  ^J^  occupy  the  chief  temple ;  another  to  seize  the  cacique  (as  the 
of^'^rA^f^x*^  ^^rinces  in  that  country  were  called),  and  the  priests,  who  with 
frantic  clamours  were  summoning  the  citizens  to  protect  their 
gods ;  and  when  he  had  thus  terrified  all  into  inaction,  his  men 
tore  the  huge  idols  from  their  pedestals,  hurled  them  down  the 
steps,  and  burnt  them  in  the  open  square  of  the  city.  Rash  as 
such  an  attack,  by  a  few  hundred  men,  on  the  religion  of  a  nation 
seemed,  it  was  effective.  The  Totonacs,  when  they  saw  that  their 
gods  could  neither  protect  nor  avenge  themselves,  ceased  to  re- 
verence them,  and  now  willingly  consented  to  the  substitution  of 
the  Cross  for  deities  so  helpless,  and  to  receive  baptism. 

Assured  by  this  great  success  of  future  good  fortune,  Cortez 

became  more  eager  than  ever  to  advance  without  delay;  but  before 

_      doing  so,  lie  won  the  consent  of  his  followers  to  two  measures, 

^  \UAAji^  which  show  riiore  strikingly  than  any  other  events  in  his  histoTy 

the  extraordinary  power  Avhich  he  possessed  over  the  minds  of  all 

witji  whom  he  came  in  contact.     As  yet  his  entei-prise  was  only 

known  in  Spain  as  an  expedition  sent  out  by  Velasquez.     Even 

t^  .  Y^ft^  before  ho  quitted  Cuba  that   officer  had  ah-eady  shown  signs  of 

fjj^^_^^  _      regarding  him  with  jealousy ;  and  Cortez  was  not  without  fears, 

which  were  justified  by  subsequent  occurrences,  that  he  might 

^^  "*  endeavour  to  supersede  him.     He  resolved  therefore  to  report  his 

proceedings  directly  to  Charles  V.  himself;  and,  in  order  to  impress 

him  the  more  strongly  with  the  importance  of  what  had  been 


L.T).  1519.]  COETEZ  DESTROYS  HIS  FLEET.  37 

achieved,  and  to  obtain  from  him  independent  authority  for  the 
future,  he  proposed  to  his  followers  to  surrender  the  whole  of  their 
share  of  the  treasures  already  acquired,  in  order  to  send  his  royal 
master  a  present  worthy  of  the  crown.  Covetous  as  they  were  of 
gold,  they  all  cheerfully  consented  ;  and  a  day  or  two  afterwards, 
as,  notwithstanding  this  apparent  unanimity,  he  learnt  on  unde-^  ALu.  Jl^ 
niable  evidence  that  there  were  some  among  them  who,    either  1*^-'^ 

from  innate  discontent  or  from  a  desire  to  court  Velasquez,  were  (C  iu>-**^ 
preparing  to  seize  a  ship  and  desert,  he  first  dismantled  the  fleet,  tftn>».'T"-*- 
bringing  on  shore  their  guns,  sails,  and  cordage,  which  afterwards 
proved  of  the  greatest  utility  to  him,  and  then  sank  every  ship 
but  one.  For  a  moment  the  soldiers  were  highly  indignant.  They 
whose  plans  had  been  baffled  easily  roused  the  suspicions  and 
fears  of  their  comrades,  as  if  they  were  now  entrapped  into  an 
attempt  in  which  success  was  almost  hopeless,  and  from  which 
escape  was  impossible.  But  their  plausible  murmurs  were  dissi- 
pated by  the  presence  of  mind  and  eloquence  of  Cortez.  lie 
pointed  out  that,  as  far  as  the  value  of  the  ships  went,  he  was 
the  chief  loser,  since  most  of  them  had  belonged  to  him- 
self; that  their  destruction  must  greatly  conduce  to  the  success 
of  their  enterprise,  by  enabling  the  crews,  a  hundred  vigorous 
warriors,  to  join  the  army;  and,  keeping  the  most  magna- 
nimous and  eff'ective  argument  for  the  last,  that  it  was  beneath 
brave  men  like  them,  Spaniards  and  victorious,  to  think  of  with- 
drawing from  such  a  career  of  triumph.  If  any  were  so  base  as  to 
wish  to  return,  they  might  depart  in  the  vessel  which  was  still 
left ;  he  himself  would  persevere  while  a  single  soldier  remained 
faithful  to  his  standard.  He  had  touched  the  right  chord.  Even  . 
of  those  who  had  previously  been  discontented,  not  a  man  deserted 
him.  One  general  shout,  '  To  Mexico ! '  rose  from  the  whole  army. 
With  the  consent  of  all,  the  remaining  vessel  was  sent  to  join  her 
consorts  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea,  and  the  whole  army  marched 
forward,  with  a  full  confidence  in  its  own  invincibility. 

They  came  to  more  than  one  great  city  on  their  march,  gather- 
ing continual  indications  of  the  might  of  Montezuma  from  the 
universal  terror  with  which  his  name  was  regarded,  and  receiving 
more  than  one  embassy  from  the  prince  himself.  When  two- 
thirds  of  the  distance  were  accomplished,  they  found  themselves 
near  Tlascala,  a  state  known  to  them  by  report  as  of  great  power 
in  war,  and  implacably  hostile  to  Mexico ;  but  when  Cortez,  in 
reliance  on  the  latter  circumstance,  endeavoured  to  open  a  friendly 
communication  with  the  chiefs,  he  found  that  the  frequent  in- 
terchange of  courtesies  between  him  and  Montezuma  had  bred 
suspicion  in  their  minds.  At  last  they  rejected  his  advances, 
determined  to  refuse  him  admittance  to  their  city,  and  to  oppose 


38  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1519. 

his  further  progress  by  force;  and  it  was  not  without  a  series  of 
fierce  battles,  in  which  he  was  more  than  once  on  the  brink  of 
defeat,  when  defeat  would  have  been  destruction,  that  he  was 
able  to  bring  them  to  terms.  But  though  thus  subdued  them- 
selves, they  still  questioned  the  power  of  the  Spaniards  to  cope 
with  Moutezunja,  and  warned  Cortez  as  eagerly  against  his 
treachery  as  against  his  open  enmity.  The  latter  imputation  was 
soon  found  to  be  too  well-founded ;  halfway  between  Tlascala 
and  Mexico  lay  Cholula,  the  holy  city  of  the  Mexicans,  where, 
according  to  tradition,  their  god  Quetzalcoatl  had  dwelt  for 
twenty  years  to  teach  the  citizens  the  arts  of  civilisation.  In 
his  honour  a  vast  pyramid,  four  times  as  large  as  the  greatest 
of  the  similar  structures  in  Egypt,  was  raised  in  the  middle  of 
the  city,  surrounded  by  temples  that  could  only  be  counted  by 
the  hundred ;  and  the  fame  of  the  city  was  so  great  that,  though 
it  was  out  of  his  line  of  march,  Cortez  decided  in  turning  to  visit 
it.  His  delay  seemed  to  offer  to  Montezuma  his  last  chance. 
By  a  fresh  embassy,  nominally  sent  to  the  Spanish  general,  but 
really  to  the  Cholulan  priests  and  nobles,  he  organised  a  plot 
to  destroy  the  whole  Spanish  army ;  but  it  was  revealed  to  the 
Mexican  Marina,  and  by  her  to  Cortez  :  and  he  determined  to 
l^-v-t>jLw^»  take  a  vengeance,  w4iich,  considering  his  critical  position,  it  is 
I       '  'hard  to  pronounce  nnjustifiable,  and  which  was  calculated  to  make 

^'•"^**'*-*-  '  the  boldest  pause  before  they  con'=?pired  against  a  leader  whose 
vigilance  could  not  be  eluded  and  who  could  take  so  fearful  a 
revenge.  He  seized  the  cacique,  the  nobles,  and  the  priests,  who 
sought  to  excuse  themselves  by  imputing  the  whole  contrivance 
to  Montezuma;  his  soldiers,  whose  guns  were  ready  loaded, 
slaughtered  them  all  with  the  forces  that  it  had  been  intended 
to  employ  for  their  own  destruction.  And  then  once  more  Cortez 
pressed  forward,  having  now  a  fair  plea,  if  he  should  need  one, 
for  treating  Montezuma  himself  with  whatever  severity  he  might 
think  safe  or  politic  to  exercise. 

But  Montezuma  was  not  disposed  again  to  provoke  the  wrath 
of  Cortez.  The  defeat  of  the  Tlascalans,  the  most  warlike  of  his 
neighbours,  had  convinced  him  that  force  was  of  no  avail ;  the 
detection  and  chastisement  of  the  Cholulaus  had  proved  that 
cunning  was  equally  vain  against  an  enemy  who  could  both  fight 
and  watch.  He  tried,  indeed,  to  bribe  him  to  retire,  by  the  offer 
of  four  loads  of  gold  for  himself,  one  load  for  each  of  his  captains, 
GrU^  and  a  proportionate  yearly  tribute  to  the  king,  if  he  would  consent 
to  return  at  once  to  Spain ;  but  when  the  embassy,  commissioned 
to  make  these  offers,  reached  the  camp,  the  soldiers  had  already 
beheld  Mexico  itself  from  the  hills,  and  even  Cortez  might  have 
found  his  influence  powerless  to  induce  them  to  content  them- 


^ 


A.D.  1519.]  APPEARANCE  OF  MEXICO.  39 

selves  with  the  hare  sight  of  a  city  which,  to  men  worn  with  &^    -^^ /^ 

toilsome  march   and  many  a  stern  conflict,   seemed  not  merely  t^l 

a  treasure-house  of  wealth,  but  a  haven  of  rest  and  luxury.  For  ^t;- 
from  the  hills  which  they  had  how  reached,  Mexico  presented  a 
spectacle  of  unsurpassable  beauty.  Stately  woods  in  which  oaks, 
cedar,  and  cypresses  grew  to  a  size  unknown  in  our  colder  climate, 
varied  with  orchards,  meadows,  and  gardens  of  many  coloured 
flowers,  which,  as  indispensable  ornaments  of  their  frequent 
religious  festivals,  were  an  object  of  national  care,  fringed  the 
brightly  blue  waters  of  a  series  of  lakes;  in  the  largest  of  which,  on 
an  island  on  its  western  side,  rose  the  stately  palaces  and  pyramidal 
temples,  grand  from  their  mere  magnitude,  of  the  city  of  Mexico. 
So  brightly  did  the  walls  glisten,  that  to  the  excited  imaginations 
of  the  Spaniards  they  seemed  coated  with  burnished  silver ;  the 
sight,  whetting  their  appetite  for  riches,  makes  them  overlook  all 
the  difliculties  which  might  interpose  to  their  rendering  them- 
selves masters  of  so  tempting  a  prize.  And  when  presently 
another  embassy  arrived  from  Montezuma,  who,  thinking  resist- 
ance no  longer  practicable  now  that  they  were  at  his  gates, 
desired  to  propitiate  them  by  the  cordiality  of  his  reception,  and 
sent  his  own  nephew,  the  lord  of  the  neighbouring  city  of  Tezcuco, 
to  bid  them  welcome  to  his  capital,  they  thought  their  labours 
terminated,  and  with  hearts  in  which  not  one  feeling  of  doubt, 
much  less  of  fear,  remained,  they  joyfully  pressed  forward.  Yet 
to  men  less  accustomed  to  trample  on  danger,  the  position  and 
greatness  of  the  city  might  well  have  suggested  misgivings.  The 
island  on  which  it  stood  could  only  be  reached  by  two  or  three 
narrow  causeways,  and  drawbridges,  as  suitable  to  cut  off"  retreat 
as  to  bar  approach  ;  and  the  population  of  the  city  was  estimated 
by  none  of  them  at  less  than  300,000,  and  probably  far  exceeded 
that  number.  While  Cortez,  who  had  lost  many  of  his  bravest 
soldiers  in  the  battles  with  the  Tlascalans,  had  with  him 
.  scarcely  more  than  350  Spaniards,  of  whom  only  15  were  cavalry, 
and  about  6,000  native  allies.  But  Montezuma  meditated  no 
treacheiy.  His  religious  feelings  ensured  his  submission,  for  he 
was  now  convinced  that  the  Spaniards  were  the  foreigners  whose 
arrival  had  been  prophesied,  and  consequently  that  to  resist  their 
supremacy  would  be  to  fight  against  his  Gods.  And  had  not 
circumstances  consequently  compelled  Cortez  to  leave  the  com- 
mand for  a  while  to  subordinate  officers  of  less  judgment  and 
temper,  and  of  inferior  authority  over  his  followers,  it  seems  pro- 
bable that  the  fierce  struggles  and  grievous  bloodshed  which 
subsequently  ensued  would  have  been  avoided,  and  that  the 
dominion  of  the  Spaniards  over  the  land  would  have  been 
established  without  the  striking  of  a  single  blow.     In  princely 


40 


MODERN  HISTOEY. 


[a.d.  1519. 


state  Montezuma  came  beyond  his  gates  to  meet  Cortez,  allotted 
him  a  palace  Tor  his  residence,  bestowed  presents  not  only  on  his 
chief  officers,  but  on  everyone  of  his  followers,  and  even  on  his 
Tlascalan  allies,  so  long  the  objects  of  national  hatred  to  the 
Mexicans,  and  acknowledged  that  the  king  beyond  the  waters, 
the  Spaniards'  King,  was  the  lawful  lord  of  all,  and  that  he  him- 
.        I  self  only  ruled  in  his  name.  Th^  only_interruption  to_theharmony 

/  ^'V^s^iA*  that  for  a  time  seemed  to  be  established  between  tliem  was 
caused  by  the  indiscretion  of  the  general's  religious  zeal,  the  only 
feeling  that  ever  overpowered  his  prudence,  In  his  eagerness  to 
convert  the  Emperor  and  all  his  subjects,  he  allowed  himself  to 
stigmatise  the  Mexican  Gods  as  agents  of  the  devil ;  and  Monte- 
zuma, greatly  shocked  at  the  insult,  repented  that  he  had  shown 
their  temples  and  their  images  to  men  capable  of  treating  them 
with  such  irreverence.  Yet  Cortez  was  not  entirely  at  his  ease ; 
the  necessity  of  constant  vigilance  which  the  leader  of  such  a 
mere  handful  of  men  placed  among  such  a  host  of  strangers  could 
not  be  permitted  to  forget  for  a  moment,  inevitably  in  its  turn 
^/9^  ^fostered  the  suspicions  which  dictated  it.  Even  were  Montezuma 
/S^^j  himself  sincere  and  unchangeable,  his  subjects  might  be  animated 
with  very  different  feelings  ;  and  a  week  or  two  after  he  had  taken 


'•-hw^i^/KjJ^ 


band  which  he  had  left  behind  at  Vera  Cruz  had  been  entrapped 
and  murdered  by  an  Aztec  noble,  who  afterwards  affirmed  that  his 
act  had  been  suggested  by  the  Emperor.  Cortez  probably  doubted 
the  truth  of  the  excuse;  but  he  could  hardly  feel  sure  that 
Montezuma's  friendly  disposition  might  not  change,  and  that  a 
similar  plea  might  not  become  true  hereafter;  and,  to  guard 
against  the  consequences  of  such  possible  fickleness,  he  conceived 
the  extraordinary  idea  of  getting  Montezuma  altogether  into  his 
power  by  making  him' take  up  his  abode  in  his  own  quarfe]*s,  as  a 
voluntary  guest  if  possible,  as  a  prisoner  if  he  would  not  come 
willingly ;  and  so  entire  was  the  ascendency  which  he  had 
established  over  him,  that  though,  when  the  proposal  was  first 
made  to  him,  Montezuma  expressed  the  greatest  indignation,  and 
subsequently  a  not  unnatural  alarm,  he  finally  yielded  to  the 
Spaniard's  pertinacity  and  assurances  of  the  most  respectful 
treatment,  and,  while  not  concealing  his  feeling  that  he  was  guilty 
of  a  degrading  submission,  he  accompanied  Cortez  to  his  palace. 

But  the  respect  which  he  was  promised,  and  which  was  shown 
him  for  a  day  or  two,  did  not  last  long.  He  had  been  compelled 
to  summon  to  his  presence  the  noble  who  had  killed  the  Spaniards 
at  Vera  Cruz ;  and  as  that  chief,  when  sentenced  to  be  burnt  alive 
for  his  crime,  persisted  in  affirming  that  he  had  but  obeyed  Monte- 
zuma's orders,  Cortez  put  the  monarch  himself  in  irons,  though 


A.D.  1620.]  SUBMISSION   OF  MONTEZUMA.  41 

after  the  execution  was  over,  lie  removed  the  fetters  with  his  own 
hands,  and  condescended  to  apologise  for  the  measure,  as  one  to 
which  he  had  been  most  unwillingly  compelled.  Audacious  as 
the  act  had  been,  and  hardly  to  be  justified  if  the  release,  which 
followed  so  quickly,  was  compatible  with  prudence,  it  is  neverthe- 
less not  inconsistent  with  the  sagacity  and  judgment  which  we 
have  described  as  regulating  Cortez's  proceedings,  for  it  entirely 
completed  Montezuma's  subjection  and  that  of  his  nobles  also,  whom, 
for  different  reasons,  it  had  reduced  to  a  consciousness  of  utter 
dependence  on  his  will.  The  Emperor  could  not  even  venture  to 
avail  himself  of  his  permission  to  return  to  his  own  palace,  fearing 
that  his  own  .nobles  must  regard  him  with  diminished  respect 
since  he  had  been  subjected  to  such  insult.  The  nobles,  solicitous  ^^-^  p*^ 
for  his  safety,  dared  take  no  step  of  hostility  against  one  who  had     f  t 

given   them  such   proof  at  once  of  his  power  and  of  his  iin-,«i^./^^rt.«.  n 
scrupulousness.     And  after  a  few  days  both  Emperor  and  noble^<Y.  "     w. 
took  formal  oaths  of  allegiance   to  the  Spanish  sovereign,  and  ***'**-% 
Montezuma  sent  him  a  further  present  of  gold  jewels  and  costly  ^ 

fabrics,  such  as,  in  the  opinion  of  Cortez  himself,  no  court  in 
Europe  had  yet  beheld,  and  no  artists  could  imitate.  It  was  a 
still  gTeater  proof  of  Cortez's  influence  over  him  that  he  even  con- 
sented to  allow  the  Spaniards  to  convert  one  of  the  temples  into  a 
place  of  Christian  worship,  and  to  erect  in  it  an  altar  and  a  crucifix: 
though  this  profanation  of  these  holy  places  roused  among  the 
citizens  a  feeling  of  indignation  and  rage  stronger  than  that  which 
had  been  provoked  by  the  treatment  of  the  Emperor  himself ;  and 
very  shortly  afterwards  the  priests  were  understood  to  be  exciting 
them  to  a  general  insurrection,  which,  as  Montezuma  assured 
Cortez,  he  doubted  his  having"  now  authority  to  prevent ;  and, 
while  the  whole  city  was  thus  agitated,  and  Cortez  himself  in  great 
perplexity,  his  embarrassment  was  crowned  by  tidings  from  the 
coast  that  a  powerful  Spanish  squadron  had  arrived  off  Vera 
Cruz,  which  he  had  little  doubt  had  been  sent  by  Velasquez  to 
supersede  him. 

It  was  in  such  moments  that  the  promptitude  of  decision,  the 
energy,  and  irresistible  influence  over  all  around  him  exercised  by 
Cortez,  showed  themselves  to  the  most  conspicuous  advantage. 
Me  contrived  to  quiet  Montezuma's  fears  of  his  own  people  ;  and, 
atmouncing  to  him  that  a  body  of  his  own  countrymen,  Spaniards,  ^ 
who,  however,  were  traitors  to  their  king,  had  landed  at  Vera  Cruz,  ^^*^  $A^ 
and  that  it  was  necessary  that  he  should  march  in  person  against  iA^'NT  c^,^ ' 
them,  he  appointed  one  of  his  officers,  named  Alvarado,  to  govern 
in  his  absence,  exacted  from  Montezuma  a  promise  of  continued 
friendliness  towards  his  lieutenant,  and   then,  with  fewer  than 
100  men,  marched  unhesitatingly  against  ten  times  that  number 


i2  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1520. 

of  his  own  countrymen,  far  better  furnished  with  the  means  of 
warfare  than  he  and  his  followers  could  be  after  so  long  an  absence 
from  him.  For  he  was  right  in  his  conjecture.  Velasquez  had 
sent  a  fleet  of  eighteen  ships,  with  900  men,  of  whom  80  were 
cavalry,  under  the  command  of  Narvaez,  an  officer  of  proved 
courage,  but,  as  was  soon  seen,  of  but  little  judgment,  to  take 
upon  himself  the  supreme  authority,  and  Narvaez  showed  an  in- 
clination to  exceed  his  commission,  openly  avowing  his  intention 
to  arrest  Cortez  as  a  traitor,  and  send  him  back  to  Spain  as  a 
prisoner.  Cortez  would  willingly  have  avoided  a  contest  with 
him  ;  but,  while  seeking  to  avert  the  necessity  of  one,  took  steps  to 
render  himself  equal  to  his  adversary  should  a  conflict  become 
inevitable.  He  addressed  a  conciliatory  letter  to  Narvaez  himself, 
inviting  him  to  a  friendly  co-operation ;  and  at  the  same  time  he 
wrote  to  some  of  his  personal  friends  who  made  part  of  Narvaez's 
force,  and  sent  Olmedo,  the  sagacious  priest,  whose  influence  he 
had  himself  acknowledged  on  more  than  one  occasion,  as  an  agent 
to  tamper  w-ith  the  soldiers  themselves.  They  were  sufficiently 
inclined  to  listen  to  him,  for  he  was  not  unprovided  with  gold 
with  which  to  strengthen  his  arguments  ;  and  his  description  of 
Cortez's  munificent  spirit,  joined  to  the  proof  which  they  received 
of  his  ability  to  indulge  it,  so  wrought  upon  them,  that  few  had 
any  real  inclination  to  oppose  a  leader  from  whom  it  was  evident 
that  more  might  be  expected  than  from  their  own  chief.  Cortez 
hastened  on  to  profit  by  their  indecision  before  they  had  time  to 
recover  it.  He  picked  up  a  garrison  which  he  had  left  at  Cholula, 
and  was  joined  by  the  ablest  of  all  his  officers,  Sandoval,  whom 
he  had  left  in  command  at  Vera  Cruz  ;  but  still  he  could  muster 
little  more  than  250  men,  with  whom  it  seemed  madness  to  attack 
900,  if  the  900  were  in  truth  resolved  to  fight.  But  he  was  aided 
by  his  very  weakness.  Narvaez  was  so  confident  in  his  strength 
that  he  kept  but  careless  watch.  Cortez  surprised  him  by  a  night 
attack  5  and,  after  a  conflict  of  more  noise  than  bloodshed,  for  the 
whole  number  of  the  slain  on  both  sides  amounted  to  only  eighteen, 
Narvaez,  who  had  received  a  severe  wound,  was  taken  prisoner, 
and  his  army  gladly  ranged  itself  under  the  banner  of  his  con- 
queror. 

He  returned  with  all  speed  to  Mexico,  where  his  presence  was 
urgently  needed  by  those  whom  he  had  left  behind  him.    Alvarado 
I  had  treated  the  Mexicans,  including  Montezuma,  with  a  general 

^'^  4  insolence  which  Cortez  had  never  shown,  but  on  rare  occasions 
^^1? '  and  with  deliberate  de.sign.  They  had  risen  in  arms ;  had  attacked 
'***  him  ;  had  slain  several  of  his  men ;  and  Cortez  had  hardly  com- 
SiA  Ii4r  ^  V^^^^^  *^®  incorporation  of  Narvaez's  soldiers  with  his  own,  when 
^P  he  received  despatches  from  his  lieutenant  in  Mexico,  urging  his 


A.B.  152  J  REVOLT   OF  THE  MEXICANS.  43 

instant  return  if  he  would  maintain  his  hold  on  the  city.  lie  hastened 
back  by  forced  marches;  his  force  so  augmented  by  the  new 
comers  that  it  amounted  to  1,250  Spaniards,  besides  his  Tlascalan 
allies;  but  the  difficulties  which  he  had  now  to  confront  were 
augmented  in  a  degree  infinitely  greater  than  was  the  force  with 
which  he  had  to  surmount  them.  He  had  returned  to  a  war  from 
which  there  was  to  be  no  respite.  Montezuma  himself  was  still 
friendly,  but  the  Mexicans  were  irreconcilably  exasperated,  and 
had  learned  their  strength.  They  were  only  rendered  fiercer  by 
the  knowledge  that  Cortez  was  again  among  them.  They  attacked 
him  in  his  quarters,  the  vanguard  coming  up  even  to  the  muzzles 
of  his  guns,  while  those  in  the  rear  plied  their  bows  and  slings, 
with  which  they  were  very  dexterous,  with  fatal  effect,  inflicting 
a  severe  wound  on  Montezuma  himself,  when  he  came  to  the 
front  and,  in  a  mixture  of  entreaty  and  command,  sought  to  per- 
suade them  to  desist  from  hostilities.  It  was  plain  that  no  hope 
remained  to  the  Spaniards  but  in  their  own  valour,  and  neither  in 
that  nor  in  skill  was  Cortez  wanting  to  them.  The  greatest  of  the 
Mexican  temples  was  close  to  their  quarters,  and  as  it  was  ascended 
by  steps  and  terraces  from  the  outside,  every  terrace  afforded  a 
position  from  which  the  enemy  could  assail  him  with  missiles. 
Leading  the  assault  in  person,  he  stormed  the  temple,  penetrated 
into  the  inmost  shrine,  while  the  priests  ran  wildly  to  and  fro, 
their  long  dishevelled  hair  streaming  over  their  black  mantles, 
calling  loudly  on  their  gods  to  protect  themselves  and  chastise 
their  sacrilegious  invaders ;  he  threw  down  the  altars,  on  which 
those  ,of  his  own  countrymen,  who  had  been  captured  in  the 
warfare  with  Alvarado,  had  been  ruthlessly  sacrificed  ;  hurled 
down  the  image  of  Huitzilo-potchli,  the  tutelar  deity  of  the  city, 
and  cleared  the  space  around  by  setting  fire  to  the  houses  between 
the  temple  and  his  palace.  But  the  Mexicans  were  not  dismayed 
by  his  prowess.  They  had  learned  the  power  of  numbers,  and  that 
they  could  more  easily  replace  a  hundred  men  than  the  strangers 
could  afford  to  lose  one ;  and  day  after  day  they  continued  the 
conflict,  wearing  out  the  Spaniards  with  incessant  toil,  even  though 
once  more  St.  Jago  was  seen  fighting  in  their  ranks,  accompanied 
by  a  lady  robed  in  white,  who,  it  would  have  been  impiety  to 
doubt,  was  the  Virgin  herself.  It  added  to  their  troubles  that 
Montezuma  died  of  his  wound,  for  while  he  lived,  his  position  in 
their  hands  damped  the  ardour  of  many  of  his  subjects,  who  felt 
that  enmity  to  the  Spaniards  was  disloyalty  to  himself ;  and  so 
strongly  did  Cortez  feel  the  difference  which  his  death  made  in 
their  situation,  that  he  at  once  resolved  to  evacuate  the  city. 

But  the  Mexicans  were  by  no  means  inclined  to  permit  him  to 
withdraw  unmolested.     They  foresaw  that  in  that  case  nothing 


44  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1520. 

could  prevent  his  return  with  recruited  force  but  his  destruction ; 
while  they  conceived  that  now  they  had  him  wholly  in  their 
power.  There  was  but  one  narrow  causeway  across  the  lake  by 
which  the  whole  army  must  retreat,  and  that  was  vigilantly 
watched  by  sentinels,  blocked  at  the  end  by  a  strong  force,  and 
beset  on  both  sides  by  thousands  of  canoes  full  of  armed  men,  and 
at  the  edge,  where  the  water  was  shallow  enough  to  afford  a 
foothold,  by  battalions  densely  ranged  along  its  entire  length.  It 
was  at  midnight  on  the  first  of  July  1520,  less  than  eight  months 
after  his  triumphant  entry  into  the  city,  Cortez,  thinking  that  as  his 
path  to  the  mainland  was  short  and  clearly  marked  out,  darkness 
would  be  in  his  favour  rather  than  that  of  the  Mexicans,  led  his 
army,  with  as  little  noise  as  guns  and  horses  could  make,  down 
the  main  street  which  led  to  the  causeway.  The  citizens  slum- 
bered too  soundly  to  be  disturbed ;  but  the  sentinels  were  sleepless. 
The  moment  that  the  leading  files  of  the  invaders  emerged  from 
the  shadow  of  the  houses  they  gave  notice  of  their  approach,  shout- 
ing the  alarm,  and  running  off  in  every  direction  to  arouse  their 
chiefs ;  and  in  a  few  minutes  the  Spaniards  were  surrounded  on 
all  sides.  Never  did  men  fight  for  their  lives  with  more  dauntless 
heroism.  But  the  odds  were  overwhelming.  Those  who  could 
get  within  reach  of  them  attacked  them  with  swords  and  spears, 
those  who  were  farther  off  with  arrows  and  stones,  holding  their 
own  lives  as  valueless  if  a  score  of  them  could  strike  down  a  single 
Spaniard,  or,  what  they  coveted  still  more,  capture  him  as  a 
victim  to  be  offered  to  their  Gods.  Still  the  Spaniards  struggled 
forward  with  intrepid  gallantry  and  fortitude.  Cortez  himself 
outdid  his  former  deeds  of  prowess ;  and  at  last,  after  a  fearful 
conflict  of  some  hours'  duration,  Spanish  discipline  so  far  prevailed 
that  those  who  had  not  been  struck  down  forced  their  way  to  the 
mainland.  Happily  for  them,  the  booty  which  they  had  hoped 
•  to  carry  off,  and  which  now  lay  strewed  along  their  road,  diverted 
their  enemies  from  further  pursuit;  but  in  that  brief  struggle 
Cortez  had  lost  at  least  a  third  of  his  force,  both  Spanish  and 
native ;  and  the  memory  of  the  disaster  was  long  preserved  by  the 
title  *  noche  triste,^  the  melancholy  night,  with  which  his  country- 
men marked  its  anniversary  in  their  calendar. 

But  the  Mexicans  augured  truly  when  they  foreboded  that  if 
Cortez  should  escape  he  would  surely  return  to  attempt  anew 
their  subjection.  Their  new  king  Cuitlahuac  was  as  brave  as 
Montezuma,  and  had  no  tincture  of  the  respect  or  superstitious 
awe  with  which  that  prince  had  regarded  the  foreign  invaders  j 
and,  though  the  Spaniards  had  escaped  from  the  city  itself,  he 
resolved  to  prove  to  them  that  it  was  but  a  respite  thfit  they  liad 
gained.     There  was  more  thim  one  spot  between  Mexico  and  tho 


A.D.  1521.]  ^        ARRIVAL  OF  REINFORCEMENTS.  45 

coast  where  it  was  easy  to  intercept  them  and  take  tliem  at  a  dis- 
advantage ;  and  when  the  Spaniards  reached  the  valley  of  Otumba, 
a  few  days'  march  from  the  city,  they  found  it  occupied  by  a  force 
which,  to  their  excited,  I  will  not  say  despairing,  minds,  seemed 
to  amount  to  no  less  than  200,000  men.  Including  native  allies, 
their  own  number  did  not  exceed  5,000.  Yet  once  more  they 
triumphed.  Once  more,  as  they  believed,  St.  Jago  led  them  on; 
but  their  victory  was  really  owing,  as  before,  to  the  prowess  and 
unshaken  presence  of  mind  of  Cortez  himself.  So  overwhelming, 
whatever  may  have  been  its  real  numbers,  was  the  host  of  the 
infidels,  that  in  spite  of  their  utmost  efforts  the  Spaniards  were 
giving  way,  when  the  general  descried  at  a  distance  a  warrior, 
whom  the  splendour  of  his  equipment  pointed  'out  as  the  leader 
of  the  enemy.  Calling  a  body  of  picked  warriors  about  him,  he 
forced  his  way  to  the  encounter,  slew  him  in  single  combat,  and 
the  battle  was  over.  Seeing  their  chief  overthrown,  the  Mexicans 
fled,  and  the  Spaniards  were  too  much  exhausted  to  pursue. 

No  further  attempt  was  made  to  arrest  his  progress  ;  so  that  he 
had  soon  full  leisure  to  make  preparations  for  a  repetition  of  his 
attack  on  the  city  which  he  had  been  forced  to  leave.  And  he 
was  fortunate  enough  to  obtain  more  than  one  unexpected  reinforce- 
ment ;  as  different  Spanish  ships,  some  full  of  soldiers,  others 
loaded  with  arms,  ammunition,  and  supplies  of  different  kinds,  ^  '_. 
arrived  on  the  coast,  and,  with  whatever  purpose  they  had  come,  ^^  r^^ 
his  persuasive  tongue  and  unequalled  renown  won  over  all  their  /rvvcv,^ 
crews ;  and  thus  at  the  end  of  a  few  months  he  was  able  once 
more  to  take  the  field,  and  again  he  marched  upon  Mexico  at  the 
head  of  a  larger  army  than  had  followed  his  standard  on  his 
former  advance.  His  old  allies  the  Tlascalans  gladly  rejoined  him, 
as  did  many  other  tribes  hitherto  groaning  under  their  subjection 
to  Mexico,  but  now  convinced  that  the  Spaniards  were  the 
supernatural  strangers  who  were  to  enable  them  to  throw  off*  the 
yoke.  In  the  last  week  of  May  1521  he  once  more  came  in  sight  of 
the  city,  and  mustering  his  forces,  found  they  amounted  to  900 
Spaniards,  of  whom  87  were  mounted,  with  a  vast  army  of  Tlasca- 
lans and  other  native  allies,  at  least  70,000  strong ;  in  addition  to 
which,  he  had  provided  himself  with  the  means  of  obtaining  the 
mastery  of  the  lake,  having  caused  a  squadron  of  brigantines  to  be 
built  at  Tlascala,  which  were  now  taken  to  pieces,  carried  on  men's 
shoulders  twenty  leagues  across  the  mountains  (a  feat  on  which  he 
was  justified  in  priding  himself,  as  one  that  had  never  before  been 
even  conceived),  and  launched  at  the  other  end  of  the  lake. 

There  was  a  new  king  in  Mexico.  After  a  reign  of  four  months, 
Cuitlahuac  had  died  of  smallpox,  and  had  been  succeeded  by  his 
nephew  Guatemozin,  who  was  recommended  to  his  countrymen 


46  MODEKN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1521. 

not  more  by  his  royal  blood  than  by  hia  military  renown,  and  by 
the  inextinguishable  hatred  which  he  was  known  to  bear  to  the 
Spanish  name.  He  had  never  doubted  that  Cortez  would  return, 
and  had  devoted  every  moment  of  his  reign  to  the  collection  of 
the  entire  resources  of  the  empire  to  withstand  the  attack  which 
he  anticipated.  Cutting  off  the  heads  of  some  prisoners  who  had 
fallen  into  his  hands,  and  of  some  of  their  horses,  he  sent  both 
among  the  neighbouring  tribes,  inviting  all  to  join  him  in  expelling 
the  foreign  invader  from  the  land,  whom  he  thus  demonstrated  to 
be  neither  invulnerable  nor  invincible  ;  and  his  call  w^s  answered 
by  thousands  of  warriors,  who  flocked  from  all  quarters  to  his 
standard. 

But  Cortez  was  not  daunted  by  a  force  which  seemed  almost 
countless.  In  truth,  to  draw  back  would  have  been  impossible ;  and 
he  saw  too,  what  did  not  occur  to  the  barbarian,  that  on  the 
causeway  itself,  which,  as  leading  to  the  city,  must  be  the  object 
of  the  first  assault,  no  superiority  of  numbers  could  much  avail  the 
citizens.  He  even  conceived  that  it  might  be  turned  against  them 
by  the  difficulty  which  must  arise  from  supplying  such  a  multi- 
tude :  and  with  this  view  he  cut  off  the  aqueduct  which  supplied 
the  city  with  water ;  posted  a  strong  brigade  at  the  entrance  to 
the  other  two  causeways,  to  intercept  all  communication  wath  the 
rural  districts ;  and  then,  having  made  these  preparations,  he  led 
his  main  body  again  to  force  their  way  into  the  cit}^  by  the  third, 
the  shortest,  the  same  which  had  been  the  scene  of  the  disasters 
of  the  '■noche  tristeJ  The  command  of  the  land  force  he  confided 
to  Sandoval,  while  he  himself  directed  the  operations  of  hia 
brigantines ;  and  the  havoc  which  they  made  among  the  light 
canoes  of  the  Mexicans  fully  answered  his  expectations.  After  a 
stubborn  and  murderous  conflict,  the  Mexicans  retired  into  the  city, 
and  left  him  master  of  the  outskirts;  but,  though  beaten,  they 
were  not  dismayed.  One  of  their  priests  had  prophesied  that 
within  eight  days  the  Gods  would  deliver  their  enemies  into  tlieir 
hands ;  and,  trusting  in  this  assurance,  day  after  day  they  renewed 
the  fight.  Cortez  captured  and  burnt  the  Emperor's  palace ;  they 
fought  on  with  unabated  ardour  to  save  other  buildings  from  the 
same  fate.  He  stormed  their  strongest  temple,  and,  as  before, 
cast  their  Gods  down  headlong  into  the  square  beneath  ;  the  duty 
of  avenging  such  sacrilege  seemed  to  have  added  vigour  to  their 
resistance.  Once  they  had  well  nigh  gained  the  victory,  when  it 
was  wrested  from  them  b}'-  a  furious  charge  of  cavalry,  led  on  by 
Cortez  himself,  who  at  every  crisis  was  the  foremost  in  the  con- 
flict. They  had  recourse  to  stratagem :  digging  deep  trenches 
across  their  streets,  and  retiring  before  their  assailants,  so  as  to 
decoy  them  into  spots  from  which  retreat  was  nearly  cut  offj 


K.IK  1521. J  CAPTURE   OF  GUATEMOZIN.  47 

and  on  one  occasion  they  almost  succeeded  in  obtaining  an  advan- 
tage which  must  have  been  decisive  of  the  war,  they  nearly 
captured  the  general  himself.  Cortez  well  knew  that  every 
prisoner  whom  they  could  seize  was  sacrificed  to  their  Gods,  and, 
regardless  as  usual  of  his  own  safety,  was  dashing  among  their 
masses  to  rescue  some  of  his  comrades,  when  six  of  the  bravest 
Mexicans,  concentrating  their  efforts  on  his  capture,  rushed  on  him 
at  once,  and  began  to  drag  him  off.  One  gave  him  a  wound  so 
severe  as  almost  to  disable  him,  and  his  fate  seemed  inevitable, 
when  his  danger  was  perceived  by  some  of  his  officers  and  by  one 
Tlascalan  noble,  as  zealous  for  his  safety  and  as  faithful  as  any 
Spaniard.  Beneath  their  weapons  the  six  devoted  Mexicans 
perished,  and  Cortez  was  saved.  But  on  that  terrible  day  he  not 
only  sustained  a  heavy  loss  of  killed  and  wounded,  but  had  the 
mortification  of  leaving  two  of  his  heavy  guns  as  prizes  for  the 
victors,  and^  what  was  infinitely  more  grievous,  sixty-two  of  his 
comrades  as  prisoners ;  who,  as  his  own  eyes  could  see,  were  led 
up  to  the  summits  of  the  temples,  and  immolated  on  the  accursed 
altar  of  sacrifice.  .^ 

He  now  determined,  as  he  worked  his  way  slowly  forward,  to  j^/V-vaa-^V*^ 
destroy  the  city  along  his  line  of  march,  that  no  house  might       ,; '    - 


Co^i^^ 


afibrd  a  shelter  to  a  single  enemy.    Street  after  street  was  levelled 
with  the  ground ;  yet  Guatemozin's  spirits  were  unbroken,  and  to  jlr    f^CLc 
every  summons  to  surrender  he  returned  answers  breathing  nothing  v^ 

but  defiance.  The  blockade  of  the  other  causeways  was  rigorous 
and  efi'ectual ;  and  soon  famine  was  added  to  the  sufiferings  of  the 
citizens ;  till,  though  the  courage  of  the  citizens  failed  not,  their 
strength  began  to  decay.  At  last,  when  the  siege  had  lasted 
nearly  three  months,  of  incessant  combat,  Cortez  led  on  his  men  to 
what  proved  the  final  assault.  He  was  so  confident  of  success, 
that  he  disposed  a  part  of  his  squadron  at  the  point  of  the  lake 
nearest  to  the  scene  of  action  to  intercept  the  flight  of  the  Emperor ; 
and  his  expectations  were  realised.  There  had  been  no  fiercer 
combat,  nor  any  more  fearful  slaughter  ;  though,  secure  of  victory, 
Cortez  had  given  the  most  express  directions  that  all  who  sub- 
mitted should  receive  quarter.  At  last  victory  declared  for  the 
Christians.  A  canoe,  in  which,  as  he  had  expected,  Guatemozin 
was  seeking  to  escape  to  the  mainland,  was  pursued  and  captured ; 
and  the  Spanish  general  was  master  of  the  great  prize  for  which 
he  had  toiled  with  such  heroic  perseverance. 

He  bore  his  triumph  with  chivalrous  moderation ;  he  received 
his  prisoner  with  noble  courtesy,  granting  most  of  his  requests, 
which,  to  Guatemozin's  honour,  be  it  said,  were  for  the  protection 
of  his  people  rather  than  for  any  indulgence  to  himself.  And  he 
ordained  a  solemn  thanksgiving  to  the  Almighty,  in  which  the 


48  MODEKN   HISTORY.  [a.d.  1521. 

next  day,  the  whole  army  joined,  for  the  protection  afforded  them 
in  their  arduous  and  perilous  enterprise.  But  he  was  not  able  to 
follow  throughout  the  dictates  of  his  own  humane  though  stern 
disposition.  A  captain  of  a  force  like  his  is  often  compelled  to 
keep  his  followers  in  good  humour  by  measures  of  which  he  him- 
self disapproves.  No  Spaniard  thought  it  shame  to  avow  his 
thirst  for  gold ;  and  now,  in  spite  of  their  victory,  they  found 
their  covetousness  to  a  great  extent  disappointed.  The  spoil  of 
the  city  was  immeasurably  below  their  expectation.  It  was  vastly 
inferior  to  whiit  they  had  seen  with  their  own  ej^es  on  their 
original  entrance  into  Mexico ;  they  accused  Cortez  himself  of 
having  conspired  with  Guatemozin  to  cheat  them  of  their  share, 
insisting  that  he  should  put  the  fallen  monarch  to  the  torture  to 
compel  him  to  reveal  where  the  hidden  treasure  was  secreted ; 
and,  to  clear  himself  from  the  imputations  levelled  at  him,  in  an 
evil  hour,  for  his  fame,  he  delivered  Guatemozin  into  their  hands. 
Ashamed  of  his  weakness,  he  afterwards  rescued  him  from  them ; 
but  not  till  they  had  disgraced  themselves,  their  general,  and  their 
nation,  by  inflicting  on  him  the  most  barbarous  tortures,  which  he 
bore  with  the  equanimity  of  a  hero.^  He  confessed  that  much  of 
the  treasure  had  been  buried  in  the  waters,  from  which,  indeed, 
some  was  recovered  by  the  Spanish  divers.  Eut  the  value  of 
the  conquest  did  not  depend  on  the  acquisition  or  loss  of  a  few 
loads  of  gold.  The  whole  country,  with  all  its  vast  mineral 
wealth,  all  the  fertility  of  its  soil,  and  the  incomparable  advantages 
of  its  situation,  was  added  to  the  Spanish  dominions. 

The  glory  of  having  made  such  a  conquest  needed  no  addition. 
But  Cortez  increased  it  in  the  noblest  manner  by  the  profound 
wisdom  and  humanity  of  his  government  of  the  land  which  he 
had  subdued.  The  moment  that  the  news  of  his  success  reached 
Europe,  he  was  deservedly  invested  with  the  supreme  authority 
over  the  whole  country,  the  importance  of  which,  in  the  eyes  of 
the  home  government,  was  indicated  by  the  name,  New  Spain, 
which  they  conferred  on  the  province.  And  he  at  once  applied 
himself  to  improve  the  condition  of  the  country  and  its  inhabitants. 
No  one  was  ill-treated,  but  the  unhappy  Guatemozin  himself.  He 
was  too  brave  ;  his  people  were  too  much  attached  to  him  for  him 
not  to  be  dangerous  as  a  captive,  while  to  set  him  free  was  im- 
possible.  For  near  four  years  Cortez  scarcely  ever  ventured  to  have 

^  Mr.  Prcscott  robs  us  of  our  belief  of  Jacuba,  wlio  was  put  to  tlie  tor- 

in  C.uatemozin's  poetical  reproof  of  ture  with  him,  testified  his  anguish 

his  companion  in  misfortune,   'Am  by   his  groans,   Guatemozin   coldly 

I  then  reposing  on  a  bed  of  flowers'? '  rebuked  him  by  exclaiming,  "  Do  vou 

II  is  narrative,  translating  the  Span-  think  I,  then,  am  taking  my  ph^isure 
ish  aecount,  relating  the  story  Ihus  :  in  my  bath?"  ' — Coneptest  of  Mexico, 
'When  his  companion,  the  Cacique  ii.  3G8. 


A.D.  1524.]       WISE  GOVERNMENT   OF  CORTEZ.  49 

him  out  of  his  sight ;  he  dared  neither  to  ride  nor  vralk  to  any 
distance  unaccompanied  by  him ;  the  incessant  constraint  became 
too  painful  to  be  borne.  He  was  almost  as  much  his  captor's 
prisoner  as  Guatemozin  wa«  his  :  and  at  last,  on  a  charge  of  com- 
plicity in  a  conspiracy  for  a  general  massacre  of  all  the  Spaniards, 
he  put  hini  to  death  like  a  common  criminal  j  many,  even  of  his 
Spanish  followers,  thinking  the  deed  unjust,  and  a  fresh  stain,  as 
it  was,  on  the  honour  of  the  Governor  and  of  the  whole  Spanish 
nation. 

But  Cortez's  treatment  of  the  nation  at  large  was  that  of  a  wise 
and  most  beneficent  statesman.  He  rebuilt  Mexico  ;  he  repeopled 
it.  Sincerely  zealous  for  the  propagation  of  the  true  religion,  he 
sent  to  Spain  for  priests  and  learned  men ;  he  founded  schools 
and  colleges  ;  he  invited  settlers  from  the  mother  country  by  the 
grant  of  estates,  and  introduced  such  European  seeds  and  plants 
and  animals  as  were  suited  to  the  climate,  with  the  European 
methods  of  cultivation,  thus  greatly  increasing  the  productiveness 
of  the  country.  He  even  tried  to  make  Mexico  the  mother  of 
other  colonies,  sending  out  expeditions  of  discovery,  which,  how- 
ever, as  he  could  not  conduct  them  in  person,  were  crowned  with 
no  especial  success.  A  year  or  two  afterwards  he  returned  to 
Spain.  The  Government,  always  jealous  of  its  foreign  viceroys, 
had  sent  out  a  commission  to  examine  into  the  truth  of  charges 
which  it  professed  to  have  received  against  his  administration,  and 
he  resolved  to  go  home  and  justify  himself.  His  task  was  easy; 
his  innocence  was  acknowledged.  He  was  raised  to  one  of  the 
highest  ranks  of  nobility,  as  Marquis  of  the  Valley  of  Oaxaca,^  a 
title  which,  to  mark  the  national  sense  of  his  pre-eminent  merit, 
was  shortened  into  the  simple  one  of  *  The  Marquis,'  as  Columbus 
was  called  '  The  Admiral,'  without  any  other  addition.  And  he 
was  endowed  also  with  a  princely  domain,  the  deed  which  con- 
ferred it  on  him  affirming,  with  a  compliment  to  him,  not  more 
honorable  than  it  was  just,  that  Mt  was  given  because  it  is  the 
duty  of  princes  to  honour  and  reward  those  who  serve  them  well 
and  loyally,  in  order  that  the  memory  of  their  great  deeds  should 
be  perpetuated,  and  others  be  incited  by  their  example  to  the  per- 
formance of  the  like  illustrious  exploits.' 

He  died  in  Spain,  in  the  winter  of  1547 ;  and  a  few  years  later 
his  remains  were  transported  to  the  country  which  he  had  con- 
quered, and  buried  in  the  fittest  place  for  their  reception,  the  great 
Cathedral  of  Mexico.  His  conquest  continued  to  pour  its  riches 
into  the  lap  of  Spain  for  nearly  300  years,  till  her  continued  mis- 
government  drove  the  settlers,  though  her  own  sons,  to  throw  oil 

^  The  Valley  of  Oaxaca  is  between  Vera  Cruz  and  Mexico. 
4 


50  MODERN  HISTOEY.  [a.d.  1547. 

her  yoke.  It  is  a  remark  of  more  than  one  English  writer,  and  one 
not  dictated  entirely  by  national  prejudice,  that  England  is  the 
only  nation  that  has  shown  a  genius  for  colonisation.  Had  the 
maxims  and  example  of  Cortez  been  followed  in  the  subsequent 
government  of  Mexico,  and  the  other  conquests  of  his  countrymen 
in  the  same  regions,  Spain  would  have  been  entitled  to  share  that 
honour  with  us ;  while  her  disregard  of  his  lessons  cannot  deprive 
him  of  the  honour  due  to  great  qualities  and  great  achievements,  to 
undaunted  courage,  to  a  sagacity  beyond  his  age,  and,  with  the 
single  exception  of  his  treatment  of  Guatemozin,  an  enlightened 
humanity ;  all  these  great  endowments  being  moreover  constantly 
animated  and  directed  by  a  deep  feeling  of,  and  zeal  for,  religion, 
and  an  honest  devotion  to  the  interests  of  his  country'. 

^  The  authorities  for  the  preceding  rica;  TrescotVa  Ferdinand  and  Isa- 

chapter    are    Washington    Irving's  bella ;  and  IVie  Conquest  of  3l€xici\ 

Lives  and  Voyages  of  Columbus  and  hy  the  same  author. 
his   Companions ;  Robertson's   Ame- 


A.D.  1615.]     ACCESSION  OF  FKANCIS  AND  CHARLES.       51 


CHAPTER    III. 
A.D.  1515—1528. 

IT  has  been  already  mentioned  that  Ferdinand  and  Louis  died 
nearly  at  the  same  time.  Louis  expired  on  New  Year's  Day, 
1515,  and  was  succeeded  by  his  distant  cousin  and  son-in-law, 
Francis,  Count  of  Angouleme.  Ferdinand  died  in  January  1516, 
and  was  succeeded  by  Charles,  the  son  of  his  daughter  Joanna,  and 
of  Philip,  son  of  the  Emperor  Maximilian ;  Philip  had  died  when  .    . 

Charles  was  only  six  years  old,  and,  at  his  death,   the  youngy^K  uW*^ 
prince  had  at  once  become  sovereign  of  the  Netherlands.     And  42^' 
now,  though  his  mother,  the  imbecile  Joanna,  was  still  alive,  he  '^^**' 
was  at  once  acknowledged  as  king,  not  only  of  the  dominions 
which  had  belonged  to  Ferdinand,  but  of   Castile  als3,  which 
Joanna  had  inherited  from  her  mother  Isabella,  and  over  which 
Ferdinand  had  only  exercised  a  vicarious  authority  as  regent. 

The  new  kings  were  both  very  young.  Francis,  at  his  accession,  /^jCvCw*^ 
was  under  twenty-one;  Charles,  at  his,  was  little  more  than 
sixteen;  but  their  youth  only  added  keenness  to  the  animosity  ^^ 
which,  for  the  last  twenty  years,  had  marshalled  their  nations 
against  each  other.  And  circumstances  soon  arose  that  gave  the 
rivalry  between  the  princes  themselves  a  more  personal  character 
than  had  been  visible  in  the  wars  of  their  predecessors.  At  first 
fortune  seemed  to  smile  on  him  who  eventually  met  with  the 
most  painful  disaster.  In  the  brief  interval  of  time  which  elapsed 
between  their  attainment  of  their  respective  thrones,  Francis  gained 
a  victory  of  such  brilliancy  as  at  once  fixed  on  him  the  eyes  of  all 
Europe,  aud  seemed  to  establish  his  glory  on  a  height  which 
would  tax  the  energies  of  the  most  skilful  warrior  to  equal  it,  and 
which  could  hardly  be  surpassed. 

As  the  heir  of  Louis  and  the  husband  of  his  daughter,  he  had 
succeeded  to  his  claims  upon  Milan,  and  was  hardly  seated  on 
his  throne  when  he  began  to  prepare  to  reassert  them.  In  his 
opinion  the  victory  of  Ravenna  would  have  secured  the  coveted 
territory  to  his  predecessor,  had  not  that  prince  been  forced  to 
turn  his  attention  to  enemies  nearer  home.  And  Francis's  first 
step  was  to  guard  against  the  recurrence  of  any  such  danger,  by 


K^ 


52  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1515 

making  a  treaty  with  the  monarch  whom  the  last  campaign  ot 
Louis  had  proved  to  be  the  most  formidable  as  an  enemy, 
Henry  VIII.  of  England,  as  well  as  with  those  other  Powers 
which  could  be  of  the  greatest  use  to  him,  'S'enice  and  Genoa,  the 
Republics  which,  as  it  were,  hemmed  in  the  Mihmese  on  each 
flank.  And  having  thus  endeavoured  to  counterbalance  the  rash- 
ness of  engaging  in  such  an  enterprise  at  all,  condemned  a^  it  was 
by  the  failure  of  two  preceding  monarchs,  by  the  fore.<ight  of  his 
diplomacy,  he  soon  after  midsummer  quitted  Paris  to  put  himself 
at  the  head  of  the  most  splendid  army  that  had  for  many  genera- 
tions been  assembled  round  the  French  standards.  Twenty  thou- 
sand cavalry  and  as  many  infantry  were  awaiting  him  on  the 
Rhone,  under  the  command  of  the  Constable  of  France,  Charles, 
duke  of  Bourbon,  destined  to  win  a  great  name  in  the  coming 
campaign,  and,  in  a  subsequent  one,  to  tarnish  it,  by  yielding  to  a 
sense  of  intolerable  wrongs,  and,  under  their  pressure,  turning  his 
firms,  with  fatal  success,  not  only  against  his  misguided  and  unj  ust 
king,  but  against  his  innocent  country.  And  Bourbon  was  sup- 
ported by  a  staff  worthy  of  him  ,*  by  de  la  Tremouille,  whose  valour 
had  won  for  him,  even  in  his  youth,  the  confidence  of  that  sus- 
picious tyrant  Louis  XI. ;  by  d'Imbercourt,  whose  reputation  hiid 
been  too  well  established  to  be  hurt  by  his  sharing  in  the  defeat  of 
Guinegatte ;  by  the  veteran  Trivulzio,  who  had  seen  more  battles 
than  any  man  alive,  and  had  seen  none  without  deriving  fresh 
lessons  of  skill  from  them  ;  by  Bayard,  who  though  neither  marshal 
nor  baron,  as  a  simple  knight  had  achieved  a  renown  both  among 
his  own  comrades  and  his  enemies,  which  has  come  down  in  un- 
diminished brightness  to  the  present  day ;  by  the  scientific  Navarro, 
who  in  former  days  had  been  one  of  Ferdinand's  most  trusted 
officers,  but  who  had  been  taken  prisoner  at  Ravenna,  and  had-^ 
purchased  his  liberty  by  transferring  his  service  to  the  P'rench  ; 
and  by  many  others,  princes  and  peers,  who,  if  inferior  in  fkill  or 
fame  to  those  who  have  been  mentioned,  were  no  whit  behind 
the  most  famous  in  contempt  of  danger  and  thirst  for  glory. 

In  the  first  week  of  August  the  army  reached  tlie  foot  of  the 
Alps,  and  learnt  that  the  Milanese  general,  Prospero  Colonna.  a 
warrior  whose  chief  defect  was  perhaps  too  much  experience 
and  too  rigorous  an  adherence  to  the  rules  of  his  art,  was 
awaiting  them  on  the  other  side,  and  with  a  force  of  20,000 
Swiss  was  covering  all  the  passes  between  Mont  Cenis  and  Mont 
G^nevre.  But  Btnirbon's  genius  was  of  a  fertility  above  rules. 
The  very  perception  that  Colonna  judged  the  hills  beyond  Mont 
Gdnevre  impassable,  determined  him  to  select  them  for  his  march  ; 
and,  having  chosen  his  line,  he  would  not  turn  back,  though  before 
he  had  traversed  half  the  distance   he  had  ample  proof  how  well 


A.D.  1515.]       BOURBON'S  PASSAGE  OF  THE   ALPS.  53 

the  Italian's  opinion  was  justified  by  the  character  of  the  moun- 
tains lie  had  undertaken  to  pierce.  At  one  spot  overhanging  rocks 
barred  the  way;  at  another,  vast  chasms  of  which  no  eye  could 
measure  the  depth  seemed  to  cut  otf  all  possibility  of  advance ; 
sometimes,  though  the  face  of  the  mountain  showed  a  chamois 
hunter's  track,  it  was  so  narrow,  so  crumbling  and  unsure,  and 
the  precipice  beneath  was  so  fearful,  that  the  invincibility  of  the 
other  obstacles  seemed  less  appalling  than  the  practicability  of 
such  a  path.  But  Bourbon  was  re«olute,  and  his  resolution  in- 
spired his  followers  with  similar  auclacitv.  1'he  overhanging  rocks 
were  blown  up ;  the  ravines  were  bridged  over ;  parrtY)ets  or 
balustrades  screened  the  giddiest  of  the  precipices.  With  in- 
credible rapidity  the  summit  was  reached,  was  passed :  and  the 
vanguard,  under  d'Imbercourt  and  Bayard,  poured  down  into  the 
plains  below  with  so  unexpected  an  impetuosity  that  they  sur- 
prised Colouna  himself,  wliile  sitting  at  dinner  at  Villa  Franca ;  * 
the  prince  being  even  carried  off  as  a  prisoner,  without  one  of  his 
men  having  time  to  strike  a  single  blow  in  his  defence.  ^ 

For  a  moment  this  extraordinary  success  seemed  likely  to  put 
into  the  hands  of  the  French  the  prize  which  they  desired  with-  » 
out  lighting.     Colonna's  Swiss  had    a  month's  pay  due  to  them.C~*T'~*-tA- 
Their  first  movement,  on  hearing  of  his  captivity,  was  to  plunderft^    'iiut^ 
the  military  chest ;    but  its  contents  were  insufficient  to  satisfy 
their    rapacity,    and   they   were    hesitating    from    what    district 
or   city  to  extort  a  further  instalment,  when    the   officers   of  a 
brigade  of  their  countrymen  in  the  French  army  (for  the  Swiss 

A  conqueror  oft,  a  hero  never, 

fought  on  both  sides  in  all  the^e  wars)  opened  a  communication 
with  them,  and  by  the  promise  of  a  far  larger  sum  than  they 
.could  possibly  claim  from  their  present  employers,  induced  them 
to  engage  to  exchange  the  service  of  the  Duko  of  Milan  for  that  of 
Francis.  In  a  few  days  the  French  paymasters  collected  a  large 
portion  of  the  money  necessary  to  carry  out  the  bargain,  and 
lodged  it  at  the  small  fortified  town  called  Buffaloro,  at  no  great 
distance  from  Milan  ;  and  the  whole  transaction  was  on  the  point  ^^  o-^KC 
of  being    concluded   when   20,000  more    Swiss   came   over   the  ^ 

mountains   to  join  Colonna,  of   whose    disaster    no    intelligence       -  * 

had  reached  them.  The  captivity  of  their  intended  commander 
was  a  great  blow  to  them,  for  pay  and  plunder  were  their  liveli- 

^  Villa  Franca  is  the  same  place  Lombarclv,  and  which  seemed  to 
which,  in  recent  times,  has  become  secure  the  future  peace  of  the  Pen- 
still  more  memorable  as  the  scene  of  insula  by  making  France  a  party  to 
the  treaty  which  put  an  end  to  the  the  erection  of  the  great  Italian  Con- 
claims  of  the  House  of  Austria  over  federation. 


h*-y 


54  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1515. 

hood  ;  and  there  was  no  probability  of  Francis  finding  employment 
for  them  also.  In  their  disappointment  they  supfgested  to  their 
countrymen  whom  he  had  engaged  that  there  was  a  shorter  way 
of  obtaining  his  money  than  earning  it,  and  that  was  seizing  it. 
No  proposal  could  have  chimed  more  harmoniously  with  their 
humour.  It  seemed  certain  that  BufFaloro  could  not  resist  them 
for  a  moment  ;  and  to  storm  it  and  appropriate  the  newly-filled 
military  chest  was  to  unite  victory,  plunder,  and  pay  together  at 
one  stroke.  Two,  indeed,  of  the  leaders,  the  captains  of  t\iti 
Bernese  regiments,  recoiled  from  such  dishonour,  and  drew  off 
their  men  -,  the  rest,  nearly  35,000  men,  marched  at  once  on 
Buftaloro,  but  rpissed  their  blow  -,  for  the  Bernese  had  also  sent 
word  to  Lautrec,  the  French  oflacer  in  charge  of  the  money,  of  the 
meditated  treachery,  and  thus  had  just  given  him  time  to  escape. 
Furious  at  their  failure,  they  proceeded  to  Milan  itself,  obtained  a 
small  reinforcement  of  cavalry,  for  the  Swiss  themselves  never 
fought  on  horseback ;  and,  knowing  that  they  had  nothing  but 
hostility  to  expect  from  the  French,  whose  head-quarters  had 
by  this  time  reached  Marignan^  a  village  ten  miles  from  the  great 
city,  they  resolved  to  anticipate  their  attack,  and  in  the  afternoon 
of  the  thirteenth  of  September  came  in  sight  of  the  French  tents. 
Their  movement  was  so  unexpected  that  Francis  himself  was  on 
the  point  of  sitting  down  to  dinner  when  their  advance,  in  battle 
array  and  with  intentions  evidently  hostile,  was  reported  to  him. 
Young  and  inexperienced  as  he  was,  he  did  not  lose  his  presence  of 
mind  for  a  moment ;  but  while  Bourbon,  with  skilful  promptitude, 
formed  as  much  of  the  army  as  was  at  hand  into  line  of  battle, 
he  mounted  his  horse,  and  putting  himself  at  the  head  of  his 
cavalry,  led  them  at  once  to  the  charge.  The  conflict  which 
ensued  has  rarely  been  surpassed  for  stubbornness,  nor  for  the  deeds 
of  valour  performed  by  individuals,  and  the  strange  escapes  of 
many  of  the  chiefs  from  death  or  captivity,  a  result  which  was 
aided  by  the  comparative  darkness,  as  it  was  three  in  the  after- 
noon before  the  engagement  began,  and  the  battle  was  pro- 
tracted till  nearly  midnight,  when  at  last  the  moon  went  down. 
None  exposed  themselves  more  freely,  or  more  nearly  fell  into 
the  enemy's  hands,  than  Francis  himself  and  Bayard.  Bayard's 
horse  ran  away  with  him,  piercing  through  the  front  line  of  the 
Swiss,  and  had  almost  carried  him  among  their  reserve,  where  he 
must  have  been  captured,  when  he  took  advantage  of  some  bushes 
which  he  was  passing  to  throw  himself  from  his  horse,  and  then 
stripping  off  his  helmet  and  some  of  the  heaviest  pieces  of  his 
armour,  he  was  fortunate  enough  to  find  a  deep  ditch,  along 
which  he  crawled  on  his  hands  and  knees,  and  so  regained  his 
comrades.      Francis's  horse  was  wounded,  and  he   himself  had 


A.D.  1515.J  THE  EATTLE   OF  MARIGNAN.  55 

received  several  severe  contusions,  when  at  last,  -worn  out  with 

fatigue,  he  lay  down  to  snatch  a  brief  rest  on  the  carriage  of  a  gun. 

He  could  obtaia  no  food,  and  when  he  asked  for  something  to 

drink,  the  water  which   one  of  his  troopers  brought  him  in  his 

helmet  was   discoloured  with   blood.^     It  was  even  worse  that 

presently  it  was    found   that  the    front  line    of  the  Swiss  was 

within  fifty  yards  of  him.     But  it  was  safer  to  remain  than  to 

risk  attracting  attention  by  any  attempt  to  retire  farther ;    and 

in  darkness  and  silence  the  king  and  his  army  waited  the  return 

of  day.     With  the  dawn  the  battle  was  renewed,  but  it  was  no 

longer  contested  with  the  same  equality  of  fortune.     On  the  first 

day  many  of  the  French  columns  were  too  far  distant  to  bear  any 

share  in  the  action,  so   that  those  on  whom  the  brunt    of  the 

struggle  fell  were  greatly  outnumbered  ;  but  in  the  course  of  the 

night  the  divisions  in  the  rear  had  all  reached  the  field,  and  the 

preponderance  of  numbers  was  turned  considerably  in  Francis's 

favour,  besides   that  half  of   his   army  consisted  of   cavalry,  of 

which,  as  has  been  already  said,  the  Swiss  were  nearly  destitute. 

Still  for  a  while  they  fought  with  dauntless  gallantry ;  but  their 

leaders  could  neither  compete  with  Bourbon's  skill,  nor  with  the 

fiery  gallantry  of  the  highborn  and  renowned  chivalry  of  France. 

These  knights,  indeed,  had  glory  to  retrieve,  a  stain  to  efface ; 

many   of  them   had  been  in  the  shameful  rout  of   Guinegatte; 

when  Bayard  himself  had  been  taken,  and  those  who  had  escaped 

captivity  had  owed  their  safety  to  the  sharpness  of  their  spurs  and 

not  of  their  swords.     But  on  these  hard-fought  days  their  valour 

was  as  steady  as  it  was  brilliant.    In  the  words  of  their  sovereign, 

no  one  would  again  venture  to  call  them '  armed  hares ; '  ^  and  by  ten 

o'clock  on  the  fourteenth  the  victory  was  decided  in  favour  of  the 

French.     Not,  indeed,  without  heavy  loss ;  if  12,000  Swiss  corpses 

encumbered  the  field,  at  least  6,000  French  shared  their  fate,  the 

brother  of  the  Constable,  d'Imbercourt,  and  many  others  of  the 

noblest  blood  and  fairest  fame  in  France  being  among  the  number. 

But  the  consequences   of  the  victory  were    so  real  and  so  im-  -         • 

poi-tant  that  it  seemed  cheap  even  at  so  heavy  a  cost;  and  Francis,  /^m-c^  14*^* 

to  give  it  additional  lustre  by  reviving  on  the  field  the  usages  'l^  '         '^ 

of  ancient   chivalry,  declared  that    he    himself,  who  had  never        ****" 

been  formally  knighted,  had  now  fairly  won  his  spurs,  and  insisted 

on  receiving  that  honour  from  the  sword  of  Bayard ;  partly,  we 

She  stooped  her  by  the  runnel's  Where  raged  the  war,  a  dark  red 
side,  tide, 
But    in    abhorrence    backward  Was  curdling  ia  the  streamlet 
drew  ;  blue. — Scott,  Marin'um,  vi.  30. 
For,    oozing    from   the    mountain  2  Etnedira-t-on  plus  que  les  gens- 
wide,  darmes  sont  lievres  armes. — Francis* 
Letter  to  his  Mother. 


56  MODEEN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1516. 

can  hardly  doubt,  to  disparage  the  Constable  himself,  by  not  pre- 
ferring him,  and  thus  to  gratify  the  revengeful  and  fatal  enmity 
which  his  mother  had  already  conceived  against  the  most 
illustrious  and  most  deserving  of  his  subjects. 

The  consequences  of  the  victory  were,  indeed,  more  than  im- 
portant ;  ihey  were  decisive.  That  single  day  secured  to  Francis 
the  whole  of  his  objects.  The  Swiss,  in  haste,  recrossed  the 
mountains,  there  to  repent  at  leisure  their  treachery  and  temerity : 
Milan  opened  its  gates  to  Bourbon :  the  Duke  Maximilian  Sforza, 
who  at  first  took  refuge  in  the  castle,  had  no  resource  but  to 
surrender  himself  a  few  days  later ;  while  the  Pope,  Leo  X.,  not 
only  confirmed  the  king  in  the  Duchy,  but  restored  to  it  the 
important  cities  of  Parma  and  Piacentia,  of  which,  not  long  before, 
he  had  made  himself  master. 

But  such  acquisitions,  though  made  by  valour,  can  only  be 
retained  by  policy.  And  with  either  the  foresight  of  a  statesman 
or  even  the  address  of  a  politician  Francis  was  but  scantily 
endowed,  while  the  arrogance  of  his  nobles  was  more  calculated 
to  alienate  friends  than  to  conciliate  either  notorious  enemies  or 
reluctant  subjects.  Leo,  whose  concessions  had  only  been  meant 
to  prevent  the  advances  of  the  French  into  the  southern  provinces 
of  Italy,  no  sooner  saw  that  danger  removed  by  the  king's  return 
to  his  own  country,  than  he  began  to  intrigue  against  him,  and 
Bet  on  foot  machinations  to  expel  him  from  Lombardy  also ;  and 
when  he  died,  as  he  did  suddenly  in  December  1521,  he  had 
already  seen  Lautrec,  Francis's  governor  of  that  province,  in  full 
retreat  towards  the  Alps  before  Colonna,  whom  the  citizens,  in 
spite  of  the  French  garrison,  had  readmitted  into  Milan.  His 
machinations  were  assisted  in  no  trifling  degree  by  the  folly  of 
Francis  himself,  and  by  his  jealous  resentment  against  Charles, 
not  for  any  act  of  his  own,  but  for  having  been  preferred  to  him- 
self by  the  Electors  of  the  Empire.  In  the  year  of  Charles's 
accession  to  the  throne  of  Spain,  the  treaty  of  Noyon  had 
apparently  not  only  terminated  all  existing  diff'erences  between 
the  two  Crowns  by  a  defensive  and  offensive  alliance,  but  had 
prevented  their  revival  by  the  stipulation  that  Charles  should 
hereafter  marry  Francis's  daughter,  though  the  young  princess 
was  as  yet  in  her  cradle,  and  that  a  part  of  her  dowry  should  be 
the  renunciation  by  her  father  of  those  claims  of  the  House  of 
Anjou  to  the  throne  of  Naples,  which,  till  disavowed,  might  at 
any  time  become  a  pretext  for  a  fresh  war.  The  Emperor  Maxi- 
milian, too,  became  a  party  to  the  treaty ;  and,  as  a  pledge  of  his 
sincerity,  restored  Verona  to  Venice.  So  that  those  who  guided 
their  anticipations  of  the  future  by  a  reference  to  solemn  engage- 
ments rather  than  to  the  views  and  feelings  of  the  contracting 


AD.  1516.]        GENERAL  EONDNESS  FOK  WAK.  57 

parties  might  have  fancied  that  a  new  era  of  universal  peace  was 
inaugurated.     But,  even  if  the  feelings  of  amity  expressed  in  this 
treaty  had  been  ever  so  sincerely  entertained  when  it  was  con- 
cluded, too  many  disturbing  causes  existed  to  allow  any  sanguine 
hope  to  be  cherished  that  they  would  long  be  maintained  without(;^  i^jL^Jt^- 
interruption.     If  the  present  more  correct  understanding  of  the       *'*''*^ 
interests  of  nations  and  the  duties  of  rulers  has  laid  down,  aa  ihe^  ^^  '**' 
fundamental   maxim  of   international  relations  and  policy,  that^j^^  ^  ^ 
peace  is  the  natural  and  proper  state  of  the  world,  always  to  be  ' 

preserved  except  when  some  irresistible  provocation  has  impelled 
an  injured  country  to  war,  the  maxim  of  the  ages  of  which  we 
are  speaking,  as  of  all  those  which  had  preceded  them,  was,  on 
the  contrary,  that  the  natural  state  of  every  country  was  war  with 
its  neighbours,  unless  it  were  forbidden  by  some  express  treaty. 
All  ranks,  except  the  commercial  class  (and  in  many  lands  that  (a/^i,.  #-fi*^ 
class  had  as  yet  hardly  any  existence,  in  scarcely  any  had  it  ^n^^-v*- 
any  influence  in  the  national  councils),  equally  cherished  this 
most  pernicious  notion.  To  kings  foreign  conquest  appeared  the 
only  means  of  increasing  their  own  greatness  ;  to  the  nobles  war 
presented  the  only  means  of  acquiring  glory  ; "andT  even  among 
the  Tower  classes,  who  necessarily  composed  the  bulk  of  all  armies, 
the  most  striving  and  enterprising  spirits  looked  to  war,  not  only 
as  the  means  of  present  subsistence,  but  as  offering  the  only 
prospect  of  raising  themselves  above  their  existing  condition,  by 
the  acquisition  of  wealth  from  tlie  pillage  of  some  fertile  province 
or  well-stored  city,  or  the  ransom  of  some  high-born  prisoner.^ 

When  such  was  the  general  feeling,  it  was  never  difficult  to  find 
or  to  make  pretexts  for  gratifying  it;  and  especially  was  it  easy 
in  the  case  of  princes,  like  Francis  and  Charles,  whose  dominions 
were  contiguous  in  more  than  one  quarter ;  who  had,  or  fancied 
themselves  to  have,  many  jarriug  or  conflicting  interests,  and  who 
were  both  of  an  age  to  listen  more  eagerly  to  the  promptings  of 
ambition  than  to  the  soberer  dictates  of  prudence.     Even  the  cir- 
cumstances under  which  the  last  war  between  the  two  nations  had         ^ 
been  terminated  supplied  both  with  motives  for  wishing  to  renew  it.  '•t**-^**^  •^ 
Francis  was  convinced  that  the  battle  of  Ravenna  had  in  reality  ^^^,vw*-i.^ 
placed  the  north  of  Italy  at  the  mercy  of  France,  and  that  the  death 
of  Gaston  and  the  invasion  of  Picardy  by  Henry  had  alone  pre- 
vented his  predecessor  from  reaping  the  fruits  of  that  brilliant 
victory:    while  Charles  felt  that  a  stain  rested  on  the  arms  of 

^  Even  the  nobles  were  not  indif-  main  qu'ils  n'eussent  enlev^  tout  ce 

ferent   to  the   chance  of   enriching  qu'ils  trouverent  propre  a  I'etre.    J'y 

themselves  in  this  way.  Even  eighty  gagnai  bien  3,000  ecius  et  toi:s  mes 

years  later  Sully  tells  us,  *  Une  parlie  gens  y  firent  un  butin  trfes-conside- 

du  fanxbourg  fut  pille'e  :  nos  soldats  rable.' — Memoires  de   Sully,  liv.  iii. 

ne  sortirent  point  de  celle  de  St.-Ger-  40. 


58  MODEKN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1519. 

Spain  till  the  memory  of  that  great  overthrow  was  effaced  by 
some  subsequent  triumph.     While  both  were  thus  ready  for,  and 
^  secretly  desirous  of  war,  an  event  occujred  which  greatly  em- 

bittered Francis's  feelings  towards  Charles',  and  gave  to  th^lTrnT- 
\nienTrctT3°15feak  out,  more  dt'  the  cliaracfer  of  personal  animosity 
than  had  previously  been  witnessed.  Charles,  as  has  been 
mentioned,  was  grandson  of  the  Emperor  Maximilian,  who, 
feeling  the  approaches  of  age,  was  desirous  of  obtaining  for  him, 
as  the  representative  of  his  family,  the  election  to  the  dignity  of 
King  of  the  llomans,  which,  though  in  itself  merely  an  honorary 
Title,  would  ensure  to  him  the  succession  to  the  Empire  when  it 
should  become  vacant  by  his  own  death.  While  he  was  pro- 
ceeding in  his  canvass  of  the  electors,  he  suddenly  died,  in 
January  1519;  and  Charles  at  once  became  a  candidate  for  the 
Imperial  throne,  which  had  now  been  tilled  by  his  family  for  so 
^many  generations  that  it  seemed  almost  to  belong  to  them  of 
right;  and  it  may  probably  be  taken  for  granted  that  he  also 
T  '  L  ^^^^^^^  ^^^^  have  been  elected  without  opposition,  had  he  not  been 
"^^^^^  already  King  of  Spain,  and  had  not  the  greatness  of  the  power 
'^      yt^    Avhich  he  enjoyed  as  such  been  calculated  to  awaken  the  jealousy 

*'  i\f    +lio    cilcm+rwa     TurVir*    Imrl     in     rronovQl     avn\AciA     Tilcminrr    rwaf    +V»Qm_ 


T^ 


•*'»^-Vs^ 


of  the  electors,  who  had  in  general  avoided  placing  over  them- 
selves any  prince  in  possession,  from  any  other  source,  of  power 
which  might  render  him,  not  onl}''  independent  of,  but  even 
formidable  to  themselves.^  This  feeling  was  as  lively  as  ever ; 
but  when  the  knowledge  or  suspicion  of  its  existence  led  Francis 
to  offer  himself  as  Charles's  competitor,  he  overlooked  the  self- 
evident  fact  that  his  position  as  King  of  France  was  an  equal 
I  ^.,  disqualification,  while  he  had  no  German  blood  in  his  veins  nor 
-<A-;*^  any  connection  with  Germany  which  could  influence  any  elector 
in  his  favour.  We  may  pass  over  the  appearance  of  our  own 
King  Henry  in  the  field  as  a  competitor  altogether,  since  he  was 
tlie  last  to  put  himself  forward  and  the  first  to  withdraw.  The 
objections  to  Charles  seemed  so  valid  that  at  first  the  electors  ^ 
unanimously  passed  him  over ;  and  six  of  them  consented  to  offer 

*  It  should,  however,  be  remem-  poral  sovereigns  of  different  ranks — 

bered    that    as    yet    Hungary    and  the   King   of   Bohemia,   the   Count 

Bohemia  were  not  united  to  Austria.  Palatine,  the  Duke  of  Saxony,  and 

These  kingdoms  first  came  to  a  prince  the  Marquis  of  Brandenburgh.     In 

of  tlie  House  of  Austria  in  1526,  when  the  course  of  the  next  century  it  was 

lx)uis  II.,  king  of  both  countries,  fell  increased  to  nine,  by  the  addition  of 

in  the  battle  of   Mohacz,  and  was  the  Duke  of  Bavaria  and  the  Duke  of 

succeeded  by  Ferdinand,  the  brother  Hanover.     But,   according  to  some 

of  Charles  V.,  who  was  married  to  authors,  the  Duke  of  Bavaria  was 

his  sister.  one  of  the  orip:inal  IClectors,  and  tlie 

2  The  Electoral  College  at  this  time  King  of  Bohemia  was  not.  Accord- 
consisted  of  seven  j)rinces  and  eccle-  ing  to  others,  the  elector  Palatine 
piastics  :  the  Archbishops  of  Cologne,  and  the  Duke  of  Bavari;i  had  one 
Treves,  and  Mayence,  and  four  tem-  vote  between  them. 


A.D.1520.]       CHARLES  IS  ELECTED   EjVIPEROK.  59 

the  throne  to  the  seventh  Frederic,  the  Duke  of  Saxony.  Frederic 
had  already  earned  the  honorable  name  of  '  The  Wise/  a  title 
which  he  justified  by  the  firm  moderation  with  which  he  now  p..  ^ 

refused  a  rank  which,  however  shorn  of  much  of  its  former  '  *^**^  ji  i 
power,  was  still  the  first  in  dignity  among  the  monarchies  of  |fc^AM^^^__ 
Christendom.  Taking  a  statesman-like  view  of  the  state  of  Europe 
at  the  time,  and  especially  of  the  great  resources  and  ambition  of 
the  Sultan,  Selim  II.,  who  was  understood  to  be  preparing  a  vast 
army  to  overrun  the  eastern  provinces  of  the  Empire,  he  con- 
sidered that  the  caution  which,  in  ordinary  times,  forbad  the 
election  of  too  mighty  a  prince  to  the  Imperial  throne,  should,  at 
the  existing  crisis,  yield  to  the  necessity  of  choosing  one  able  to 
bring  a  foreign  force  to  the  assistance  of  Germany  ;  that,  therefore, 
the  ability  to  dispose  of  the  resources  of  Spain  or  France,  instead 
of  being  a  disqualification  was,  at  the  present  moment,  the  greatest 
of  recommendations ;  and,  both  competitors  being  so  far  equal, 
he  gave  his  own  vote  for  Charles,  as  the  better  entitled  to  the 
vacant  throne  by  his  German  blood  and  relationship  to  tlieir 
former  sovereign.  His  self-denying  views  prevailed :  Charles 
was  elected^  but  the  contest  had  converted  the  two  candidates,  in 
spite  of  their  recent  treaty,  into  implacable  enemies.  Francis 
had  entered  on  his  candidature  with  the  most  ostentatious  pro- 
fessions of  moderation.  '  We  are  two  gallants,'  said  he,  'courting 
the  same  mistress ;  the  most  fortunate  will  succeed  j  he  who  fidls  ^jAA^rJn  > 
will  have  no  excuse  for  ill-temper.'  But  he  was  incapable  ^f  ^^i-*^ 
acting  up  to  the  rule  of  conduct  he  had  laid  down.  He  was 
mortified  beyond  measure  at  one  who  was  still  a  boy  being  pre-  it^^-^^viV" 
ferred  to  him  who  had  done  such  mighty  deeds  at  Marignan  :  ho  -.  ^^  .  -^ 
was  indignant,  resentful,  revengeful.  And  Charles,  on  his  part,  ^^  ''^ 
was  even  more  unreasonable.  Success,  which  softens  the  heart 
of  the  magnanimous,  had  hardened  his ;  his  elation  was  such  that 
he  even  devised  a  new  title  of  courtesy  or  compliment  for  himself, 
and  required  his  subjects  to  speak  of  him  as  His  Majesty,  when 
former  monarchs  had  been  content  with  the  appellations  of  Grace 
or  Highness ;  and  he  spoke  of  the  conduct  of  Francis  in  oft'ering 
himself  as  a  candidate  as  insulting  and  injurious  to  himself; 
though  nothing  was  more  clear  than  that  the  competition  was 
open  to  all  Christendom,  and  that  precedents  were  not  want- 
ing for  the  honour  having  been  attained  by  princes  who  had  no 
kindred  with  Germany  to  recommend  them. 

From  the  very  moment  of  Charles's  election  then  war  was  in- 
evitable; and  with  as  little  delay  as  possible  Francis  commenced  /J  Ll*  ^^ 
it,  attacking  Charles  in  two  extremities  of  his  dominions  at  once  ;  ^        ^ 
in  Navarre  in  the  south-west,  and  in  the  Netherlands  in  the  north-  (I^aO-^v 
east.     But  it  was   easy  to  foresee  that  the   plains  of  northern 


60  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1621. 

^wv«u/C       Italy  would  be,  as  they  bad  been  before,  the  principal  field  ot 
^    battle ;  and  the  operations  in  the  Pyrenees  and  the  Low  Coun- 

K  «^  ^**—  tries,  as  having  had  no  effect  whatever  on  the  issue  of  the  contest 

r-i^,  might  have  been  passed   over  without  mention,  were  not  the 

former  rendered  memorable  by  the  circumstance  that  to^ a  wound 
received  in  the  siege  of  Pampeluna  by  Ignatius  Loyola,  a  Bis- 
cayaS' geutrenian,  rs1Jii"e"l"Ke  fOtlttdAtioEr  of  the  Order  of  Jesuits  : 
while  the  latter  was  illustrated  by  the  most  brilliant  achievement 
of  the  celebrated  Bayard ;  who,  having  had  the  defence  of  the  im- 
portant town  of  Mezieres  entrusted  to  him,  defended  it,  in  spite  of 
the  weakness  of  its  fortifications  and  the  slendemess  of  its  garrison, 
with  such  skill  and  prowess,  that  after  a  protracted  siege  the  Im- 
perialist generals  were  forced  to  retire  with  no  inconsiderable  loss 
of  honour. 

But  (and  the  circumstances  of  this  war  singularly  resemble 
those  of  the  eventful  campaign  which  has  occupied  the  attention 
of  the  world  during  the  past  year)  though  Francis  thus  began  the 
war,  Charles  was  the  better  prepared  for  it.  When  the  Emperor 
first  heard  of  the  invasion  of  his  territories  by  the  French  armies, 
he  professed  the  greatest  surprise,  and  thanked  God  that '  it  was 
not  he  who  had  commenced  the  war;'  but  now  that  it  was  begun, 
a  very  short  time  '  would  decide  whether  he  himself  was  to  be  a 
poor  Emperor  or  his  assailant  a  poor  King  of  France;'  but,  in  reality, 
^  »     he  had  for  some  time  foreseen  and  had  been  providing  for  the 

v»i^K.i*A'»A-vvruptare  by  forming  alliances  with  Henry  VIII.,  with  the  Pope,  and 
with  others  of  the  Italian  princes ;  while,  at  the  very  same  time, 
Francis  was  disarming  himself,  nay,  even  turning  his  OAvn  best 
resources  against  himself  by  foully  injuring  and  irretrievably 
alienating  the  most  renowned  and  able  of  all  his  subjects. 
-  Francis,  having  lost  his  father  in  his  infancy,  had  been  brought 

i-*-**-**-***.  "1  up  chiefly  by  his  moth§j:J^  who,  in  consequence,  had  acquired  great 
influence  over  him  ;  and  there  have  been  few  women  more  wholly 

*-k'-**.»^  destitute  of  virtue,  or  whose  vices  have  been  more  ruinous  to  every 

,.-■''  one  with  whom  they  have  been  brought  into  contact.  She  was 
a  slave  to  every  evil  passion,  shamelessly  licentious,  insatiably 
Covetous,  easily  exasperated,  when  offended  relentlessly  vindictive 
and  malignant;  and  utterly  devoid  of  truth  and  honesty  in  her 
dealings  not  only  with  those  whom  she  chose  to  consider  her 


■'% 


o-t>^ 


'  '^   *^'         enemies,  but  even  with  her  own  son.     And  these  odious  qualities 

were  the  more  dangerous  because  they  were  combined  with  very 

^  -i-irii?!        considerable  abilities,  with  acute  penetration,  constant  presence  of 

iP    i«.  •  'yj^i,^(j^  g^j^(j  ^  resolute  courage  and  firmness  amid  difficulties  and 

[t^  M»^vi-H.  disasters.     To  confirm  and  retain  her  hold  over  the  affections  of 

Francis,  She  encouraged  him  in  the  open  indulgence  of  the  vices 

to  which  he  was  most  inclined,   so  that  the  French  historian:* 


t..T>.  1522.J  INJURIES  OF  BOURBON.  61 

attribute  to  her  example  the  prevalence  of  licenti()iisness  from 
which  of  late  years  the  French  court  had  been  unusually  free,  but 
which  now  returned  in  a  flood  which  never  abated  till  it  over- 
spread the  whole  country,  and  bred  that  universal  demoralisation 
which  developed  itself  in  the  horrors  of  the  flrst  revolution,  and  of 
which  the  nation  is  still  reaping  the  bitter  fruit. 

The  Duke  of  Bourbon,  Constable  of  France,  was  pre-eminent  not 
only  for  courage,  military  skill  and  capacity,  but  also  for  manly 
beauty;  and  on  the  death  of  his  wife,  in  1521,  Louisa,  though 
many  years  older  than  he,  conceived  the  idea  of  filling  her  place, 
and,  when  he  solicited  the  hand  of  the  Princess  lienee,  the  younger 
daughter  of  the  late  king,  who  was  herself  well  inclined  to  his 
proposals,  prevailed  on  Francis  to  refuse  his  consent,  and  offered  ^  - 
herself  to  his  acceptance.  Bourbon  had  the  worst  possible  opinion  ^^^"^  6 
of  her.  Her  gallantries,  indeed,  which  she  had  taken  but  little  /O^*-!*"^^ 
pains  to  keep  secret,  had  made  her  the  object  of  almost  universal 
contempt;  and  he  was  well  aware  also  that  the  recent  loss  of 
Milan  was  to  be  attributed  entirely  to  her  faithlessness  and  rapacity 
in  having  appropriated  to  her  own  use  a  large  sum  of  money  which 
had  been  promised  to  Lautrec  for  the  maintenance  of  his  army. 
He  was  too  proud  and  too  honest  to  ally  himself  with  such  a 
woman  ;  and  he  was  understood  to  have  justified  his  refusal  to  his 
friends  by  comments  on  her  conduct  which  their  truth  did  not 
render  less  offensive  to  the  subject  of  them.  She  resolved  to  re- 
venge herself  by  his  ruin,  and  was  aided  in  her  design  by  a  courtier 
whose  influence  over  the  king's  mind  was  only  second  to  her 
own ;  Bonnivet,  whose  elder  brother  had  been  Francis's  tutor, 
and  whom  Francis,  after  employing  him  on  an  embassy  to  England, 
had  appointed  Grand  Admiral  of  France.  He  also  was  a  man  of 
great  personal  attractions,  having,  as  such,  the  credit  of  being  one 
of  Louisa's  most  favoured  lovers ;  and  entertaining  also  a  personal 
jealousy  of  the  Constable,  who  was  the  lord  paramount  of  a  part  of 
his  estates,  he  gladly  co-operated  v.'ith  his  worthless  mistress  in 
undermining  his  credit  with  the  king.  During  the  war  in  the 
Netherlands,  while  Bayard  was  gaining  immortal  honour  by  the  • 
defence  of  Mezieres,  Louisa  and  the  Admiral  had  already,  in  tlieir 
eagerness  to  insult  the  Constable,  inflicted  one  grievous  injury  on 
France,  by  persuading  the  king  to  reject  his  advice  to  attack  the 
Imperial  army  when  ia  a  position  on  the  Scheldt  which  must  have 
ensured  its  destruction,  and,  in  the  subsequent  operations,  to  en- 
trust to  the  Due  d'Alen^on  the  command  of  the  vanguard,  which, 
by  the  invariable  rule  and  precedent  of  the  service,  belonged  to 
Bourbon  in  virtue  of  his  office.  And  the  campaign  was  hardly 
over  when  Louisa  endeavoured  to  strip  him  of  his  possessions,  by 
putting  forward  on  behalf  of  the  crown  claims  to  almost  everv'  one 


62  MODERN  HISTOEY.  [a.d.  1523. 

of  his  estates,  founded  on  a  variety  of  legal  quibbles,  on  the  in- 
formality of  wills,  the  invalidity  or  temporary  character  of  the 
royal  grants  made  to  his  or  his  wife's  ancestors,  and  other  equally 
futile  and  discreditable  pretences;  while  at  the  same  time  she 
induced  the  king  to  suspend  payment  of  the  salary  of  his  oiRce,  on 
the  plea  of  the  exhaustion  of  the  royal  treasury. 

The  Constable  saw  that  his  ruin  was  resolved  on  :  and,  as  it 
was  evident  that  no  one  in  France  could  protect  him  against  so 
powerful  an  enemy,  he  sought  safety  by  securing  the  friendship  of 
foreign  sovereigns,  and  opened  negotiations  with  Charles^  and  also 
with  Henry  YIII.,  now  in  formal  alliance  with  the  Emperor,  to 
whose  aunt  he  was  married.  They  knew  his  value,  not  only  as 
the  first  soldier  in  Europe,  but  as  a  prince  whose  dependents  and 
partisans  in  France  were  so  numerous  as  to  enable  him,  when  sup- 
ported by  them,  to  raise  up  great  troubles  to  Francis  in  his  own 
dominions,  and  so  to  distract  his  attention  in  some  degree  from 
the  measures  necessary  for  the  successful  prosecution  of  the  war 
which  was  on  the  point  of  breaking  out.  They  undertook  to  add 
to  Auvergne  and  the  Bourbonnais,  which  already  belonged  to  the 
duke,  the  great  provinces  of  Dauphine  and  Provence,  and  to  erect 
the  whole  into  a  kingdom,  while  Charles  further  promised  him  in 
marriage  his  sister  Eleanor,  the  widowed  Queen  of  Portugal.  And 
he,  in  return,  agreed  to  enter  the  Emperor's  service,  and  to  take 
the  command  of  his  army  in  Italy.  Even  the  insulting  ingratitude 
of  the  treatment  he  had  received  cannot  justify  him  in  thus  not 
only  turning  his  arms  against  his  native  land,  but  plotting  her  dis- 
memberment for  an  aggrandisement  of  himself  to  which  he  could 
have  no  claim  whatever.  But  the  circumstances  of  France  for  the 
last  century  and  a  half  had  greatly  weakened  the  feelings  of  loyalty 
and  patriotism  in  the  liearts  of  the  French  nobles  and  princes. 
The  League  of  the  Public  Good  had  in  reality  been  a  confederacy 
for  the  object  of  establishing  the  independence  of  many  of  the 
most  important  Duchies,  and  its  success  would  have  reduced 
Louis  XI.'s  dominions  to  a  very  narrow  compass;  yet  the 
princes  who  had  been  engaged  in  it  had  never  been  accounted 
traitors,  nor  had  they  been  supposed  to  have  tarnished  their  fame 
by  their  accession  to  it.  Civil  war  was  almost  a  recognised  right 
of  magnates  of  that  class ;  and  certainly  none  of  those  who  united 
against  Louis  XL  had  received  such  injuries  from  him  as  those 
with  which  Francis  had  permitted  his  mother  to  menace  the  Con- 
stable. Yet  even  at  the  last  the  duke  hesitated,  and  solicited  the 
intervention  of  the  Bishop  of  Autun  to  prevail  on  the  king  to 
withdraw  the  suits  which  had  been  commenced  in  his  name,  and 
the  most  important  of  which  he  had  just  learned  that  the  seivile 
judges  of  the  time  had  decided  against  Iiim  ;  and  he  authorised  tlie 


A.i>.  1523.]        EOURBON  JOINS  THE  EMPEROR.  63 

bishop,  on  the  king's  compliance  with  his  request,  to  promise  on 
his  behalf  the  most  sincere  gratitude  and  most  perfect  fidelity. 
But  the  bishop  was  arrested  on  his  road,  and  was  refused  access  to 
the  king ;  and  the  Constable,  seeing  himself  thus  deprived  of  his 
last  resource  in  France,  and  looking  on  his  agreement  with  the 
Emperor  as  affording  him  the  only  prospect  of  safety,  in  the 
autumn  of  1623  quitted  his  home  secretly,  taking,  it  is  said,  the 
same  precaution  which  is  attributed  to  Bruce,  of  having  his  horses 
shod  backwards  to  conceal  the  direction  of  his  flight,  and  escaped 
into  Italy,  where  he  was  at  once  united  with  the  great  general, 
the  Marquis  of  Pescara,  in  the  command-in-chief  of  the  Imperial 
army.  lie  had  been  in  the  habit  of  quoting,  with  approval,  the 
sentiment  of  a  Spanish  noble,  that  though  no  man  of  honour  could 
be  seduced  from  his  duty  by  a  bribe,  to  revenge  an  insult  was 
itself  the  very  first  of  duties.  He  now  prepared  to  carry  out  this 
maxim  in  his  own  practice :  and  he  was  not  long  in  taking  a  far 
more  complete  vengeance  for  his  wrongs  than  he  could  have  ex- 
pected. Francis  had  entrusted  the  command  of  his  armj'-  in  Lom- 
bardy  to  Bonnivet,  whom  Bourbon  knew  to  be  one  chief  promoter 
of  the  injustice  with  whfch  he  had  been  treated ;  and  that  very 
winter  he  so  completely  out-generalled  the  Admiral  and  baffled  all 
his  plans,  that  Bonnivet  was  forced  to  evacuate  Lombardy,  and, 
badly  wounded  himself,  to  lead  back  his  army  into  France ;  Bour- 
bon pursuing  him  on  his  retreat,  and  defeating  him  in  frequent 
skirmishes,  in  one  of  which  the  celebrated  Bayard,  who,  after 
Bonnivet  was  disabled,  had  the  command  of  the  rear-guard,  re- 
ceived his  death  wound.  It  is  related  that  Bourbon,  who  esteemed 
the  gallant  knight  as  he  deserved,  came  up  while  he  was  dying, 
and  expressed  the  concern  which,  no  doubt,  he  sincerely  felt  at  his 
state.  'Pity  not  me,'  said  the  hero,  'I  am  dying  as  an  honest 
man  should  die.  I  have  rather  reason  to  pity  you,  when  I  see  you 
thus  in  arms  against  your  king,  your  country,  and  your  oath.' 
His  wound  was  too  severe  to  allow  him  to  be  removed  from  the 
spot  where  he  fell ;  nor,  amid  the  confusion  of  a  field  of  battle  and 
of  a  disastrous  retreat,  could  any  priest  be  found  to  administer  to 
him  the  rites  of  the  Church.  To  comply  with  its  ordinances  to  the 
utmost  of  his  power,  he  confessed  himself  to  one  of  his  friends  ;  and 
then,  holding  up  before  his  eyes  the  hilt  of  his  sword  which  repre- 
sented a  cross,  he  continued  to  pray  till  he  expired,  honoured  and 
regretted  by  both  armies,  and  leaving  a  name  which  has  become  a 
proverb  for  every  chivalrous  virtue. 

Bourbon  may  be  almost  said  to  have  triumphed  over  his  new 
friends  as  well  as  over  his  foes.  Charles,  flushed  with  success, 
would  not  content  himself  with  expelling  the  French  from  Italy  ; 
but,  giving  the  Marquis  of  Pescara  the   undivided  command,  in 


64  MODERN   HISTOEY.  [a.d.  1525. 

order  apparently  to  avoid  placing  Bourbon  in  tlie  invidious  posi- 
tion of  an  invader  of  his  native  land,  he  ordered  him  to  enter 
France  and  besiege  Marseilles.  Bourbon  strongly  remonstrated 
against  the  measure  ;  and  the  soundness  of  his  objections  to  it  was 
vindicated  by  its  complete  failure.  In  truth,  in  invading  France 
the  Emperor  was  overstraining  his  resources.  The  Empire  was  a 
sovei-eignty  of  more  dignity  than  wealth.  His  grandfather  and 
predecessor  had  been  generally  known  as  Maximilian  the  Money- 
less ;  and  America  had  not  yet  begun  to  pour  her  treasures  into 
the  lap  of  Spain.  As  yet,  therefore,  he  was  rather  encumbered 
than  enriched  by  the  extent  of  his  possessions ;  and  not  only  was 
the  army,  with  which  he  now  pursued  the  French,  inadequate  to 
the  siege  of  so  large  a  city  as  Marseilles,  but  he  was  unable  to 
supply  it  with  the  necessary  stores  ;  while  Francis,  the  moment  he 
regained  his  own  territories,  was  able  to  recruit  his  army,  and 
even  to  place  it  on  a  better  footing  than  that  of  the  previous  cam- 
paign. Unhappily  for  himself,  he  repeated  the  error  of  his  rival. 
As  Charles  had  pursued  him  into  France,  so  he  now,  disdaining  to 
be  satisfied  at  delivering  his  own  dominions  from  the  invader,  re- 
taliated by  pursuing  him  into  Italy  ;  and,  under  the  fatal  influence 
of  Bonnivet,  once  more  recrossed  the  Alps,  regardless  of  the  fact 
that  neither  of  his  predecessors  had  been  able  to  retain  their  hold 
on  that  countiy.  His  first  onset,  indeed,  was  crowned  with 
success,  as  theirs  had  generally  been  crowned.  He  at  once  re- 
covered Milan ;  but  the  difference  between  ability  and  rashness 
was  never  more  clearly  shown  than  it  was  by  the  occurrences  of 
the  few  weeks  which  ensued.  Francis  acted  in  all  matters  by  the 
advice  of  Bonnivet,  now  fully  recovered  from  his  wound,  and  who 
indeed  had  persuaded  him  to  renew  the  invasion  of  Lombardy 
when  all  his  wisest  councillors  had  urged  him  to  be  contented  with 
having  repelled  tlie  foreigners  from  Marseilles.  Bourbon  had 
again  become  the  chief  commander  of  Charles's  force ;  and,  as  it 
was  very  inferior  in  numbers  to  the  French,  and  was  also  in  great 
disorder  for  want  of  pay  and  supplies,  he  raised  a  large  sum  of 
money  by  the  sale  of  his  jewels  and  other  m?ans,  hastened  into 
Germany,  where  he  quickly  collected  a  reinforcement  of  10,000 
men  eager  to  serve  under  so  renowned  a  captain,  and,  at  the  be- 
ginning of  1525  rejoined  Pescara,  who  had  not  been  able  to  prevent 
Francis  from  investing  Pavia. 

Pavia  was  a  city  of  great  importance,  lying  on  the  Ticino,  and 
commanding  all  the  resources  of  the  most  fertile  district  of  the 
north  of  Italy.  As  such  it  was  strongly  fortified;  and  Charles 
had  entrusted  its  defence  to  one  of  his  most  skilful  and  resolute 
officers,  Antonio  de  Leyva.  To  attack  such  a  place  in  the  middle 
of  winter  seemed  the  height  of  imprudence  to  all  Francis's  generals, 


A.B.  1525.]       BOURBON  MARCHES  TOWARDS  PAVIA.        C)5 

but  Bonnivet.  But  he  had  his  master's  ear  too  completely  for 
any  other  advice  to  he  listened  to  ;  and  at  first  Francis  seemed  to 
have  sufficient  cause  to  congratulate  himself  on  having  adopted 
his  plans,  when  Clement  VH.,  who  had  lately  succeeded  to  the  fVj^  . 
Popedom,  timid  both  as  a  man  and  a  politician,  concluded  a  ^^^"'^^-^^"^ 
treaty  with  him,  by  which  he  renounced  the  alliance  which  his 
predecessor  had  contracted  with  the  Emperor  ;  and,  binding  him- 
self to  a  strict  neutrality  for  the  future,  induced  the  Venetians  also 
to  enter  into  a  similar  engagement.  The  return  of  Bourbon  at  t)ie 
head  of  his  newly  levied  troops  to  the  scene  of  action  in  a  moment 
changed  the  whole  face  of  affairs.  Though  the  Imperialists  were 
still  inferior  in  numbers,  they  at  once  resumed  the  offensive ;  while 
Francis,  though  aware  of  Bourbon's  movements,  could  not  be 
prevailed  on  to  pay  the  slightest  attention  to  his  army,^  or  to  any 
kind  of  business,  but  gave  himself  up  wholly  to  dissipation ;  the 
anticipation  of  which  is  indeed  said  to  have  been  one  principal  ob-  ^ 
ject  of  his  original  attempt  upon  Milan ;  and  he  entrusted  tJie  entire 
management  of  all  his  affairs  to  Bonnivet,  who,  like  himself,  was 
brave  in  action,  and  like  himself  also,  except  at  such  moments, 
wholly  devoted  to  pleasure.  The  consequence  was,  that  the 
Imperial  troops  gained  the  advantage  in  several  trivial  actions,  as 
well  as  in  one  of  greater  importance,  in  which  they  cut  off  an 
entire  French  division  of  4,000  men.  A  few  days  afterwards,  a 
large  body  of  Swiss  infantry  were  recalled  by  the  authorities  of 
their  own  Cantons  to  defend  them  from  an  invasion  which  they 
apprehended  on  the  side  of  Germany  ;  and  these  reductions, 
before  the  end  of  February,  brought  the  two  armies  to  an  equality  /2v^^ 
in  point  of  numbers,  each  consisting  of  about  27,000  men.  Having  -, 

no  longer  the  fear  of  being  outnumbered,  Bourbon  resolved  on  /  '  '^ 
decisive  operations.  Ever  since  his  arrival,  at  the  end  of  January, 
he  had  been  diligently  training  his  new  levies  to  act  in  unison 
with  Pescara's  veterans.  The  actions  which  had  taken  place, 
though  trivial  in  themselves,  had  been  very  valuable,  as  leading  the 
different  kinds  of  force  to  feel  confidence  in  each  other ;  and  at  last, 
on  the  twenty-fourth  of  February  1525,  he  and  Pescara,  the  two  hav- 
ing something  like  a  joint  command,  thought  the  time  was  come  to  /)/ 
make  a  resolute  attempt  to  force  the  French  trenches  and  deliver        *p   "1 


attempt 

the  city.  A  large  space  of  open  park-like  ground  lay  between  the 
French  lines  and  the  walls  of  Pavia;  and  the  Imperial  generals 
resolved  to  cross  this  plain  before  daybreak,  in  the  hope  either  to 

1  *  Riscdeva  il  peso  del  govemo  dell'  gravi,  dispregiati  tutti  gli  altri  Capi- 

esercito   neir    Ammiraglio.     II    Re  tani,  siconsigliava  con  hii.'— GmjVci- 

consumendo    la  maggior  parte   del  ardint,  Ann.  1525,  viii.  138  ;  London 

tempo,  o  in  ozio,  o  in  piaceri  vani,  Ed.  1821. 
ne  ammettcndo  faccende  o  pensieri 


.^^U^ 


66  MODERN   HISTORY.  [a.d.  1525. 

reach  the  city  gates  without  being  perceived,  or,  if  they  should  be 
discovered,  to  lure  the  enemy  out  of  their  entrenchments  to 
ground  where  they  might  fight  on  equal  terms,  if  not  at  advantage. 
The  French  sentries  were  too  vigilant  to  be  surprised.  They  gave 
the  alarm ;  and  the  heads  of  the  Imperial  columns  had  scarcely 
done  more  than  enter  on  the  plain  before  their  line  was  swept  with 
fatal  effect  by  the  French  batteries,  which  were  greatly  superior 
to  their  own  artillery.  In  a  few  minutes  numbers  were  struck 
down.  To  save  his  men,  the  Marquis  de  Guasto,  the  leader  of  the 
advanced  guard,  deployed  them  into  open  order,  and  bade  them 
cross  the  plain  at  a  run.  Francis,  who  was  watching  the  opera- 
tions on  horseback,  mistook  the  manoeuvre  for  flight.  *  See,'  said 
he  to  his  staff,  '  they  are  flying;  let  us  charge.'  '  To  the  charge  !' 
responded  Bonnivet  and  a  score  of  other  courtiers  as  brave  and  as 
imskilful  as  king  or  admiral.  At  the  word  the  whole  of  the 
French  cavalry  dashed  forward,  and  thrust  themselves  between 
their  own  batteries  and  the  Imperial  brigades  which  those  batteries 
had  been  mowing  down,  and  which,  so  perfect  was  their  discipline, 
in  a  moment  closed  up  and  received  their  assailants  with  a  heavy 
fire  of  musketry,  which  emptied  many  a  saddle.  The  onset  of  the 
French  had  been  too  impetuous  for  such  a  check  not  to  throw 
them  into  utter  confusion.  While  they  were  trying  to  disengage 
themselves  from  Guasto's  division^  with  which  they  had  become 
entangled,  Pescara  attacked  them  on  one  flank,  Bourbon  on  the 
other,  and  de  Leyva,  sallying  out  at  the  head  of  a  strong  brigade 
of  the  garrison,  fell  upon  their  rear.  There  was  no  division  in  his 
army  on  which  Francis  justly  placed  more  reliance  than  one  con- 
sisting of  6,000  Swiss,  under  the  command  of  John  de  Diesbach, 
the  honest  Bernese  captain  who,  nine  years  before,  had  refused  to 
join  in  the  treacherous  attack  on  Buffaloro  which  led  to  the  battle 
of  Marignan ;  but  he  was  now  killed  by  a  chance  shot ;  and,  on 
seeing  him  fall,  his  troops  were  seized  with  a  sudden  panic.  They 
fled,  and  their  flight  uncovered  the  French  right  wing,  which  was 
pierced  in  a  moment  by  Bourbon  himself,  both  its  generals  being 
taken ;  and  thus,  in  less  than  an  hour  from  the  firing  of  the  first 
gun,  the  battle  was  irretrievably  lost.  Bonnivet  in  despair  plunged 
into  the  thickest  of  the  fight  and  was  slain.  Many  others,  the 
noblest  and  most  renowned  of  the  French  warriors,  La  Palisse, 
Lescure,  de  la  Tremouille,  though  not,  like  him,  courting  death, 
met  a  similar  fate  ;  and  if  fearless  exposure  of  his  life,  and  personal 
prowess,  displayed  at  the  cost  of  many  a  foe  who  fell  before  his 
sword, ^  could  have  ensured  the  destruction  of  one  who  had  no 

Et,  si  fata  fuisscnt 
Ut  cadereni,  mcruisse  ninnu. — JEn,  ii.  434. 
Witness,  ye  heav'ns,  I  live  not  hv  my  fault, 
I  strove  to  have  deserved  the  ileath  1  sought. — Dryden^s  Tram 


A.D.  1525.]  THE   BATTLE   OF  PAVIA.  67 

regard  for  his  own  safety,  Francis  himself  would  not  have  survived 
to  deplore  the  defeat  of  which  his  own  rashness  had  been  the  chief 
cause.  Yet  he  seemed  to  bear  a  charmed  life,  till  his  horse  was 
killed  under  him  while  he  was  entangled  among  a  band  of  car- 
bineers in  the  very  thickest  of  the  battle ;  and  as  his  person  was 
unknown  to  those  among  whom  he  fell,  he  might  have  shared  the 
same  fate  had  it  not  been  for  the  richness  of  his  armour  and  the 
order  of  knighthood  which  he  wore,  and  which  seemed  to  mark 
him  out  as  a  person  from  whom  a  splendid  ransom  might  be 
extorted.  The  next  minute  M.  Pomperan,  one  of  Bourbon's 
most  trusted  officers,  came  to  the  spot.  lie  of  course  recognised 
the  king,  of  whose  rank  his  captors  were  as  yet  ignorant,  and  begged 
him  to  surrender  to  the  Constable,  who  was  at  no  great  distance  ; 
but  Francis  could  not  bear  thus  to  humble  himself  to  his  own 
rebellious  subject,  and  asked  for  Lannoy,  the  Viceroy  of  Naples. 
He  was  sent  for,  and  at  once  hastened  to  the  spot ;  and  it  was 
well  that  so  powerful  a  leader  was  at  hand,  for  the  carbineers 
were  beginning  to  quarrel  over  the  division  of  the  king's  spoils, 
and  there  had  been  instances  in  these  wars  of  such  disputes  being 
settled  by  the  slaughter  of  the  prisoner ;  but  Lannoy,  approaching 
the  fallen  monarch  with  great  respect,  protected  him  from  such  a 
danger.  Francis  gave  up  his  sword ;  and  the  intelligence  of  his 
capture,  which  was  soon  spread  through  both  armies,  terminated 
the  battle :  though  many  of  the  French  perished  afterwards,  being 
drowned  in  the  Ticino,  which  in  their  panic  they  tried  to  swim, 
and  which  was  swollen  with  so  heavy  a  flood  as  to  be  totally  im- 
passable. 

Such  a  victory,  crowned  by  such  a  capture,  could  not  fail  to  be 
decisive  of  the  war.     But  the  very  greatness  of  the  triumph,  as     v 
has  happened  in  other  instances,  bred  ill-will  between  those  who  CCCr  'L'CJL' 
had  achieved  it.     Lannoy,  who  liad  had  the  honour  of  receiving  i,^     ^  ^ 
the  king's  sword,  had  contributed  but  little  to  the  victory ;  and  J*7 

Bourbon  and  Pescara  were  extremely  indignant  when  he  proceeded ^t*>'^C£<J 
to  conduct  his  prisoner  to  one  of  his  own  fortresses,  and  shortly 
afterwards  sent  him  by  sea  to  Spain.     Sforza,  duke  of  Milan,  toe 
was  greatly  offended  with  the  Emperor  himself.     The  great  battle 
bad  restored  him  to  his  dominions;  but  Charles  had  clogged  hia 
reoccupation  of  them  with  conditions  calculated  to  keep  him  in 
a  state  of  complete  dependency  on  himself;    and  his  chancellor 
Morone,  a  man  of  singular  capacity  for  political  intrigue,  which 
the  Italian  statesmen  of  that  day  made  their  peculiar  studv,  so  p        ^^ 
worked  on  Pescara's  anger  against  Lannoy,  that  he  induced  the   "^^ 
marquis  to  enter  into  a  conspiracy  against  the  Emperor,  with  the 
object   of    expelling    the   Spaniards    from   both    Lombardy  and 
Naples :  a  design  which,  as  Pescara  was  an  Itahan   by  birth, 


/)^7 


68  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.b.  1526. 

assumed  in  his  eyes,  under  the  artful  persuasion  of  Morone,  the 
character  of  patriotism. 

Charles  too,  himself,  was  not  altogetlier  easy.  He  must  soon 
have  discovered  (as  was  said  of  himself  at  a  later  period  of  his 
reign,  when  the  Saxon  prince  apparently  had  it  in  his  power  to 
capture  him  and  forebore  to  do  so)  that  some  birds  were  too  big 
for  cages.  His  first  impression  was,  that  he  should  be  able  to 
derive  the  greatest  advantages  conceivable  from  having  such  a 
prisoner  in  his  power ;  that  he  should  be  able  to  dictate  peace  on 
his  own  terms,  and  not  only  to  compel  the  restoration  of  Burgundy, 
which  Louis  XI.  had  so  unjustly  wrested  from  liis  grandmother, 
but  to  exact  satisfaction  for  all  his  allies,  a  kingdom  for  Bourbon, 
and  great  concessions  to  Henry  VIII.,  who  was  nominally  a 
member  of  the  League  against  Francis,  though  he  had  contributed 
no  aid  to  the  campaign.  But  he  soon  found  not  only  that  people 
in  general  were  beginning  to  protest  against  the  exorbitancy  of 
his  demands,  and  that  Fraucis,  who  positively  refused  compliance 
with  them,  was  thrown  into  so  severe  a  fever  by  the  anxieties 
attendant  on  his  situation  that  his  life  was  in  danger ;  but  that 
Henry  himself,  who  was  incapable  of  pursuing  any  scheme  of 
policy  with  steadiness,  was  inclined  to  view  the  great  increase  of 
his  glory  and  power  with  a  jealousy  which  entirely  superseded 
his  desire  to  share  in  the  results  of  his  victory,  and  was  beginning 
secretly  to  negotiate  with  Louise,  who  was  acting  as  Regent  of 
France  during  her  son's  captivity.  Pescara,  too,  who  repented  of 
his  meditated  treason  and  confessed  it  to  him,  contributed  to  alarm 
him  by  the  very  revelation,  which  showed  him  how  ready  even 
those  powers  in  Italy,  whom  he  looked  upon  as  most  closely  bound 
to  him,  were  to  unite  against  him.  And  these  considerations  led 
him,  at  the  commencement  of  the  next  year,  to  conclude  a  treaty 
with  Francis,  known  as  the  Treaty  of  Madrid ;  by  which  he  agreed 
to  release  him,  though  he  could  not  forbear  to  gratify  his  pride  by 
imposing  conditions  on  him  which  it  is  impossible  that  he  should 
ever  have  deceived  himself  into  expecting  to  be  carried  out.^ 

One  of  the  articles  provided  for  the  renunciation  by  the  French 
king  of  all  claim  to  dominion  in  any  part  of  Italy.  But,  though 
this  stipulation  seemed  to  be  calculated  to  give  peace  to  that  fair 
peninsula,  it  in  fact  contributed  to  bring  on  it  greater  suflerings 
than  ever.  There  never  was  an  age  when  that  gift  of  beauty 
without  strength,  which  Filicaja  so  poetically  laments,  was  more 
fatal  to  her  than  this  age,  when  French,  Germans,  Spaniards,  and 

1  Francis  was  to  restore  Burpcundy;  suffered;  to  renounce  his  claims  to 

to  reinstate  Bourbon  in  all  his  posses-  any  possesvsions  in  Italy,  or  to  any 

sions,  and  to  make  liiin  ample  repar-  rights  over  Flanders  or  Artois,  &c. 
ation    for    all  the  injuries   he   had 


A  u.  1526.]  DIFFICULTIES  OF  BOURBON.  69 

Swiss,  all  made  her  their  battle-field ;  and  she  was  not  only  power- 
less to  help  herself,  but  found  every  effort  which  she  made  for  her 
deliverance  only  add  to  the  weight  of  her  chains.     The  constant 
object  of  the  policy  of  all  true  Italians  at  this  time  was  to  expel 
all  foreigners  from  Italy.     And  when,  therefore,  Francis  began  to 
cast  about  for  allies  who  should  support  him  in  the  non-fultilment 
of  the  treaty  to  which  he  owed  his  liberty,  he  found  the  Pope  and  /y</wr  Ot^ 
the  Venetians  eager  to  join  him.     The  Pope  at  once  absolved  him  ^  ^^^^ 
from  all  obligations  to  Charles  j  he  and  the  Venetians  engaged  to     ^  TT'^* 
join  him  in  raising  an  army  to  act  against  the  Emperor  in  Italy; 
and  with  singular  inconsistency  these  allies,  whose  professed  object 
was  to  keep  Italy  for  the  Italians  alone,  purchased  the  alliance  of 
Henry  VIII.  by  promising  him  a  principality  in  the  kingdom  of 
Naples,  after  they  should  have  driven  the  Spaniards  out  of  it. 

But  it  was  not  very  safe  to  announce  such  designs  against  a 
prince  like  Charles,  whose  natural  arrogance  was  so  inflamed  by 
success,  without  greater  means  of  executing  them  than  were  at 
the  disposal  of  the  new  allies.  And  though  the  army  which  they 
undertook  to  raise  was  only  fixed  at  35,000  men,  to  collect  such  a 
force  was  quite  beyond  their  power.  Henry's  dominions  were  too 
remote  for  him  to  be  able  to  give  more  than  his  name  to  the  League. 
The  resources  of  Francis  were  for  the  moment  exhausted,  while 
the  military  power  of  the  Pope  was  utterly  insignificant.  But, 
though  the  League  was  impotent  to  injure  the  Emperor,  it  was 
sufficient  to  provoke  him ;  and  his  wrath  fell  heavily  on  those  of 
the  allies  whose  purpose  the  confederacy  was  intended  to  serve. 
Looking  on  Sforza  as,  through  the  arts  of  Morone,  the  principal 
author  of  the  League  against  him,  the  Holy  League,  as  it  was 
called  after  the  accession  of  the  Pope  was  secured,  he  selected 
him  for  his  first  attack.  Pescara  had  lately  died,  after  a  shorty 
illness;  and  Bourbon,  who  was  now  sole  commander  of  thevr^^^*^''''*!-^ 
Imperial  army,  had  but  little  difficulty  in  capturing  Milan,  which,  |3^^-x-i-^4i. 
with  the  duchy,  Charles  promised  to  confer  on  him  as  a  reward 
for  his  servic*^s  ;  while  a  party  was  even  formed  among  the  Roman 
princes  to  depose  Clement  and  to  elect  one  of  the  Colonna  family 
in  his  stead.  But  a  retribution  of  a  different  and  more  shameful 
kind  was  to  fall  on  the  Pope. 

Bourbon,  though  victorious,  was  far  from  being  at  his  ease,  if 
indeed  his  successes,  by  raising  the  arrogance  and  expectations  of 
his  troops,  did  not  increase  his  difficulties.  His  military  chest  was 
empty ;  and  when,  in  the  autumn  of  1526,  the  Emperor  sent  him  a 
reinforcement  of  German  troops,  under  the  command  of  a  leader 
named  Frundsberg,  who,  though  of  noble  birth,  was  little  better 
than  a  freebooter,  living  by  war  and  rapine,  even  these  men  had 
received  no  pay,  and  soon  became  clamorous  fOr  the  money  which 


70  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1527, 

had  been  promised  them.  Bourbon  was  driven  to  raise  money  by 
expedients  from  which  his  sense  of  justice  and  his  sense  of  policy 
(and  no  man  of  that  day  was  more  just  or  more  politic)  alike 
revolted.  He  levied  heavy  contributions  on  the  citizens  of  Milan, 
compelling  them,  in  some  instances,  even  to  give  up  the  plate  out 
of  their  churches;  he  sold  a  pardon  to  Morone,  who  had  been 
condemned  to  death  by  the  judges,  whom,  on  the  reduction  of 
Milan,  the  Emperor  had  appointed  to  try  him  for  his  treachery. 
But  such  resources  were  but  scanty,  and  could  manifestly  only 
afford  a  momentary  relief.  The  duke  saw  no  resource' for  keeping 
his  force  together,  except  that  of  occupying  some  Italian  province 
and  drawing  its  subsistence  from  that;  and,  as  the  Pope  had 
already  begun  to  carry  out  some  of  the  views  of  the  Holy  League, 
by  aiding  an  expedition  of  the  French  against  the  kingdom  of 
Naples,  he  selected  the  States  of  the  Church  as  the  object  of  his 
attack,  and  in  March  1527,  began  to  descend  into  the  centre  of 
Italy  at  the  head  of  25,000  tried  veterans.  Clement,  who  was 
destitute  of  courage  or  resolution,  and  whose  sagacity  at  best  took 
no  higher  form  than  that  of  cunning,  was  terrified  into  utter  help- 
lessness by  the  intelligence  of  his  approach.  The  only  device 
which  he  could  think  of  was  to  conclude  with  Lannoy,  as  the 
Imperial  Viceroy  of  Naples,  a  treaty  by  which  he  deserted  the 
Holy  League,  and  promised  to  furnish  large  sums  for  the  payment 
of  the  Imperial  armj',  while  Lannoy,  in  return,  agreed  to  prohibit 
the  further  advance  of  Bourbon.  But  the  duke's  command  was 
independent  of  the  kingdom  of  Naples ;  and  Bourbon,  pay,ing  no 
attention  whatever  to  the  Viceroy's  despatch,  pushed  rapidly 
forward,  and  on  the  fourth  of  May  reached  the  suburbs  of  Home. 

That  most  renowned  of  cities,  the  ancient  mistress  of  the  world, 
and  the  modern  metropolis  of  Christendom,  had  now  enjoyed  an 
immunity  from  hostile  attack  for  so  many  generations,  during 
which  a  continued  stream  of  costly  offerings  had  flowed  in  from 
the  liberality  or  superstition  of  worshippers  of  all  ranks  and  all 
countries,  that  the  wealth  which  she  contained  was  commonly 
reputed  to  be  almost  beyond  the  power  of  enumeration  ;  and  the 
duke,  convinced  that  he  could  perform  no  servdce  which  would 
be  more  acceptable  to  his  Imperial  master  than  that  of  inflicting  a 
memorable  chastisement  on  the  treacherous  Pope,  under  circum- 
stances which  might  enable  Charles  to  avow  hia  ignorance  of  such 
a  design,  resolved,  by  the  rapidity  of  his  movements,  to  give  no 
time  for  the  arrival  of  any  orders  which  might  embarrass  or  im- 
pede them,  and  issued  orders  for  an  assault  of  the  fortifications  on 
the  next  morning.  Had  the  garrison  of  Pome  been  able  to  malce 
a  stout  resistance,  tlio  attempt  might  probably  have  proved  the 


A.T>.  1527.]  THE  SACK   OF  ROME.  71 

destruction  of  the  army  which  made  it ;  for  Bourbon  himself,  \vlio 
was  in  person  leading  one  division  to  the  assault,  wius  amouf^  the 
first  to  fall.  His  men  were  wavering  under  a  heavy  fire  which  a 
Swiss  battalion  that  formed  part  of  the  gamson  directed  against 
it,  and  the  duke,  while  exerting  himself  to  rally  them,  and  plant- 
ing a  ladder  with  his  own  hand  against  the  walls,  was  struck 
down  by  a  mortal  wound  from  an  arquebuss,  which  the  celebrated 
artist,  Benvenuto  Cellini,  boasts  of  having  fired.  Even  amid  the 
pangs  of  death  he  did  not  lose  his  presence  of  mind  ;  but  bade  his 
followers  throw  a  cloak  over  his  face  that  his  loss  might  not  be 
perceived  by  the  army  in  general.  But  it  could  not  be  concealed, 
though,  instead  of  disheartening  them  as  he  had  feared,  it  only 
stimulated  them  to  greater  efforts  to  avenge  him.  And  the  gar- 
rison, though  still  fighting  valiantly,  had  no  leader.  Clement  had 
quarrelled  irreconcilably  with  the  Colonnas,  the  only  men  of 
military  skill  among  the  Roman  rulers,  and  his  only  hope  of  safety 
lay  in  prostrating  himself  before  the  altar  of  St.  Peter's  to  invoke 
the  assistance  of  his  patron  saint.  But  now  that  Bourbon  was 
dead,  his  troops  cared  little  for  saints  or  altars.  Frundsberg  had 
died  almost  immediately  after  his  junction  with  Bourbon  ;  so 
that  the  whole  army  was  now  absolutely  without  a  commander, 
which,  in  this  instance,  meant  without  restraint.  After  a  brief 
conflict,  they  scaled  the  walls,  overpowered  the  garrison,  and 
plunged  into  the  city  with  the  fury  of  brigands  resolved  to  in- 
demnify themselves  for  all  their  past  disappointments,  labours,  and 
dangers,  at  the  expense  of  the  wretched  citizens.  Before  evening 
Philibert,  Prince  of  Orange,  assumed  the  command ;  but  he,  too, 
was  killed  in  some  of  the  subsequent  operations ;  and,  even  while 
he  lived,  he  was  utterly  unable  to  curb  the  ferocious  lawlessness 
of  his  soldiers.  Plunder  was  their  principal  object ;  in  the  acquisi- 
tion of  which  they  spared  not  even  the  holiest  places,  but  pillaged 
the  churches  and  the  altars  with  as  much  indifference  as  private 
houses ;  nay,  with  more  eagerness  on  account  of  the  great  value  of 
the  treasures  which  so  many  of  them  displayed ;  while  no  kind  of 
outrage  was  deemed  too  horrible  to  be  inflicted  on  their  victims 
after  they  had  stripped  them  of  their  wealth :  all  that  lust,  all 
that  cruelty  could  devise  was  practised  on  the  unhappy  citizens ; 
no  age,  no  sex,  was  spared.  Time  itself  failed  to  satiate  or  to 
weary  the  conquerors'  barbarity;  and  during  the  many  months 
that  their  occupation  of  the  city  lasted,  the  oppression  of  the  in- 
habitants continued  with  scarcely  interruption  or  abatement.  '  It 
would  be  impossible,'  says  Guicciardini,  ^not  merely  to  relate, 
but  even  to  conceive  the  calamities  which  now  fell  on  the 
city;  and  equally  impossible  to  estimate  the  enormous  amount 
of  the   plunder   which   enriched   the   spoilers.'     And   the   great 


72  MODEKN   HISTORY.  [a.d.  1529. 

historian,  who  has  given  us  the  fullest  account  that  our  own 
language  presents  of  these  transactions,  does  not  scruple  to  affirm 
that  '  Home,  though  taken  several  different  times  by  the  Northern 
nations,  who  overran  the  Empire  in  the  fifth  and  sixth  centuries, 
was  never  treated  with  so  much  cruelty  by  the  barbarous  and 
heathen  Huns,  Vandals,  and  Goths,  as  now  by  the  bigoted  subjects 
of  a  Catholic  monarch.' 

Pope  Clement  escaped  from  the  first  fury  of  the  assault  into  the 
castle  of  St.  Angelo.  But  the  fortress,  though  strong  in  itself,  was 
111  supplied  with  provisions  j  and,  after  a  siege  of  a  few  weeks, 
which  however  was  too  long  for  his  endurance,  he  was  compelled 
to  surrender. 

The  possession  of  such  a  prisoner  would  have  been  no  small 
embarrassment  to  many  a  captor.  It  might  have  been  expected  to 
be  especially  perplexing  to  Charles,  who  at  all  times  desired  to  be 
regarded  as  a  devout  son  of  the  Church  and  of  the  Ploly  Father; 
a  character  which  seemed  somewhat  inconsistent  with  the  deten- 
sion  of  Clement  in  captivity.  But  though  he  wished  to  avoid 
the  odium  of  such  conduct,  he  was  also  a  statesman ;  and,  as 
such,  had  no  inclination  to  renounce  the  advantage  to  be  derived 
from  the  power  of  dictating  his  own  terms  to  a  potentate  who 
still  arrogated  a  superiority  over  all  other  sovereigns.  And  he 
had  a  strange  faith  in  the  value  of  professions.  It  is  not  pro- 
bable that  Bourbon  had  originally  received  any  authority  from 
him  to  descend  from  Lombardy  on  Rome.  And  Charles's  first 
step,  on  hearing  of  his  assault  of  the  city  and  of  his  death,  was  to 
disown  his  enterprise ;  his  second,  when  he  heard  that  Clement 
was  his  prisoner,  was  to  put  himself  and  his  court  into  mourning, 
and  to  order  prayers  to  be  ofiered  up  in  every  church  in  Spain  for 
his  Holiness's  liberty.  It  was,  in  fact,  praying  to  himself.  But 
as  the  accomplishment  of  their  prayers  is  said  at  times  to  have 
been  mischievous  to  the  suppliants,  he  apparently  thought  it 
became  him  to  be  very  cautious  how,  by  granting  their  supplica- 
tions, he  brought  disaster  on  the  present  worshippers ;  and  did 
not  grant  their  entreaties  till  he  had  exacted  from  the  captive 
terms  of  extreme  severity,  and  of  more  durable  advantage  to 
himself  than  the  payment  of  any  conceivable  ransom.  At  the 
moment  of  his  capture  Clement  had  been  compelled  not  only  to 
pay  a  large  sum  of  money  to  the  army  which  had  taken  him,  but 
to  cede  some  of  his  strongest  fortresses ;  and  now  he  was  required 
not  only  to  pay  a  very  large  sum  of  money  in  addition,  but  to 
grant  the  Emperor  a  variety  of  ecclesiastical  dues  and  privileges 
in  Spain  :  a  concession  to  which  nothing  but  a  craving  for  his 
liberty  could  have  induced  any  Pope  to  consent.  Clement,  how- 
ever, agreed  to  all  that  was  required  of  him ;  and,  at  the  end  of 
about  six  months  from  his  capture,  Charles  sent  orders  to  release 


A.D.  1537.]  THE  TREATY  OF  CAMBRAl.  73 

him ;  though  he  did  not  yet  withdraw  his  army  from  Rome,  which 
he  designed  to  occupy  till  he  should  have  received  all  the  money 
which  the  Pope  had  agreed  to  pay  by  instalments  due  at  stated 
intervals. 

Throughout  the  reigns  of  both  Charles  and  Francis  there  was 
repeated  war  between  the  two  countries.  It  broke  out  again  the 
very  next  year ;  and  though  in  1529  all.differences  between  the 
sovereigns  seemed  to  be  finally  removed  by  the  Treaty  of  Cambrai,  ^. 
by  which  Charles,  for  2,000,000  of  crowns,  consented  to  abandon  ^^.^.h^ 
the  claim  which  the  Treaty  of  Madrid  had  given  him  on  Burgundy, 
and  Francis  renounced  for  ever  his  pretensions  to  any  dominion  in 
Italy,  it  is  probable  that  neither  prince  expected  that  peace  pur- 
chased by  these  mutual  cessions  to  be  more  durable  than  it  proved. 
Indeed,  it  could  hardly  have  been  expected  that  the  personal  dis- 
grace of  his  captivity  should  not  have  left  a  permanent  soreness  in 
the  mind  of  Francis.  He  even  sent  Charles  a  challenge  to  single 
combat,  an  invitation  which  the  Emperor  professed  a  willingness 
to  accept ;  and  which,  if  it  had  been  fought  out,  would  have  supplied 
historians  with  incidents  still  stranger  than  any  that  are  presented 
to  them  by  the  age,  fruitful  as  we  have  seen  it  to  be  in  striking 
events.  Eight  years  afterwards  the  Emperor  became  in  his  turn 
the  challenger,  proposing  to  stake  th'e  Duchy  of  Milan  against 
Burgundy  on  the  issue  of  the  combat;  but  his  challenge  was 
encumbered  with  so  many  conditions  and  alternatives  as  to  compel 
the  inference  that  it  was  a  mere  bravado,  which  he  never  intended 
to  have  any  practical  result,  but  which  was  only  meant  to  give 
him  the  appearance  of  having  had  the  general  war  which  ensued 
forced  upon  him.  So  great,  even  in  that  day,  was  the  elasticity 
of  the  French  resources,  that  when  war  did  again  break  out  its 
renewal  was  not  unfavorable  to  the  French  arms.  A  young  prince, 
the  Count  d'Enghien,  the  first  to  win  any  especial  renown  of  a 
family  afterwards  prolific  of  brave  soldiers,  by  his  victory  at 
Cerisoles  in  Piedmont  did  much  to  retrieve  the  fame  of  the  French 
arms.  But  these  campaigns  present  no  features  of  remarkable  or 
enduring  interest ;  and,  after  such  events  as  the  capture  of  a  King 
and  of  a  Pope,  and  the  sack  of  the  metropolis  of  Christendom,  one 
can  hardly  condescend  to  dwell  on  minute  details  of  war  after  war, 
which  necessarily  resemble  one  another  in  their  general  features, 
and  of  which  the  importance  is  so  transitory  that  the  memory  of 
each  is  effaced  by  that  which  follows  it.  There  were,  indeed,  other 
transactions  affecting  both  sovereigns  and  both  nations  of  universal 
and  lasting  interest;  and  of  these  we  shall  next  proceed  to 
speak.  ^ 

»  The  authorities  for  the  preceding  Charles  F„  Coxe's  House  of  Austria, 
clmpter  are  the  Histories  of  France  Brantome's  Memoirs,  and  Guicciar- 
already       mentioned,       Robertson's      dini's  Istoria  d' Italia. 


74  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1517. 


CHAPTER   IV. 
A.D.  1517--1558. 

Fthe  purposes  and  conduct  of  kings  and  statesmen  were  in- 
fluenced by  events  in  a  degree  at  all  proportioned  to  their 
real  magnitude,  it  would  seem  strange  that  Charles  and  Francis 
should  have  been  so  constantly  at  war,  since  on  one  matter,  which 
each  professed  to  regard  as  of  farhigher  nioment  than  any  object 
of  persona!  'ainbition,  they  were  completely  agreed."~Tn  the  very 
first  years  of  their  reigns,  before  a  single  difference  had  arisen  to 
disturb  the  amity  which  they  had  pledged  to  each  other  at  Noyon, 
a  blow  was  gtruck  at  the  supremacy  which,  during  the  preceding 
five  centuries,  the  Pope  had  gradually  established  all  over  the 
nations  of  Christian  Europe;  and  at  the  continued  submission  to 
many  of  the  doctrines  and  practices  which  he  had  successively 
introduced  into  the  Church ;  and  a  religious  movement  was  set  on 
foot,  the  most  important  that  had  attracted  the  attention  of  the 
world  since  the  original  introduction  of  Christianity.  It  was  not 
an  entirely  new  agitation.  A  century  and  a  half  before,  wicklitto 
iiTEngland  had  denounced  the  very  same  Papal  innovations  that 
were  now  attacked.  lie  had  been  followed  by  Huss  in  Bohemia ; 
and  even  before  his  time,  as  we  learn  from  Dante/  and  after  him, 
as  is  proved  by  the  histor}-^  of  Savonarola,^  Italy  itself  had  produced 
many  bold  and  enquiring  spirits,  who,  even  in  what  might  be  re- 
garded as  the  Pope's  peculiar  territory,  were  not  afraid  to  expose 
the  manifold  corruptions  which  they  beheld  among  their  fellows, 
and  which  they  traced  to  and  connected  with  the  steady  progress  and 
development  of  the  spiritual  and  temporal  ambition  of  the  Roman 
Pontiff.  But  Wickliffe  and  Huss  were  in  advance  of  their  age. 
^  The  bold  warfare  which  they  undertook  to  wage  against  inveterate 
abuses  required  a  more  general  knowledge  of  those  abuses  than 

*  Ed  egli  a  me,  'Qui  son  pjli  ercsiarche         *  The  aroh-heretics  are  here,  accom- 
Co'  lor  seguaci  d'  ofjni  setta,  e  molto  panied 

Pill,  che  lion  credi,  son  le  tombe  By  every  sect  their  followers,  and 

carche.' — Inferno,  c.  ix.  187.  much  more 

Than  thou  believ'st  the  tombs  are 
He  answer  thus  returned,  freighted.'— Cary's  Translutiim. 

«  Burnt  at  Florence  in  1498. 


A.D.  1517.]    EEFORMATION  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  75 

could  be  disseminated  while  those  who  assailed  them  had  no 
means  of  inspiring-  others  with  their  sentiments  beyo»d  sermons 
and  harangues,  of  which  the  number  of  hearers  must  unavoidably 
be  limited,  or  treatises  few  and  brief,  copied  out  by  the  slow 
hand  of  amanuenses,  whose  circulation  was  necessarily  more  con- 
fined still.  Nothing  but  the  printing-press  could  make  successful 
head  against  a  system  which  appealed  alike  to  the  interests  of 
both  the  dominant  and  the  subject  classes,  of  the  priests  and  of 
the  laity ;  against  practices  dear  to  the  one  as  the  source  of  profit, 
to  the  others  as  sanctioned  by  time-honoured  custom  and  early 
association  ;  and  against  doctrines,  many  of  which  admitted  of 
advocacy  which,  if  far  from  cogent,  had  yet  a  plausible  appearance, 
while  those  which  were  most  indefensible  on  any  ground  drawn 
from  Scripture  or  from  reason,  were  not  the  less  acceptable  to  the 
majority  of  all  ranks,  to  whom  it  was  easier  to  purchase  absolution 
for  their  vices  than  to  abandon  them.  But,  in  the  century  which 
elapsed  after  the  unhappy  Huss^  expiated  his  trust  in  the  good 
^jthjof^ope  and  Emperor  at  the  stake,  that  mightiest  engine  of 
civilisation  had  been  brought  to  perfection.  Writings,  which  pre- 
viously could  only  be  circulated  slowly  among  the  few,  were  now 
issued,  with  a  rapidity  which  seemed  marvellous  to  the  many,  to 
all  who  desired  them.  The  printing-press  enabled  the  disputants 
to  appeal  from  the  authority  of  one  to  the  reason  of  all ;  substituting 
argumentative  scrutiny  for  superstitious  acceptance.  And  the 
new  weapon  was  hardly  turned  out  in  completeness  when  a  new 
combatant  descended  into  the  field  to  prove  its  efficacy. 

The  occasion  which  specially  called  him  forth  was  not  uncon- 
nected with  the  wars  which  have  been  mentioned  in  the  first 
chapter.     A  few  months  after  the  battle  of  Eavenna  Pope  Julius 
died,  and  was  succeeded  by  Leo  X.,  who,  though  of  a  less  lofty 
ambition  and  less  warlike  disposition  than  his  two  predecessors, 
was  equally  inclined  to  a  lavish  expenditure  ;  and,  finding  that 
their  martial  policy  and  enterprises  had  left  the  Papal  treasury  in 
a  state  of  great  exhaustion,  he  at  once  began  to  cast  about  for  some 
device  to  replenish  it ;  and,  with  this  view,  revived  the  old  expe- 
dient of  the  sale  of  indulgences.     The  agent  who  was  entrusted 
with  the  managemenFof  the  traffic  in  Saxony,  Tetzel,  a  Dominican    .     - 
friar,  was  fitter  to  be  a  recipient  than  a  dispenser  ot  pardons,  being  />m^  Cl^  . 
a  man  of  notorious  dissoluteness,  which  he  was  at  no  pains  either  g-^-^   i^y  \ 
to  restrain  or  to  conceal,  even  while  thus  engaged  in  an  employment^^^^^^^ 
which  certainly  required  a  more  than  ordinary  sanctity  to  recom- 
mend it.     The  general  disapprobation  with  which  the  man  was 
regarded  naturally  reacted  on  his  work ;  and  the  Germans,  a  re- 

»  Hubs  was  burnt  at  Constance,  in  1415.     Luther  first  published  hia 
theses  a<'ainst  indultjences  in  1517. 


76  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1517. 

fleeting  people,  were  beginning  to  ask  themselves  whether  any 
immunities  or  privileges  could  have  real  value  which  were  dis- 
pensed, apparently  by  no  rule  but  that  of  his  own  discretion,  by  so 
indiscreet  and  corrupt  a  steward ;  when  the  doubts,  which  those 
who  felt  them  were  as  yet  confining  to  their  own  bosoms,  at  the 
beginning  of  1517,  found  audible  expression  in  the  bold  language 
of  the  Professor  of  Theology  in  the  recently  founded  University  of 
Wittenburg. 

Martin  Luther,  for  that  was  the  professoi''s  name^  was,  like 
Ti-tzel,  a  friar,  though  belonging  to  a  different  order,  that  of  St. 
Augustine  ;  and,  though  not  yet  thirty-three  years  of  age,  he  had 
already  established  a  high  character  for  learning,  as  well  as  for 
devotion,  a  feeling  which  had  been  deepened  into  enthusiasm  in 
his  mind  by  the  death  of  a  friend  who  was  killed  by  his  side  ii.  a 
thunderstorm.  He  was  employed  in  his  academical  duties  at 
Wittenburg  when  Tetzel  arrived  there  in  the  prosecution  of  his 
business  as  a  seller  of  these  indulgences ;  and  the  inconsistency  of 
the  Dominican's  character  with  his  occupation  led  Luther  to  ex- 
amine the  foundation  of  the  argument  on  which  the  theory  of 
indulgences  rested.  He  soon  convinced  himself  that  it  was  not 
only  not  countenanced  by,  but  that  it  was  at  direct  variance  with, 
the  Word  of  God ;  and,  having  formed  that  opinion,  he  began  to 
announce  it  in  his  lecture-room  and  from  his  pulpit  with  an  energy 
and  force  of  reasoning  which  attracted  a  numerous  body  of  hearers, 
and  very  soon  a  band  of  resolute  disciples.  He  published  treatises 
on  the  subject,  which,  though  Tetzel  and  others,  interested  in  the 
sale  of  indulgences,  replied  to  them,  made  many  converts,  not 
only  in  Germany,  but  in  other  countries ;  while  even  his  own 
sovereign,  Frederic,  Elector  of  Saxony,  if  he  did  not  openly  declare 
his  adherence  to  his  doctrines,  secretly  encouraged  him  in  the 
promulgation  of  them,  from  a  desire  to  arrest  the  drain  on  the 
resources  of  his  dominions  which  was  caused  by  Tetzel'a  trans- 
mission to  Rome  of  the  proceeds  of  the  indulgences. 

Presently  Leo  himself,  alarmed  for  his  resources,  descended  into 
the  arena,  not,  however,  condescending  to  employ  ai'gument,  but 
with  a  voice  of  absolute  authority,  issuing  two  Bulls :  the  first  of 
which,  in  general  terms,  required  from  all  implicit  obedience  to  the 
Church ;  the  second,  published  at  Midsummer  1520,  condemned 
Luther  himself  and  all  his  writings,  excommunicating  him  if  he 
did  not  recant  his  errors  within  sixty  days,  and  even  visiting  all 
who  should  read  his  books,  or  have  a  copy  of  them  in  their  pos- 
session, with  a  similar  penalty.  To  the  first  Luther  replied  by  an 
appeal  to  a  General  Council,  which  even  the  Pope  himself  could 
not.  deny  to  be  the  legitimate  tribunal  for  determining  and  pro- 
ouncing  the  doctrine  of  the  Catholic  Church   on  any  subject. 


A.D.  1517.]     COMMENCEMENT   OF  THE  REFORMATION.    77 

The  second,  aa  it  was,  in  fact,  a  condemnation  of  Iiimself  without 
trial,  to  a  death  of  lingering  torture,  if  he  should  fall  into  his 
adversaries'  hands,  he  met  by  a  still  bolder  answer,  by  an  un-      ^^ 
precedented  act  of  open   defiance.     lie  denounced   the  Pope  as  (o^^C^c^^ 
Antichrist ;  and,  assembling   all  the   professors   and  students  of  >,  * 
Wittenbiirg,  in  the  presence  of  them  and  the  great  bulk  of  the  ^"^^^^"7"^ 
citizens,  he  publicly  committed  the  Pope's  Bull  with  the  volumes  *^***^2i-*- 
of  the  Canon  Law,  to  which  alone  the  Papal  advocates  appealed,  if'A—^    jl 
to  the  flames  ;  and  endeavoured  to  enlist  the  princes  of  Europe  in     f^^ 
general  on  his  side,  by  a  fresh  treatise,  in  which  he  demonstrated 
the  incompatability  of  the  pretensions  advanced  by  the  Popes  to 
universal  dominion  with  the  legitimate  authority  and  independence 
of  each  sovereign  in  his  own  territory. 

It  ia  from  this  act  of  Luther  that  we  may  date  the  commence-  Az-^t- 
ment  of  the  Reformation.     Hitherto,  while  protesting  against  in-  f  ' 

dulgences,  he  had  professed  the  greatest  respect  for  the  Pope,  and 
had  even  written  him  one  letter  couched  in  the  most  reverential 
language,  and  promising  unreserved  obedience  to  his  will;  but 
he  now  by  this  public  insult  for  ever  renounced  his  allegiance  to 
him ;  made  the  breach  between  himself  and  Rome  irreparable ; 
and  staked  his  personal  safety  on  the  result  of  the  conflict.  And 
we  must  pause  for  a  moment  to  contemplate  the  magnitude  of  the 
issues  involved  in  the  contest.  j    j 

In  the  first  place,  not  only  religious,  but  civil  liberty  was  at  Wm^ts.*' 
stake.     Religious  liberty,  because  the  question  really  was,  whether  SX^-(^  < 


the  commands  of  despotic  authority,  which  did  not  condescend  to 


K*^  Aa^ 


support  their  propriety  nor  to  justify  their  promulgation  by  argu-  ^j 

ment,  were  to  be  obeyed  without  examination,  so  that  mankind, 

though  endowed  with  the  faculty  of  reason,  was  to  be  forbidden 

to  exercise  it  on  the  most  important  of  all  subjects ;  or  whether 

the  claims  of  the  Pope  to  universal  submission  were  to  be  tested 

by  a  reference  to  Scripture,  and  only  so  far  admitted  as  they  were 

found  to  be  in  conformity  with  the  Word  of  God.     Civil  liberty,   CL*!/  ^^ 

because  with  that  the  pretensions  advanced  by  the  Pope  to  a 

supremacy  over  all  temporal  princes,  and  to  a  power  of  dispensing^?,^.  6y^^^ 

with  the  observance  of  any  particular  law  in  any  country,  were  ^jA  i^^; 

manifestly  irreconcilable.  0 

Again,  it  was  not  a  single  nation  whose  interests  were  concerned,  /u^a 
but  the  whole  world ;  even  countries  that  were  as  yet  undiscovered. 
From  the  very  first  the  contest  gave  clear  indications  how  extensive 
would  be  its  influence.  Though  the  original  antagonists  were  only 
an  Italian  prince  and  a  German  friar,  it  had  hardly  lasted  ten  years 
before  every  country  in  Christendom  began  to  range  itself  on  one 
side  or  the  other.  The  Emperor's  Flemish  subjects  were  vehe- 
mently divided  on  the   merits  of  the  dispute.    In  France  and 


78  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1517. 

England  Luther  could  soon  number  as  many  adherents  as  in 
Germany.  And,  through  England,  the  results  of  the  struggle 
have  reached  to  every  quarter  of  the  globe,  to  the  continents  of 
Asia  and  Africa ;  to  the  then  but  partially  known  America ;  and 
to  the  countless  isles  of  the  Southern  Seas,  whose  existence  was  as 
yet  unknown  to  and  unsuspected  by  the  boldest  enterprise  or  the 
wildest  speculation. 

The  permanence,  too,  of  its  effects  are  as  memorable  as  their 
extent.  Most  commonly  the  triumphs  of  warfare  pass  away,  leaving 
little  or  no  durable  mark  on  the  history  of  the  countries  engaged. 
Brilliant  as  was  the  skill  which  won  Ravenna  and  Pavia,  fearful 
as  was  the  carnage  which  soaked  with  blood  the  fields  of  Ma- 
rignan,  the  conquerors  reaped  little  from  those  hard-fought  vic- 
tories, but  the  glory  of  their  achievement.  But  though  three 
centuries  and  a  half  have  elapsed  since  Luther  first  raised  his 
voice  against  the  supremacy  of  the  Pope,  the  objects  for  which  he 
contended,  and  which  to  a  certain  extent  he  accomplished,  are  not 
only  cherished  as  earnestly  and  as  warmly  as  at  first  by  every 
people  which  bore  its  share  in  his  victory ;  but  it  may  even  be 
said  that  to  this  day  the  fruits  of  his  triumph  are  still  being 
gathered,  and  that  no  generation  passes  away  without  the  prin- 
ciples which  he  maintained  deriving  increased  strength  and  being 
adopted  by  fresh  adherents. 

Nor  should  we  separate  the  champion  from  the  cause,  nor  forget 
to  do  honour  to  the  dauntless  hardihood  and  devotion  to  truth 
which  could  animate  a  man  of  a  humble  class,  unbefriended  and 
unknown,  to  invite  a  contest  with  a  potentate  of  whom  at  that  time 
every  temporal  sovereign  in  Christendom  acknowledged  himself 
the  vassal.  He  did  not,  he  could  not,  deceive  himself  as  to  the 
difficulty  of  the  enterprise  which  he  was  undertaking.  Still  less 
could  he  blind  himself  to  the  fate  which  awaited  him  if  defeated. 
The  ashes  of  Saatre,^  of  Huss,  of  Savonarola,  warned  him  and 
all  in  unmistakable  language  that  no  country  afforded  either  a 
hope  of  pardon  or  an  asylum  for  any  who  could  even  whisper  a 
belief  in  such  doctrines  as  he  had  proclaimed  upon  the  housetops. 
Nor  could  he  even  encourage  himself  by  the  progpect  which  cheers 
the  warrior  on  the  field  of  battle  of,  if  he  falls,  leaving  a  name 
which  will  be  held  in  honour  by  his  countrymen,  a  reputation 
which  will  be  cherished  as  their  proudest  boast  by  his  friends  and 
kinsmen.  He,  if  death  came,  could  only  look  forward  to  an 
agonising  death,  whose  pains  would  be  aggravated  by  the  stigma 
of  heresy,  if  not  of  imposture ;  while  the  victors  would  insult,  and 

'  The  English  protomartyr,  burnt  in  the  second  year  of  the  reign  of 
Henry  IV.,  a.d  1400. 


A.D.  1521.]  THE  DIET   OF  WOllMS.  79 

even  those  who  had  secretly  favoured  him  while  alive  would  not 
dare  to  defend  his  memory. 

And  at  first  the  contest  seemed  so  unequal  that  it  mig-ht  well 
have  been  renounced  as  hopeless  by  one  whose  courage  was  less 
firmly  sustained  by  a  conviction  of  the  truth  of  his  cause,  and 
by  a  reliance  on  a  higher  Power  than  that  of  man  to  uphold  it. 
Not  ouly  did  Henry  of  England  enter  the  lists  against  him  as  an 
author,  and  thus  apparently  bind  himself,  as  it  were,  by  his  own 
vanity,  for  ever  to  the  maintenance  of  the  old  belief  and  practice ; 
while  t'rancis,  in  the  very  same  year  in  which  he  disowned  the 
Pope  at  Wittenburg,  committed  more  than  one  of  his  partisans  to 
the  flames ;  but  the  supreme  authority  in  his  own  country,  Charles, 
in  his  newly  acquired  character  of  Emperor  of  Germany,  convened 
a  Diet  of  the  Empire  at  Worms  in  the  summer  of  the  next  year,  s 

1521,  which,  when  he  refused  to  retract  his  opinions,  published  a  iM^    ^  * 
sentence  of  outlawry  against  him,  and  offered  a  large  reward  for 
his  an-est,  which  would  unquestionably  have  been  followed  by  his 
instant  execution. 

All  the  mightiest  monarchs  of  the  earth  were  thus  united  against 
him  ;  but,  as  signs  were  not  wanting  that  their  union  would  not  be 
of  long  duration,  and  that  therefore  a  brief  respite  might  suffice  for 
his  safety,  his  own  immediate  sovereign,  the  Elector,  conceived  the 
idea  of  procuring  him  such  a  breathing  time,  and  despatched  a 

squadron  of  cavalry  to  waylay  him  as  he  was  returning  from  ^_ 

Worms,  and  to  carry  him  to  the  strong  castle  of  Wartburg,  in  j/\f..^,.,juf. 
Thuringia,  where  he  was  kept  in  complete  concealment  for  some 
months.  By  the  summer  of  the  next  year  the  three  sovereigns,  as 
we  have  already  seen,  were  openly  engaged  in  war ;  and  Charles, 
devoting  all  his  energies  to  the  repulse  and  chastisement  of  Francis, 
had  no  attention  to  spare  for  theological  controversies,  or  for  execut- 
ing against  a  single  heretic  the  vengeance  of  the  Pope,  with  whose    

temporal  policy  he  was  already  greatly  dissatisfied,  and  whom  he  $/*-(**.  t/ 
already  saw  he  might  soon  desire  to  mortify  rather  than  to  assist,  i 
By  the  spring  of  1522,  therefore,  Luther  came  forth  from  his  con-  *y\^ 
finement,  and  for  some  years  the  war  which  raged  in  Italy  com- <.-  ^*^4^'^ 
pletely  engrossed  the  minds  of  two  of  his  enemies,  Charles  and  t^.^-^^^^ 
Francis :   while  a  transaction  of  a  different  kind  was  beginning 
to  work  on  the  third,  the  King  of  England,  and  to  lead  him  to 
think  of  renouncing  his  own  allegiance  to  the  Pope  rather  than  of 
compelling  others,  whether  by  force  or  by  argument,  to  continue 
in  theirs. 

The  diversion  thus  effected  was  eminently  favorable  to  Lu1?her. 
The  scholars  and  divines  of  Germany  had  leisure  to  examine 
his  reasonings,  without  fear  of  having  their  deliberations  rudely 
interrupted  by  edict  or  bullj   and,  as  they  almost  unanimously 


80  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1526. 

adopted  his  principles,  the  inferior  princes  of  the  country  in  many- 
instances  permitted  their  own  judgment  to  be  guided  by  their 
decision,  and  established  what  now  began  to  be  called  Lutheranism 
in  their  territories  ;  so  that,  when  Charles  next  revisited  Germany, 
which  he  did  not  do  till  nine  years  after  Luther  had  appeared 
before  him  at  Worms,  almost  half  the  Empire  had  embraced  the 
.       opinions  which  had  then  been  so  fiercely  condemned :  while,  more- 

-'L  uSluu  over,  a  Diet,  which  had  been  held  at  Spires  in  1520,  had  issued 
edicts  on  the  subject  which,  to  the  uncompromising  adherents  of 
the  Papacy,  seemed  equivalent  to  a  toleration  of  the  new  heresy. 
Charles  now  summoned  a  fresh  Diet  to  meet  at  the  same  place ; 
and  the  course  which  events  took  there  has  been  rendered  memor- 
able by  the  fact  of  their  uniting  those  who  resisted  the  Papal 
authority  under  a  more  comprehensive  title.  Charles,  through  his 
commissioners,  speaking  to  the  Diet  in  the  tone  of  a  master,  re- 
quired the  members  to  repeal  or  ignore  the  edicts  of  the  last  meet- 
ing, and  to  adopt  and  enforce  the  decree  issued  at  Worms.  His 
command  was  still  law  to  the  majority;  but  those  who  objected, 
being  not  fewer  than  five  sovereign  princes,  and  the  representatives 
of  fourteen  imperial  or  free  cities,  entered  in  the  registers  a  formal 
protest  against  the  vote ;  and  from  this  public  act  the  name  of 
Protestants  was  given  to  all  those  who,  whether  as  partisans  of 
Luther,  or  of  other  leaders  in  other  countries,  such  as  Calvin  or 
Zwingle,  assailed  the  Papal  doctrines  and  claims  to  supreme 
authority.^ 

Another  Diet,  held   a  few  months  later  at  Augsburg,  made 
•  al^irtheiFcontribution  to  the  general  union  of  the  Reformers  of 

'  **'    different  countries,  since  the  Protestant  princes  who  formed  part 

of  the  assembly  employed  Melancthon,  who,  of  all  the  divines 
who  had  embraced  the  new  religion,  had  not  only  the  most  pro- 
found learning,  but  the  soundest  discretion  and  the  most  moderate 
and  conciliatory  temper,  to  draw  up  a  statement  of  their  reasons 
for  separating  from  the  liomish  Church :  a  task  which  he  per- 
formed with  such  admirable  soundness  of  judgment,  that  the 
Confession  of  Augsburg,  as  the  document  which  he  framed  was 
n     entitled,  was  at  once  adopted  as  the  creed  of  the  whole  body 

'^'^c    C^  of  German  Reformers ;   and  even  to  the  present  day  its  authority 

^^  is  recognised  in  the  Lutheran  Churches.     But,  though  the  lan- 

/'^^'^*^guage  of  the  Confession   was   eminently  temperate,  and  as  in- 
offensive to  the  upholders  of  the  opinions  it  denounced  as  was 

*  The  princes  were :  The  new  Elec-  burgh,  Nuremburgh,  Ulm,  Constance, 

tor,  Henry  of  Saxony  (Frederic  had  lieutlingen,  Meiningen,  Windshcim, 

lately  dicci),theMargraveofBranden-  Lindau,    Kemptcn,    Heilbron,    Isna, 

burgh,  the  Landgrave  of  Hesse,  the  Woissenburgh,  Nordliugcn,  and  St, 

Didtc  of  l.unenburgh,  and  the  Prince  CJal. 
of  Anhalt.      The  cities  were  Stras- 


k.iy.  1533.]         THE  LEAGUE  OF  SMALKALDE.  81 

compatible  with  the  disproof  of  the  doctrines  themselves,  it  was 
met,  on  the  part  of  the  Emperor,  by  the  most  imperious  edicts^ 
absolutely  condemning  every  article  it  contained,  and  imposing 
such  severe  penalties  on  all  who  adhered  to  it,  that  it  drove  them 
into  measures  of  open  resistance,  and  made  civil  war  inevitable. 
The  Emperor's  edict  was  issued  on  the  nineteenth  of  November,  and, 
a  month  afterwards,  the  princes  who  had  adopted  Luther's  views 
met  at  Smalkalde,  a  small  village  in  Franconia,  and  there  formed 
themselves  into  a  confederacy  known  as  the  League  of  Smalkalde, 
by  which  they  united  all  the  Protestant  States  of  uermany  into  one 
confederate  body,  bound  to  mutual  defence  against  any  potentate 
who  might  assail  their  religious  liberties;  and  invited  the  alliance ^?2wi,?tvis. 
of  Henry  of  England,  in  whose  capricious  and  headstrong  mind  •>. 
the  desire  to  divorce  his  wife,  the  aunt  of  the  Emperor,  had  quite  ^^^""^^^V 
superseded  his  desire  to  uphold  the  theological  views  which  he   r*^  Xv-^ 
had  formerly  advocated.     It  was  not  strange  that  Plenry  should 
receive  their  invitation  cordially,  and  assist  them  with  money  ; 
but  it  was  hardly  to  have  been  expected  that  they  should  have 
obtained,  as  they  did  obtain,  a  favorable  answer  from   Francis  t^;^^^^u^^/C-^ 
also,  who  never  for  a  moment  wavered  in  his  adherence  to  Papal  -  ^^  j^^^ 
doctrine,  nor  in  his  resolution  to  crush  all  religious  innovations  in  ''^ 

his  own  kingdom  by  fire  and  sword,  but  who,  already  in  all  pro- 
baibility  meditating  a  renewal  of  hostilities  with  Charles,  caught 
eagerly  at  anything  which  afforded  a  prospect  of  exciting  factions 
and  divisions  in  the  Empire.  And  Charles  himself  was  so  appre- 
hensive of  these  powerful  sovereigns  combining  against  him,  in 
which  event  he  would  have  need  of  all  the  force  of  united  Germany 
to  enable  him  to  make  head  against  them,  that,  though  no  prince 
that  ever  lived  was  more  intolerant  by  natural  disposition,  and 
though,  at  the  first  appearance  of  the  Reformation,  he  had 
established  the  Inquisition  in  both  Spain  and  the  Netherlands, 
and  had  permitted  that  most  merciless  of  all  tribunals  to  inflict 
on  scores  and  hundreds  of  his  subjects  in  those  lands  the  fearful 
punishment  to  which  it  condemned  all  heretics,  he  was  forced  to 
humble  his  mind  to  temporise  in  Germany  ;  and,  in  1533,  by  an 
agreement  known  as  the  Truce  of  Nuremburg,  he  granted  the 
German  Protestants  an  immunity  from  all  persecution  till  a 
General  Council  should  be  convened,  with  authority  to  decide  al 
the  points  in  dispute  between  what  he  could  no  longer  refuse  to 
recognise  as  the  two  Churches. 

The  blood  of  martyrs  has  been  said  to  water  the  Church  ;  but 
however  stimulating  persecution  may  be  to  dauntless  spirits,  it  is 
not  in  the  nature  of  things  that,  among  men  in  general,  toleration 
should  not  be  found  to  encourage  a  wider  adoption  of  any  creed  ; 
and,  as  a  practical  toleration  had  been  established  by  the  Treaty  of 


.ho^ 


82  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.b.  1535. 

I  ^  Nuremburg,  the  succeeding  years,  diiring-  which  its  stipulations 
^  ^  fy*^**.  were  observed,  renewed,  and  even  in  some  points  extended, 
witnessed  a  rapid  increase  in  the  number  of  the  Protestants  in 
ahnost  every  province  of  Germany;  while  the  constant  rivalry 
and  enmity  subsisting  between  Francis  and  Charles  was  of  in- 
calculable service  to  them  while  thus,  as  it  were,  in  the  infancy 
of  their  sect,  by  leading  both  sovereigns  occasionally  to  court 
them.  At  one  time  Francis,  far  from  waiting  to  have  his  aid 
solicited,  seemed  inclined  to  seek  their  alliance.  A  few  years 
later  Charles  did  the  same  thing,  and  voluntarily  repealed  all  the 
disabilities  which  any  of  his  former  edicts  had  imposed  upon  them. 
But,  though  in  return  for  these  concessions,  the  Protestant  princes 
supported  him  heartily  in  his  war  against  France,  and  sent  such 
reinforcements  to  his  army  in  l^ombardy  as  gave  it  a  great 
superiority  over  that  of  his  enemies,  they  could  not  prevent  the 
Count  d'Enghien,  the  first  prince  to  win  a  high  military  renown 
of  that  family  of  Cond^,  which  afterwards  gave  to  France  so  many 
redoubtable  warriors,  from  inflicting  a  most  decisive  defeat  on  his 
general,  Guasto,  at  Cerisoles.  But  even  that  overthrow  was 
favorable  to  the  Protestants,  from  the  necessity  which  it  imposed 
on  the  Emperor  of  exerting  all  hie  strength  to  efl'ace  that  stain  on 
his  military  renown  by  an  invasion  of  France.  And,  when  at  htst 
the  war  was  terminated  by  the  Peace  ofCregy,  though  a  secret 
article  in  that  treaty  bound  SotF  theTiegotiators  to  spare  no 
exertions  to  suppress  heresy  throughout  the  whole  of  their 
dominions,  Charles  was  still  too  much  occupied  by  a  war  in  which 
he  was  involved  with  the  Sultan,  and  by  discussions  with  the  Pope 
about  the  meeting  of  the  Council  of  Trent,  for  which  summonses 
were  issued  at  the  beginning  of  1546,  to  be  ready  to  execute  his 
part  of  the  agreement  till  the  spring  of  1546,  at  the  beginning  of 
which  3'ear  Luther  himself  died. 

Even  those  who  did  not  agree  with  Luther  in  all  his  opinions 
(and  at  one  time  the  strife  between  his  disciples  and  those  of 
(>alvin  was  so  bitter  that  the  Papists  themselves  were  not  more 
hated  by  either),  and  those  who  found  fault  with  the  vehemence 
of  his  denunciations  of  the  Papal  abuses;  denunciations  which 
must  be  admitted  often  to  have  resembled  coarse  invectives  rather 
than  convincing  arguments  ;  and  even  those  who  most  disapproved 
of  some  of  his  actions,  such  as  his  proclaiming  his  disavowal  of 
the  doctrine  of  the  celibacy  of  the  clergy  by  taking  a  nun  for  his 
wife,  could  not  refuse  him  their  admiration  as  a  very  great  man. 
And  certainly,  if  extreme  natural  acuteness,  armed  with  very 
extensive  learning,  animated  with  a  sincere  love  of  truth,  and 
sustained  in  a  contest  of  vital  importance  by  the  most  dauntless 
intrepidity   and   most  unwavering  constancy  of  resolution,  can 


A.D.  1516.]   CHARLES'S  WAR  WITH  THE  PROTESTANTS.    83 

entitle  a  man  to  the  reverence  of  his  fellows,  none  are  better 
entitled  to  have  their  memory  held  in  honour  than  he  who,  though 
in  other  countries,  and  especially  in  our  own,  he  had  had  pre- 
cursors whose  labours  had  not  been  forgotten,  but  undoubtedly 
facilitated  the  success  of  his  own,  is  nevertheless  justly  looked  on 
as  the  Father  and  Founder  of  the  Reformation. 

But  Luther's  death  made  no  change  in  the  resolution  which  Qi/iJUJ\^ 
Charles  had  at  last  taken  to  crush  the  Reformation  in  his  German  ^ 
dominions  by  force  of  arms ;    on  the  contrary,  he  was  more  than  C/^-^-j-i-^i 
ever  stimulated  to  carry  out  his  purpose  by  two  occurrences  :  the  ^ 

adoption  of  the  new  religion  by  one  who  was  not  only  an  Elector  f*-*'^^  %i^ 
of  the  Empire,  but  one  of  the  chief  prelates  of  the  Church,  the  j,^j(_^^il    i 
Prince-Archbishop  of  Cologne,  whom  he,  in  consequence,  by  a 
stretch  of  authority  beyond  the  constitution  of  the  Empire,  sum-  ' »  ''^  <V^ 
moned  to  appear  before  him  at  Brussels,  to  answer  for  his  apostasy,*/!  ^^jju^^^- 
and  against  whom,  as  the  Archbishop  declined  to  appear  to  so  [) 
illegal  a  citation,  the  Pope,  Paul  III.,  issued  a  bull  of  deprivation 
and  excommunication.     The  other  event  that  influenced  him  was 
the  refusal  of  the  Protestants  to  accept  as  binding  the  decrees  of  2^ ,  ffT.A»^xiJ. 
the  Council  of  Trent,  which  was  composed  of  scarcely  any  mem-  />wcXtt,>^» 
bers  but  a  few  Italian  and  Spanish  prelates,  and  from  which  they  A 
appealed  to  either  a  free  general  Council  or  a  national  Council  o^A^ 
the  Empire  ;  offering,  at  the  same  time,  if  Charles  should  prefer   A-Cv*K 
it,  to  submit  the  whole  question  of  religion  to  a  joint  Commission, 
composed  of  divines  of  each  party.     These  remonstrances,  how- 
ever, the  Emperor  treated  with  contempt.     He  had  been  for  some 
time  secretly  raising  troops  in  different  quarters;    and,  early  in 
1546,  he  made  a  fresh  treaty  with  the  Pope,  by  which  he  bound 
himself  instantly   to   commence  warlike  operations,  and  which, 
though  it  had  been  negotiated  as  a  secret  treaty,  Paul  instantly 
published,  to  prevent  any  retraction  or  delay  on  his  part. 

War  therefore  now  began,  though  Charles  professed  to  ^'^^'/jL>.,,|,,.v\,,.«> 
upon  it  not  for  the  purpose  of  enforcing  a  particular  religious 
belief  on  the  recusants,  but  for  that  of  re-establishing  the  Imperial ^^^^^-^^  •^  ' 
authority,  which,  as  he  affirmed,  many  of  the  confederate  princes 
had  disowned.  Such  a  pretext  he  expected  to  sow  disunion  in 
the  body,  some  members  of  which  were  far  from  desirous  to 
weaken  the  great  confederacy  of  the  Empire  :  and,  in  effect,  it  did 
produce  a  hesitation  in  their  early  steps  that  had  the  most  im-  .  . 

portant  consequences  on  the  first  campaign ;  for,  in  spite  of  the  /C^\^^  ^lO' 
length  of  time  during  which  be  had  secretly  been  preparing  for  ( 

war,  when  it  came  they  were  more  ready  than  he.  They  at  once 
took  the  field  with  an  army  of  90,000  men  and  120  guns,  while 
he,  for  the  first  few  weeks  after  the  declaration  of  war,  had  hardly 
10,000  men  with  him  in  Ratisbon;  and  even  when  he  was  loined 


84  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1546 

by  his  Spanish  and  Flemish  levies,  and  by  a  body  of  troops  witl 
which  the  Pope,  on  the  execution  of  the  recent  treaty,  furnished 
him,  those  reinforcements  did  not  raise  his  numbers  to  much  more 
than  half  those  of  the  confederates;  and  had  they  had  the  moral 
resolution  and  military  skill  to  avail  themselves  at  once  of  their 
superiority,  they  must  have  overwhelmed  him  at  the  very  com- 
mencement of  hostilities.     But  the  advantage  of  a  single  over  a 

,^jt^  wf  divided  command  was  perhaps  never  more  clearly  exemplified 
''^  •    than  in  the  first  operations  of  the  two  armies.     He,  as  the  weaker 

♦'^^-•'***^  pftrty,  took  up  a  defensive  position  near  Ingfoldstadt  ,•  but,  though 
they  advanced  within  sight  of  his  lines,  they  could  not  agree  on 
the  mode  of  attack,  or  even  on  the  prudence  of  attacking  him  at 
all.  The  Landgrave  of  Hesse  urged  vigorous  measures,  affirming 
that  an  instant  assault  of  his  entrenchments,  which  were  but 
slight,  must  terminate  the  war  at  a  single  blow  ;  but  the  Elector 
of  Saxony,  whose  contingent  was  larger,  and  whose  authority 
among  the  confederates  was  greater,  dwelt  on  the  superior  quality 
of  the  Emperor's  troops,  who  were  mostly  veterans  tried  in  many 
a  battle,  and  on  the  military  skill  of  the  Emperor  himself  and  of 
his  chief  officers  ;  till,  at  last,  the  confederates  actually  drew  ofl^ 
and  Charles,  advancing,  made  himself  master  of  many  important 
towns,  which  their  irresolution  alone  had  enabled  him  to  approach. 
Meanwhile,  his  declaration  that  it  was  the  establishment  of  his 
ovrn  Imperial  authority,  and  not  the  enforcement  of  the  Papal 
doctrines,  which  was  his  aim,  procured  him  an  ally,  who,  though 
in  reality  his  intention  was  not  to  serve  the  Emperor,  but  to  make 
him  an  instrument  for  his  own  purposes,  could  not  for  shame  have 
joined  him  had  he  avowed  his  real  object.  There  had  been  a 
great  mortality  among  the  Electors  of  Saxony ;  the  reigning 
prince,  Henry,  being  the  fourth  who  had  enjoyed  that  rank  since 
Luther  had  first  commenced  his  agitation  ;  and  a  kinsman  of  his, 
Maurice,  the  head  of  another  branch  of  his  family,  who  ruled  over 
^^  y  a  large  portion  of  the  province,  conceived  the  idea  of  so  profiting 
*^-^     by  these  troubles  as  to  get  possession  of  the  whole.     With  this 

,^,J„^  ,  view,  though  he  also  was  a  Protestant,  he  tendered  his  services 
to  the  Emperor,  who,  in  spite  of  his  youth,  discerned  in  him  a 
promise  of  very  superior  capacity,  gladly  accepted  his  aid,  and 
promised  to  reward  him  with  the  territories  which  he  coveted. 
The  advantages  which  Protestantism  eventually  derived  from 
Maurice's  success  has  blinded  some  historians  to  the  infamy  of  the 
conduct  by  which  he  acliieved  it ;  but,  while  it  is  hardly  possible 
to  refuse  our  admiration  to  the  address  with  which  he  ac- 
complished his  objects,  outwitting  not  only  his  confiding  relative, 
but  the  crafty  and  all-suspicious  Charles,  it  is  the  duty  of  all  who 
have  the  due  regard  for  good  faith  and  integrity  to  brand  his 


A.D.  1546.]      TREACHERY   OF  MAURICE   OF  SAXONY.      85 

whole  policy  and  conduct  as  stamped  with  as  base  treachery 
as  is  recorded  in  the  annals  of  any  country.  The  Elector  Henry 
was  his  cousin ;  the  Landgrave  of  Hesse  was  his  father-in-law. 
Pleading  an  unwillingness  while  so  young  (he  was  barely  twenty- 
one)  to  engage  in  the  war,  he  volunteered  to  undertake  the  pro- 
tection of  his  cousin's  dominions  during  his  absence  in  the  field. 
His  ofter  was  thankfully  accepted ;  but  he  was  no  sooner  installed 
in  his  charge  than  he  began  to  negotiate  with  the  enemy  to  invade 
the  territories  which  he  had  bound  himself  to  protect,  i^nd  on 
receiving  from  Charles  a  copy  of  a  decree,  called  the  Ban  of  the 
Empire,  which  had  just  been  issued  against  both  the  Elector  and 
the  Landgrave,  he  at  once  raised  a  force  of  his  own,  with  which  he 
overran  one  portion  of  Henry's  dominions,  while  a  division  of  the 
Imperial  army  attacked  the  rest ;  and  he  would  probably  have  suc- 
ceeded at  once  in  subduing  the  whole  Electorate,  had  the  main  body 
of  the  Protestants  been  able  to  maintain  the  war  on  the  Danube.  But 
the  extreme  irresolution  of  the  confederate  commanders  there  had 
enabled  Charles  to  reduce  nearly  all  the  chief  cities  in  that  district 
to  submission ;  he  had  imposed  heavy  fines  on  them  j  had  com- 
pelled them  to  renounce  the  League  ;  and  the  consequence  waa 
that,  at  the  approach  of  winter,  the  Elector  returned  to  Saxony, 
with  a  force  which,  though  unable  to  check  the  Emperor, 
was  sufficient  to  chastise  Maurice  for  his  treachery ;  to  drive 
him  not  only  from  the  towns  and  districts  which  he  had 
seized,  but  to  strip  him  also  of  the  greater  part  of  the  territory 
which  belonged  to  him  by  inheritance  ;  and  had  not  Henry,  with 
a  folly  inconceivable  after  the  experience  which  he  had  had  of  his 
baseness  and  perfidy,  allowed  himself  to  be  deluded  into  a  negotia- 
tion with  him,  he  might  with  ease  have  entirely  overwhelmed  him. 
For  Charles  was  not  at  first  able  to  send  him  any  assistance  be- 
yond a  small  detachment,  under  Albert,  marquis  of  Brandenburgh, 
whom  Henry  had  no  difficulty  in  surprising,  defeating,  and  taking 
prisoner.  The  very  towns  which  Maurice  had  compelled  to  obe- 
dience weakening  his  army  by  the  necessity  which  they  imposed  on 
him  of  garrisoning  them. 

The  Pope,  though  Charles  Avas  fighting  his  battle,  yet,  following 
the  political  traditions  of  his  predecessors,  looked  at  the  interests /I      |        - 
of  Italy  and  her  freedom  from  foreign  domination  as  even  more  Tp^'"^*''^^ 
important  than  the  maintenance  of  orthodoxy ;  and,  fearing  lest/l*l^ 
the  success  which  the  Emperor  had  already  achieved  might  enable 
him  again  to  become   master   of  Italy,  and  perhaps   of  Rome, 
recalled  his  forces,  which  formed  so  large  a  portion  of  the  Imperial 
army  that  Charles  was  compelled  to  remain  inactive  through  the 
winter ;  and  had  he  not  been  relieved  from  his  fears  on  another 
side  by  the  death  of  Francis,  which  took  place  in  the  spring  of 


Us^ 


86  MODEKN  niSTOKY.  [a.d.  1547. 

1547,  he  might  very  probably  have  given  the  Protestants  a  respite 
which  would  have  enabled  them  to  recover  their  lost  ground.  But 
Francis's  death  changed  his  views.  He  had  no  fear  of  a  renewal 
of  hostilities  by  France  while  the  king  of  that  country  was  new  to 
the  exercise  of  his  authority ;  and  therefore,  the  very  week  after 
the  accession  of  Henry  II.,  he  resumed  operations,  and  marched 
against  the  Elector,  as  the  only  antagonist  remaining  who  was  able 
or  likely  to  give  him  any  trouble.  It  waa  a  bold  enterprise,  for, 
from  the  different  causes  which  have  been  mentioned,  his  army 
was  so  reduced  that  he  could  muster  but  16,000  men  for  the  cam- 
paign, a  force  far  smaller  than  that  of  the  prince  against  whom 
he  was  marching ;  but  the  Elector,  now  that  he  was  alone,  showed 
even  worse  generalship  than  when  he  had  colleagues  to  consult, 
and  distributed  so  many  of  his  regiments  among  the  small  towns 
which  he  expected  to  be  attacked,  but  which  they  were  quite  in- 
sufficient to  preserve  for  him,  that  when,  on  the  twenty-third  of 
April,  Charles  reached  the  Elbe  and  prepared  to  attack  him,  he  had 
no  advantage  over  his  assailant  but  that  of  position.  That  indeed 
was  very  strong.  He  lay  at  Muhlberg,  on  the  right  bank  of  the 
river,  which  at  that  point  is  300  yards  wide  and  more  than  4  feet 
deep,  with  a  stream  so  rapid  as  to  render  the  passage,  even  for  horse- 
men, a  task  of  great  difficulty  and  danger ;  there  was  no  bridge, 
and  not  more  than  one  and  that  a  \eTj  narrow  ford  :  while,  as  the 
ground  on  his  side  was  higher  than  that  on  which  the  Emperor 
stood,  his  batteries  were  able  to  sweep  the  opposite  bank  with 
great  effect.  So  formidable  did  his  position  seem  that  when  the 
Emperor,  after  reconnoitring  it,  announced  his  intention  to  attack 
it  the  next  morning,  his  great  general  the  Duke  of  Alva,  and  even 
Maurice,  whose  natural  courage  was  sharpened  by  the  prospect  of 
gaining  the  Electorate,  remonstrated  against  his  determination  as 
one  of  almost  desperate  rashness.  But  Charles's  disposition  was 
at  all  times  inclined  to  the  bolder  measures ;  and  on  this,  as  on 
many  other  occasions,  fortune  favoured  the  boldest.  A  peasant  of 
tlie  neighbourhood  undertook  to  guide  the  cavalry  through  the 
ford,  and  he  himself  led  them  in  person  into  the  water,  though 
more  than  once  the  stream  proved  so  deep  that  they  had  to 
advance  many  yards  by  swimming.  Encouraged  by  such  an  ex- 
ample, the  infantry  emulated  the  audacity  of  the  cavalry.  As 
there  were  not  boats  enough  on  their  side  to  make  a  bridge,  some 
of  them  swam  the  entire  width  of  the  river,  with  their  swords  in 
their  mouths,  and  brought  back  an  additional  supply  from  the 
Saxon  side  ;  and,  while  these  operations  were  in  progress,  so  thick 
a  fog  settled  on  the  river  that  the  Saxon  gunners  were  unable  to 
direct  their  fire  with  any  correctness  so  as  to  obstruct  them.  As 
soon  as  the  Imperialists  reached  the  right  bank,  the  contest  was  in 


A.D.  1547.J  THE  BATTLE   OF  MUHLBERO.  87 

fact  over.  The  Elector,  indeed,  desired  to  avoid  fighting  at  all, 
and  gave  the  order  to  retreat  towards  Witteuburg ;  but  the  enemy 
were  too  close  upon  him  to  render  such  a  measure  practicable.  He 
was  therefore  compelled  to  halt  and  fight ;  and  when  he  found 
this  to  be  the  case,  even  his  enemies  confessed  that  he  proved  that 
his  previous  indecision  and  hesitation  had  proceeded  from  an  error 
of  judgment,  not  from  any  want  of  courage.  But  the  personal 
prowess  of  one  man  has  rarely  saved  a  battle  ;  and  his  followers 
were  too  much  disheartened  by  the  previous  occurrences,  by  their 
retreat,  by  their  chiefs  evident  desire  to  avoid  the  conflict,  and  by 
the  extreme  gallantry  of  their  assailants,  to  second  his  efforts  as 
they  should  have  done.  They  soon  gave  way ;  many  fell ;  still 
more  were  taken,  and  among  them  the  Elector  himself,  who  was 
severely  wounded ;  while  the  entire  loss  of  the  conquerors  is  said 
not  to  have  exceeded  fifty  men. 

So  decisive  a  victory  seemed  to  be  the  conclusion  of  the  war.  . 

But  its  very  completeness  brought  new  dangers  on  the  conqueror.  QIaaaJ  d-* 
His  conduct  after  Pavia  had  shown  that  among  his  great  quali-  f^  (J^  ^ 
ties  he  did  not  number  generosity ;  and  his  treatment  of  his  new 
prisoner  was  marked  not  only  with  unexampled  insolence,  but 
with  a  cruelty  more  resembling  the  ferocity  of  a  buccaneer  than 
the  conduct  of  a  Christian  knight  accustomed  to  the  rules  and  L^-**-^*^  *^ 
practice  of  civilised  warfare.     He  insulted  his  captive  when  first^j.,..^  1*^ 
brought  into  his  presence  with  ignoble  reproaches.      When  his 
wife,  a  princess  of  beauty  and  spirit,  having  received  in  Witten- 
burg,  his  capital,  some  of  the  fugitives  from  Muhlberg,  showed 
a  resolution  with  their  aid  to  defend  that  city,  he  compelled  her 
to   surrender  it  by  the  threat  of  putting  her  husband  to  death 
if  she  should  persist  in  defending  it.     And,  as  if  no  service  ren- 
dered by  others  could  entitle  them  to  intercede  for  any  who  had 
once  stood  in  arms  against  him,  though  Maurice  was  son-in-law  of 
the  Landgrave  of  Hesse,  he  stripped  that  prince  of  his  territories, 
and  by  a  device  scarcely  removed  from  the  tricks  of  a  kidnapper, 

threw  him  also  into  prison,  thinking  perhaps  that  Maurice,  on 

whom,  after   Muhlberg,  he   had  conferred  the  whole  Electorate  OU/^'^.-^C 
of  Saxony  which  he  pronounced  Henry  to  have  forfeited,  was  in  ^     ^^ 
too  great  awe  of  him,  or  was  too  much  influenced  by  the  hope  of  ^ 
obtaining  further  benefits,  to  resent  such  treacherous  and  injurious 
treatment  of  his  own  father-in-law. 

He  misunderstood  the  character  of  Maurice,  and  that  prince's 
views  of  his  own  position.  Maurice  had  already  obtained  from 
him  all  that  he  could  expect  from  his  goodwill ;  and  though  he 
was  still  bent  on  acquiring  more,  it  was  on  the  necessities  of  Charles, 
and  not  on  his  liberality,  that  he  founded  his  future  hopes. 

For  some  time  it  seemed  as  if  fortune  were  in  doubt  whether  to 


88  MODEEN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  154a 

continue  her  favour  to  the  Emperor,  or  to  frown  on  hira.  He  had 
beaten  down  all  who  resisted  him  in  Germany ;  but,  though  in  a 
fresh  Diet  held  at  Augsburg  he  displayed  a  more  fixed  resolution 
to  enforce  submission  to  Papal  doctrine  than  he  had  previously 
ventured  to  display,  the  Pope  showed  more  and  more  that  his  sus- 
picions of  his  possible  designs  outweighed  his  sense  of  obligation. 
To  diminish  his  influence  over  the  Council  of  Trent,  Paul  trans- 
feiTed  its  sittings  to  Bologna  5  and,  though  the  Emperor  forbad 
those  prelates  who  were  his  own  subjects  to  attend  it  any  longer, 
and  delivered  a  formal  protest  from  himself  against  the  transference, 
he  was  unable  to  procure  any  change  in  the  policy  of  the  Pope  and 
his  advisers ;  and,  in  revenge,  before  the  Diet  was  dissolved,  he 
came  forward  in  a  new  character,  as  the  framer  of  a  measure  of 
conciliation  which,  though  he  called  it  the  'Interim,'  to  indicate 
that  it  was  only  a  temporary  arrangement,  contained  concessions, 
such,  for  instance,  as  that  of  the  administration  of  the  Sacrament  in 
both  kinds,  which,  if  they  once  became  widely  adopted,  it  would 
obviously  be  almost  impossible  subsequently  to  recall.  But  the 
measure  proved  equally  imacceptable  to  all  parties.  The  Pope 
looked  only  to  the  concessions  it  contained,  and  rejected  it  on  that 
ground.  The  Protestants  regarded  only  those  points  in  which 
conformity  to  the  practices  of  Rome  was  still  required ;  and  were 
equally  zealous  against  it  for  that  reason.  And,  though  Charles 
made  himself  master  of  many  of  the  free  cities  which  were  foremost 
in  denouncing  it,  he  had  on  the  whole  but  little  reason  to  plume 
himself  on  the  success  of  his  own  efforts  as  a  reformer  or  a 
mediator. 

He  convened  another  Diet  at  Augsburg,  which  had  no  other 
result  but  to  give  Maurice  the  opportunity,  for  which,  ever  since 
Muhlberg,  he  had  been  on  the  watch,  of  turning  against  him. 
And  Charles's  objects  and  management  of  them  were  such  as  to 
enable  him  to  give  his  opposition  the  appearance  of  being  dic- 
tated by  public  spirit.  The  Elector  had  always  professed  himself 
a  Protestant,  and  the  special  purpose  for  which  the  Diet  was 
assembled  was  to  force  the  acceptance  of  the  Interim  on  Saxony. 
To  resist  such  a  design  seemed  the  clear  duty  of  one  who  was  now 
the  sovereign  ruler  of  that  province.  As  a  Prince  of  the  Empire, 
he  was  also  justified  in  exerting  a  vigilance  to  maintain  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  Diet ;  which  Charles,  who  had  brought  a  body  of 
Spanish  troops  to  Augsburg  to  overawe  its  deliberations,  was  by 
that  act  manifestly  threatening  in  an  unconstitutional  manner.  He 
had,  moreover,  a  personal  ground  of  quarrel  against  the  Emperor, 
for  having  made  him  an  instrument  in  the  seizure  and  imprison- 
ment of  ills  own  father-in-law,  the  Landgrave.  In  fact,  each 
uitherto  had    been   seeking   to   make  a  tool  of  the  other;   but 


A.D.  1552.]  MAURICE  AND  HENRY  JI.  89 

Maurice,  who  had  obtained  all  that  he  wanted,  namely,  the  Elec- 
torate, which  could  not  be  taken  away  from  him,  had  nothing  more 
to  gain  by  continued  subservience ;  while  for  more  than  one  oi 
the  schemes  which  the  Emperor  was  still  forming,  the  co-operation 
or,  at  least,  the  acquiescence  of  the  Elector  was  very  desirable. 

IVJ^urice,  though  bold,  was  never  rash.  He  exerted  all  his 
address,  and  not  unsuccessfully,  to  strengthen  his  influence  among 
the  German  princes  and  cities ;  but  he  also  felt  that,  to  render 
that  rupture  which  he  meditated  with  the  Emperor  safe,  he  had  Oh 
need  of  the  alliance  of  some  foreign  sovereign.  And  just  at  this  '*^****'**^«h. 
moment  an  attempt  of  Charles  to  add  the  Duchy  of  Parma  to  hia  ^4^.a4«  <MJ 
Milanese  dominion  so  offended  the  new  King  of  France,  Henry  II., 
that  he  willingly  listened  to  overtures  from  the  Saxon  Prince,  and 
in  October  1551  concluded  a  treaty  of  alliance  with  him,  which 
however  was  kept  secret  by  both  till  they  were  ready  to  commence 
operations.  During  the  interval  Maurice  adopted  every  device  to 
prevent  the  Emperor  from  suspecting  the  storm  that  was  about  to 
burst  upon  him,  and  to  justify  himself  to  the  world  for  the  rupture. 
He  feigned  the  fullest  confidence  in  him.  He  addressed  to  him  a 
formal  entreaty,  backed  by  many  other  influential  princes,  for  the 
release  of  the  Landgrave ;  and,  when  that  request  was  haughtily 
rejected,  he  still  gave  no  sign  of  having  taken  offence  j  but  dis- 
cussed in  amicable  terms  proposals  for  sending  Protestant  divines 
to  Trent,  where  the  Council  had  lately  been  reassembled,  and 
even  promised  to  pay  Charles  a  visit  at  Innspruck,  where  the 
Emperor  was  holding  his  court  during  that  winter,  with  a  view 
to  arrange  all  matters  in  dispute  at  a  personal  conference;  not 
throwing  off  the  mask  till  he  had  25,000  men  actually  under 
arms,  at  whose  head  he  suddenly  put  himself  in  March  1552,  and 
without  a  moment's  delay  commenced  operations. 

Henry  was  equally  ready  for  action,  and  equally  prompt  in  his 
movements.     His  army  consisted  of  about  3G,000  men,  of  whom  the    >% 
main  body  was  commanded,  under  himself,  by  the  celebrated  admiral  frf^^uuAJl 
Gaspard  de  Coligny ;  but  though  their  plans  had  been  laid  in  con-   ^v 
cert,  the  manifestoes  which  the  two  princes  put  forward  to  justify'    '  Aa.4*^ 
their  having  recourse  to  war  were  not  identical  in  their  language.  C^^ 

Maurice  avowed  his  object  to  be  to  secure  to  the  Protestants  the  '^  la 
fiee  exercise  of  their  religion,  and  to  all  Germans-  the  preservation  >^*<'**f 
of  their  ancient  constitution,  which  was  now  threatened  by  a 
monarch  of  absolute  power;  and  he  further  complained  of  the 
continued  detention  of  the  Landgrave.  Henry  said  nothing  of 
this  prince,  with  whom  he  had  no  connection  ;  nor,  as  an  adherent 
of  the  Pope,  could  he  profess  a  desire  for  any  indulgence  to  the 
Lutherans.  He  was  reduced  to  enforce  the  necessity  of  pretending 
a  zeal  for  the  independence  of  tlie  German  princes  in  general,  and 


"l^fU^: 


do  MODERN   HISTORY.  [a.d.  1552. 

styled  himself  the  Protector  of  the  Liberties  of  Germany.  In 
truth,  the  spread  of  the  lie  formation  was  hardly  aided  more  by 
the  discontent  felt  at  the  theological  novelties  sanctioned  by  Rome 
than  by  the  despotic  character  of  the  Romish  religion  as  deve- 
loped in  the  conduct  of  the  sovereigns  who  were  its  chief  sup- 
porters: while,  on  the  other  hand,  if  we  compare  the  ex^eme 
rigour  with  which  Charles  treated  the  Protestants  with  the 
contempt  he  on  more  than  one  occasion  showed  for  the  Pope, 
we  may  perhaps  fairly  conclude  that  what  he  hated  most  in  their 
views  was  not  the  theological  doctrines  which  they  maintained, 
but  the  principles  of  civil  liberty  which  seemed  to  proceed  from, 
and  to  be  inseparably  connected  with,  their  assertion  of  religious 
freedom. 

Charles  laboured  unremittingly  throughout  his  whole  reign  to 
render  himself  an  absolute  monarch.  His  son  Philip  excited  the 
great  revolt  against  his  power  in  the  Netherlands,  of  which  we 
shall  speak  hereafter,  far  more  by  his  encroachments  on  the  fran- 
chises and  privileges  of  the  different  cities  and  provinces  in  that 
country,  than  by  his  religious  persecutions,  merciless  as  they 
were ;  just  as  we  see  in  the  history  of  our  own  country,  the  very 
men  who  refused  to  pass  an  Exclusive  Bill  to  prevent  James  from 
succeeding  to  the  throne,  rose  afterwards  and  drove  him  from  it, 
when  they  perceived  that  his  interpretation  of  his  duty  to  his 
Church  was  incompatible  with  the  preservation  of  their  laws  and 
privileges  as  free  Englishmen. 

But  though  the  allies  took  care  to  be  ready  for  instant  action 
before  they  gave  the  slightest  indication  of  their  designs,  Charles, 
on  the  contrary,  was  wholly  unprepared  for  hostilities,  and  their 
declaration  of  war  came  upon  him  like  a  thunderclap,  when  he 
had  scarcely  more  troops  with  him  at  Innspruck  than  would  serve 
for  a  body  guard.  He  could  offer  no  resistance  on  either  side. 
While  Maurice  made  himself  master  of  Augsburg  and  the  other 
chief  towns  in  that  part  of  Germany,  Henry,  advancing  on  lior- 
raine,  seized  Toul,  Verdun,  and  even  by  a  stratagem  obtained  pos- 
session of  the  great  fortress  of  Metz  without  striking  a  blow ; 
and  presently  the  Emperor  was  even  compelled  to  fly  from  Inn- 
spruck by  night,  during  a  heavy  storm,  to  avoid  falling  into  the 
hands  of  Maurice,  who  could  probably  have  reached  that  city  in 
time  to  prevent  his  escape,  had  he  thought  it  politic  to  encumber 
himself  with  so  important  a  prisoner.  As  he  said  himself,  *  Some 
birds  are  too  big  for  any  cage.' 

In  truth  he  extorted  as  much  from  the  Emperor's  fears  as  he 
could  have  obtained  from  his  necessities.  A  few  weeks  afterwards, 
he  laid  siege  to  Frankfort ;  and  the  danger  of  so  rich  and  im- 
portant a  city  reduced  Cliarles  to  purchase  peace  even  at  the  price 


A.T).  1552.]  THE  PEACE  OF  PASSATJ.  91 

of  concessions  to  the  Lutherans,  which  were  equivalent  to  a  com- 
plete and  permanent  toleration.  By  a  treaty  concluded  at  Passau^ 
on  the  second_of  Au<yust,  all  who  adhered  to  the  Confession  of 
Augsburg  were  allowed  the  free,  undisturbed  exercise  of  their 
religion  till  the  meeting  of  the  next  Diet;  and,  in  the  event  of 
that  Diet  proving  unable  to  terminate  the  existing  religious  differ- 
ences by  a  reunion  on  terms  of  mutual  concession,  then  the 
stipulations  in  favour  of  the  Protestants  were  to  continue  for  ever. 
It  marks  in  a  striking  manner  the  disunion  that  already  existed 
between  the  different  sects  of  Protestants,  that  the  Calvinists 
obtainfid-JiQ^  share  in  this  toleration ;  nor  did  it  extend^  to~lhe 
Netherlands,  where  the  converts  from  Popery  were  chiefly  of  that 
denomination.  But  still,  limited  as  the  toleration  was,  it  was 
such  a  complete  abandonment  of  the  policy  of  his  whole  reign  that 
it  was  a  severe  humiliation  to  the  Emperor,  and  fate  had  further 
mortifications  in  store  for  him.  The  conclusion  of  peace  in  Ger- 
many left  him  at  leisure  to  turn  all  his  force  against  France ;  and 
having,  with  great  exertions,  collected  a  more  powerful  army  than 
he  had  for  years  seen  around  his  standards,  since  it  was  swelled  by  n—^ 
the  troops  of  more  than  one  Protestant  prince,  who,  now  that  the  /ijyU, 
cause  of  discord  in  their  own  land  was  removed,  were  as  eager  as"^  ^^— ^ 
himself  to  expel  the  French  from  a  German  town,  he  marched 
against  Metz  at  the  head  of  60,000  men,  with  the  Duke  of  Alva 
as  his  lieutenant-general.  But  Henry  was  as  earnest  to  retain  as 
Charles  was  to  recover  that  important  fortress :  with  rare  dis- 
crimination he  entrusted  its  defence  to  a  prince  whose  warlike 
talents  were  as  yet  unsuspected  by  everyone  but  himself,  Francis, 
duke  of  Guise,  to  whom  France  was  afterwards  indebted  for  an 
acquisition  which  gratified  her  national  pride  more  than  any  other 
event  of  the  century,  the  recovery  of  Calais.  The  duke  subse- 
quently more  than  cancelled  that  service  by  the  way  in  which,  ex- 
cited by  the  popularity  his  achievements  had  won  for  him,  he  gave 
the  rein  to  his  lawless  ambition,  and  plunged  the  kingdom  into  the 
longest  and  bloodiest  civil  war  that  as  yet  had  ever  been  witnessed 
in  Christendom.  But  on  the  present  occasion  he  proved  himsell 
worthy  of  the  task  confided  to  him :  with  great  energy,  judgment, 
and  military  skill  he  rapidly  put  the  city  in  a  defensible  condition, 
encouraging  the  garrison  to  unusual  toil  by  setting  the  example, 
and  labouring  with  his  own  hands  at  the  fortifications ;  so  that 
when  the  Imperial  army  came  in  sight  of  the  walls,  they  found 
that  a  long  investment  would  be  necessary  to  reduce  it.  But 
Guise  was  as  ready  to  deliver  as  to  receive  attack.  Not  only  were 
the  breaches  instantly  repaired,  the  mines  countermined,  but  night 
after  night  he  came  down  on  their  works  with  successful  sallies, 
inflicting  on  them  heavy  loss,  and  keeping  them  in  a  constant 


92  MODEEN  HISTOEY.  [a.d.  1552 

state  of  alarm.  The  weather,  too,  which  throughout  the  winter 
was  unusually  severe,  was  a  most  useful  ally  to  him ;  disease 
broke  out  in  the  besiegers'  camp,  till  at  last,  after  an  investment  of 
nearly  two  months,  in  which  he  had  lost  half  his  army,  the 
Emperor  drew  off  his  troops,  comforting  himself  with  forced 
philosophy,  by  observing  that  '  Fortune  was  a  female  who  reserved 
her  favours  for  younger  men.' 

But  philosophical  aphorisms  such  as  this  are  rather  calculated 
to  disguise  a  sufferer's  vexation  from  the  world ,  than  from 
himself.  Even  the  death  of  Maurice,  against  whom  he  entertained 
a  particular  enmity  for  having  so  completely  outwitted  him,  and 
who  the  next  year  fell  in  battle  while  gaining  a  great  victory  over 
Albert  of  Brandenburgh,  failed  to  cheer  him  ;  nor  did  the  capture 
of  some  important  French  towns  on  the  frontier  of  the  Netherlands 
counterbalance  in  his  eyes  the  loss  of  the  great  Lorraine  fortress ; 
which  the  next  year  he  again  unsuccessfully  tried  to  recover,  by 
the  treachery  of  some  monks  ;  but  which  was  destined  to  remain 
French  for  above  300  years,  and  never  to  be  restored  to  Germany 
till  a  French  sovereign  of  a  new  and  foreign  dynasty,  deceived  by 
incapable  and  unworthy  servants  alike  as  to  the  resources  of  his 
own  and  of  other  kingdoms,  entered,  unprovoked,  into  a  suicidal 
war,  and  in  a  few  weeks  inflicted  a  more  fatal  blow  on  bis  adopted 
country  than  half  a  century  before  the  whole  world  in  arms  had 
been  able  to  deal. 

And  it  is  probable  that  the  mortification  which  these  disasters 
caused  the  Emperor  accelerated  the  adoption  of  a  design  which  he 
had  formed  many  years  before ;  and  which,  if  no  other  event  had 
made  his  reign  remarkable,  would  of  itself  have  fixed  both  it  and 
himself  ineftaceably  in  the  memory  of  mankind.  Above  twelve 
centuries  before,  a  Roman  emperor,  who  singularly  resembled 
Charles  in  the  ostentation  with  which  he  had  added  new  honours^ 
to  the  Imperial  title  which  had  contented  liia  predecessors,  &s  well 
as  in  the  ferocious  bigotry  which  he  had  shown  in  the  persecu- 
tion of  all  who  ventured  to  embrace  a  new  creed  which  he  him- 
self discountenanced,  had  voluntarily  descended  from  the  throne 
to  pass  the  last  years  of  his  life  in  a  private  station.  As  early 
as  the  year  1540,  Charles  had  announced  to  one  of  his  most 
familiar  associates  his  intention  of  following  the  example  of  Dio- 

^  We  have  seen  how  the  new  title  an  ornament  detested  by  the  Romans 

of  Majesty  was  invented  to  gratify  as  the  odious  ensign  of  royalty,  and 

the  vanity  of  Charles.     GTibbon  tells  the  use  of  which  had  been  considered 

us,  c.  xiii.,  how  *  The  pride  or  rather  as  the  most  desperate  act  of  the  mad- 

the  policy  of  Diocletian  engaged  that  ness  of  Caligula.  .  .  .  It  was  his  ob- 

artful  prince  to  introduce  the  stately  ject  to  display  the  un"bounded  power 

magnificence  of  the  court  of  Persia,  which  the  P^mperors  possessed  over 

He  ventured  to  assume  the  diadem,  the  Koman  world.' 


A.n.  lo65.]      CHAELES  ABDICATES  THE  THRONE.  93 

cletian ;  but  he  could  hardly  have  executed  his  design  as  to  Spain 
till  the  death  of  his  mother,  before  which  event  he  was  only  king 
it  might  be  said  on  sufferance.  She,  however,  after  half  a  century 
of  hopeless  insanity,  died  in  April  1555 ;  and  in  the  autumn  of  the 
same  year,  at  a  meeting  of  the  States  of  the  Netherlands  at 
Brussels,  Charles,  in  a  speech  of  great  dignity  and  pathos,  formally 
resigned  to  his  son  his  authority  over  those  provinces,  and  a  few 
weeks  afterwards  he  made  a  similar  renunciation  of  the  kingdom 
of  Spain  with  all  its  vast  dependencies.  While  in  the  enjoyment 
of  youth  and  health  he  had  greatly  preferred  his  Flemish  terri- 
tories, which  were  his  birthplace,  to  his  Spanish  dominions.  But 
in  his  old  age,  for,  though  he  was  but  fifty-five  years  old,  gout  and 
other  disorders  had  already  made  him  an  old  man,  he  preferred 
the  sunny  vallies  of  Spain  for  his  abode ;  and  some  years  before  he 
had  selected  a  convent  of  the  Order  of  St.  Jerome,  the  least  ascetic 
of  all  such  brotherhoods,  in  the  most  beautiful  part  of  Estrema- 
dura,  not  far  from  the  city  of  Plasencia,  as  the  place  of  his  future 
retirement.  In  the  interval  he  had  added  to  the  original  building 
a  wing,  carefully  furnished  with  everything  necessary  for  the 
comfort  of  a  valetudinarian,  who,  though  he  had  laid  aside  the 
title,  was  never  likely  to  forget  that  he  had  been  a  king ;  and 
thither  he  now  repaired.  Diocletian  after  his  abdication  found  his 
health  and  his  pleasure  in  the  innocent  enjoyment  of  his  gardening, 
exulting,  like  the  old  Corycian,  on  the  banks  of  the  Galesus,  in  the 
growth  of  his  cabbages.^  But  Charles  could  not  wean  himself 
either  from  the  luxuries  of  his  former  state,  or  from  his  deep 
interest  in  the  affairs  of  Europe  and  in  the  policy  of  the  nations 
which  he  once  had  ruled.  On  his  arrival  at  Yuste,  which  was  the 
name  of  the  convent,  he  saluted  the  prior  and  the  brotherhood  of 
which  he  was  now  to  become  a  member,  in  words  something  like 
those  of  Wolsey  : — 

An  old  man,  broken  with  the  storms  of  state, 
Is  come  to  lay  his  weary  bones  among  ye. 

But,  unlike  the  great  Cardinal,  he  had  come  with  a  royal  retinue, 
with  huge  fourgons  of  plate,  and  above  fifty  servants,  among  whom 
was  a  vast  train  of  cooks,  whose  task  was  to  see  that  even  in  that 
inland  district  the  retired  monarch  did  not  fare  less  sumptuously 
than  at  Ghent  or  Brussels,  where  the  sea  was  at  hand  to  furnish 

1  Namque  sub  CEbalia)  memini  me  turribus  altis, 
Qua  niger  humectat  flaventia  culta  Galesus, 
Corycium  vidisse  senem,  cui  pauca  relicti 
Jugera  ruris  erant. 

*  For  where  with  stately  towers  Tarentum  stands, 
And  deep  Galesus  soaks  the  yellow  sands, 
I  chanc'd  an  old  Corycian  swain  to  know, 
Lord  of  lew  acres,' — Dryden,  Georgics,  iv.  176. 


M  MODERN   HISTORY.  [a.d.  1657. 

daily  novelties  and  delicacies  for  his  table.  For  the  gout,  which 
had  prematurely  broken  down  his  strength,  was  attributable  mainly 
to  his  indulgence  of  an  insatiable  appetite,  which  in  one  of  lower 
rank  would  have  been  called  illbred  gluttony ;  and  the  chief  differ- 
ence in  that  respect  which  his  abdication  made  was  that,  as  it  left 
him  more  leisure  to  indulge  his  propensity,  he  henceforth  gave  it 
the  rein  more  unrestrainedly  than  ever. 

Nor  was  his  appetite  for  military  and  political  news  abated. 
Among  the  officers  of  his  household  whom  he  still  retained  in  his 
service  were  some  of  the  veterans  who  had  won  distinction  in  his 
campaigns,-  one  of  whom,  Don  Luis  de  Avila,  had  also  written 
an  account  of  them  in  a  style  which  the  Spaniards  have  compared 
for  force  and.  elegance  to  Caesar's  narrative  of  his  Gallic  wars,  and 
which  was  so  highly  esteemed  by  Charles  that  a  copy  of  the  book, 
bound  in  imperial  velvet,  was  a  constant  ornament  of  his  table. 
With  him  and  another  warlike  noble,  Don  Luis  Quixada,  whom 
some,  perhaps  from  the  similarity  of  the  name,  have  imagined  to 
have  been  the  original  from  whom  Cervantes  drew  the  immortal 
knight  of  La  Mancha,  Charles  would  eagerly  discuss  the  occur- 
rences which  were  proceeding  in  the  world  which  he  had  left; 
and  the  clearness  with  which  he  still  appreciated  the  possible 
consequences  of  great  events,  and  the  undiminished  energy  of  his 
mind,  are  shown  in  his  first  comment  on  the  great  victory  of  St. 
Quentin.  '  Was  not  his  son,'  he  asked,  *  already  in  Paris  ?  '  as  no 
doubt  he  would  himself  have  be 
to  be,  after  so  decisive  a  triumph. 

In  some  other  respects  his  life  at  Yuste  did  him  honour. 
Though  anxious  for  his  future  fame,  as  one  who  had  played  so 
important  a  part  must  have  been,  he  did  not  desire  the  truth  to  be 
concealed,  or  perhaps  he  thought  the  real  truth  his  best  panegyric. 
He  knew  that  one  of  his  chaplains,  Sepulveda,  was  writing  his 
memoirs ;  but  while  he  willingly  gave  him  information  on  every 
point  on  which  he  desired  it,  he  steadily  refused  to  read  what  his 
biographer  had  written,  that  the  good  priest  might  be  under  no 
temptation  to  flatter  him.  He  is  even  believed  to  have  spent  part 
of  his  leisure  in  composing  an  autobiographical  account  of  his 
own  career,  which  he  had  begun  many  years  before  ;  but  it  has 
never  been  found.  He  was  kinder,  too,  and  more  considerate  of 
others  than  he  had  shown  himself  in  the  plenitude  of  his  power; 
charitable  and  even  munificent  to  the  veterans  who  had  served  in 
his  different  wars,  or  to  their  families  if  they  had  left  relations  in 
indigence.  But  this  humanity  was  so  far  from  extending  to  those 
who  differed  from  him  on  religious  topics  that  his  bigotry  and  zeal 
for  persecution,  as  if  that  were  his  ruling  passion,  grew  stronger 
and  fiercer  as  he  approached  the  grave.     As  soon  as  he  heard  that 


i.D.  1558.]  DEATH   OF  CHARLES  V.  95 

the  Reformation  had  reached  Spain,  and  that  the  inquisitors  had 
arrested  some  persons  suspected  of  heresy,  he  at  once  urged  them 
*  to  hum  them  all,  for  not  one  would  ever  become  a  true  Catholic, 
and  worth}'  to  live  ; '  and  in  a  subsequent  letter  he  enjoined  them 
to  imitate  the  course  he  had  adopted  in  the  Netherlands,  ^  where 
all  who  continued  obstinate  in  their  errors  were  burnt  alive,  and 
those  who  were  admitted  to  penitence  were  beheaded.'  He  even 
expressed  a  regret  that  he  had  paid  such  regard  to  the  safe- 
conduct  on  the  faith  of  which  Luther  had  visited  Worms,  as  to 
forbear  to  send  that  arch-heretic  to  the  stake,  as  his  predecessor 
had  sent  IIuss;  yet,  at  the  very  same  time,  with  a  curious 
inconsistency,  he  expressed  the  greatest  discontent  at  his  son's 
general,  the  Duke  of  Alva,  forbearing  to  inflict  some  chastisement 
on  the  perfidious  Paul  IV.,  when  the  Spanish  army  was  at  the 
gates  of  Rome,  and  the  Pope  was  manifestly  in  his  power. 

He  had  not  reckoned  on  a  long  life  at  Yuste,  but  his  time  was 
shorter  than  he  had  probably  expected.  In  the  spring  of  1558  his 
favorite  sister  Eleanor,  the  Dowager  Queen  of  France,  died  after 
a  short  illness  ;  and  he  was  greatly  affected  by  her  death,  which 
he  looked  on  as  a  forerunner  of  his  own.  He  was  so  impressed 
with  the  belief  that,  by  the  very  strangest  freak  that  a  morbid 
fancy  ever  conceived,  he  insisted  on  having  his  obsequies  performed 
in  his  lifetime ;  and  the  chapel  at  Yuste  was  accordingly  hung 
with  black,  and  the  solemn  service  appointed  for  the  burial  of  the 
dead  was  performed  round  a  huge  catafalque,  while  Charles  him- 
self, muffled  in  a  dark  mantle  and  bearing  a  lighted  candle  in  his 
hand,  mingled  with  his  mourners,  terminating  the  ceremony  by 
giving  up  the  taper  into  the  hands  of  the  officiating  priest,  as  a 
token  that  he  surrendered  his  soul  to  the  Almighty. 

This  singular  funeral  was  in  some  degree  the  cause  of  his  death. 
A  few  days  afterwards  he  was  attacked  by  a  fever,  which  was 
partly  attributed  to  the  agitation  into  which  the  preparations  for 
tho  ceremony  had  not  unnaturally  thrown  him,  and  on  the 
twenty-first  of  September  he  died. 

It  is  not  very  easy  to  form  a  just  estimate  of  Charles's  character. 
The  grandeur  of  his  position  as  the  most  powerful  monarch  in  the 
world  at  a  most  important  period  in  its  history,  while  it  makes  it 
the  more  desirable,  renders  it  also  the  more  difficult  to  decide 
impartially  and  correctly  how  much  of  his  greatness  was  due  to 
that  position,  and  how  much  to  his  own  genius  or  virtue.  His 
military  skill  appears  to  have  been  of  no  high  order,  for,  except  at 
Muhlberg  and  in  his  war  in  Africa  against  Barbarossa,  he  never 
gained  any  advantage  of  moment  where  he  commanded  in  person; 
in  his  invasion  of  Provence  he  was  entirely  baffled  by  Mont- 


96  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1558. 

morency,  who  was  no  general  of  the  first  rank,  and  after  Cerisoles 
he  was  still  more  decidedly  outgeneralled  by  the  Dauphin,  after- 
wards Henry  II. ;  while  his  later  enterprises  were  so  little  mea- 
sured by  his  power  that  they  resulted  in  the  loss  of  a  most 
valuable  fortress  and  a  considerable  district,  and  enabled  the 
French  to  boast  that  they  had  completely  retrieved  the  disasters 
which  he  inflicted  on  them  in  his  earlier  campaigns,  when  Bourbon 
and  Pescara  were  invincible.  He  has  generally  been  more  praised 
for  his  political  capacity ;  and  it  must  be  admitted  that  a  sovereign 
who  ruled  over  such  vast  dominions  in  such  troublous  times,  and 
who,  in  spite  of  the  ferment  caused  in  every  part  of  them  by  the  new 
religious  agitation,  transmitted  to  his  son  an  authority  far  more 
absolute  than  that  which  he  inherited,  is  entitled  to  the  credit  of 
having  been  a  successful  governor  so  fiir  as  his  own  interest  and 
not  that  of  his  subjects  was  concerned.  For  it  cannot  be  denied 
that  towards  them  his  system  of  administration  was  one  of  stern 
repression  and  relentless  severity,  rather  than  of  humane  indul- 
gence and  statesmanlike  consideration.  His  foreign  policy  was 
less  successful.  His  conduct  to  foreign  princes  was  one  of  habitual 
hypocrisy  and  perfidy  ;  towards  Francis,  when  his  prisoner,  it  was 
not  only  ungenerous,  but  unwise ;  exacting  concessions  which  he 
must  have  known  would  not  be  fulfilled,  and  which  were  yet  of 
a  character  to  render  the  French  king  his  irreconcilable  enemy. 
And  his  subsequent  quarrels  with  France  not  only  lost  him  a  great 
part  of  Lorraine,  but  reduced  him  to  the  humiliating  necessity  of 
making  peace  with  the  Protestant  princes  of  Germany,  though  so 
greatly  inferior  to  him  in  power,  on  their  own  terms.  One  quality 
very  indispensable  to  a  king  he  seems  to  have  had  in  high 
perfection,  a  shrewd  discernment  of  character  and  prompt  appre- 
ciation of  ability.  He  was  a  judicious  selector  of  able  men, 
whether  in  council  or  in  the  field,  and  he  treated  them  with 
undeviating  confidence.  To  speak  last  of  his  last  act,  whatever 
deduction  we  may  make  on  account  of  his  failing  health  and  a  sort 
of  morbid  temperament  which  he  perhaps  inherited  from  his 
mother,  we  must  admit  his  abdication  to  have  been  an  act  of  great 
and  rare  magnanimity.  The  frequency  with  which,  in  the  memory 
of  the  present  generation,  his  example  has  been  followed  has  a 
tendency  to  weaken  the  impression  it  makes  on  us.  But  the  love 
of  power  is  -so  natural  to  mankind,  the  enjoyment  of  it  is  so 
calculated  to  increase  their  fondness  for  it,  that  the  voluntary 
renunciation  of  it  surely  deserves  to  be  regarded  as  a  proof  of 
splendid  superiority  to  the  ordinary  foibles  of  humanity;  and  if 
age  had  had  a  share  in  producing  that  superiority,  it  was  age  so 
unaccompanied  by  that  peevishness  which  is  its  not  unfrequent 
companion,  that  no  one  born  to  a  humble  lot  ever  endured  it  with 


A.D.  1558.] 


CHAEACTER  OF  CHARLES  V. 


97 


more  contented  cheerfulness  than  the  retirement  and  comparative 
isolation  of  Yuste  were  borne  by  him,  who  had  formerly  boasted 
that  the  sun  never  set  upon  his  territories,  and  whose  chosen  ^  motto 
had  implied  that,  even  with  tliat  boundless  dominion,  he  was  yet 
unsatisfied.^ 


1  Plus  ultra. 

2  The  authorities  for  the  preced- 
ing chapter  are,  besides  the  Histories 
of  France  already  mentioned,  CSoxe's 


House  of  AusiricL,  Eobertson'a 
Charles  V.,  with  Prescott's  addi- 
tional chapters,  d'Aubign^s  History 
oftJie  Rtformation, 


i\ 


98  MODEKN  HISTOEY.  [a.d.  1558. 


t**^#^ 


CHAPTER  V. 
A.D.  1558  —  1578. 

DURING  the  three  years  which  elapsed  between  his  father's 
abdication  and  his  death,  Philip's  government  had  been 
singularly  triumphant.    His  generals,  the  Duke  of  Savoy  and 
Count  Egmont,  had  inflicted  on  the  French  the  most  terrible 
,  ^  defeat  which  their  arms  had  sustained  since  Agincourt ;  and,  only 

1).  I*ii'>  two  months  before  the  decease  of  the  old  Emperor,  Egmont,  whose 
subsequent  fate  supplies  one  of  the  most  striking  warnings  recorded 
in  history  of  the  proverbial  ingratitude  of  princes,  followed  it  up 
with  a  second  blow  not  less  decisive,  though  on  a  smaller  scale,  at 
Gravelines,  which  reduced  France  to  terminate  the  war  by  the 

•K'f   •  Treaty  of  Chateau  Cambresis,  and  it  may  be  that  these  great 

;> ,  /V«  cHJti  Yictories,  by  inducing  Philip  to  fancy  that  there  were  no  limits  to 
his  power,  as  he  certainly  believed  that  there  was  none  to  his 
rights,  led  him  on  to  the  fatal  measures  of  bigotry,  tyranny,  and 
cruelty  which  resulted  in  the  loss  of  the  most  flourishing  and 
valuable  portion  of  his  dominions. 

The  Netherlands,  or  Flanders,  as  the  country  was  called,  which, 
with  some  slight  difi^erence  corresponds  to  the  modern  Kingdoms 

l^j/_Ai^of  Holland  and  Belgium,  comprehended  seventeen  provinces;* 
which,  though  not  uniform  in  race  or  language,  for  in  these  points 
some  claimed  kindred  with  France  and  others  with  Germany ;  and, 
though  divided  by  mutual  jealousies  which  often  broke  out  in 
petty  wars,  had  at  the  same  time  bonds  of  union  usually  sufficient 
to  counterbalance  the  elements  of  division.  All  had  liberties  and 
privileges  of  which  they  were  justly  tenacious  ;  all  were  of  an  in- 
dustrious disposition,  which  showed  itself  in  the  establishment  of 
profitable  manufactures ;  and  of  a  natural  genius  for  mercantile 
enterprise,  which  had  made  some  of  their  cities  seats  of  commercial 
prosperity  equal  to  that  of  the  most  wealthy  commonwealths  of 
northern  Italy.    In  some,  too,  a  humanising  refinement  had  es- 

^  Four  Duchies :    Brabant,  Lem-  Mechlin,  Friesland,  ♦Ovcryssel,*  Gro- 

bcrg,    Luxembourg,    *  Gueldres    or  ningen,  *Utrecht.    Tliose  marked  * 

juelderland  ;  one  Margravate,  Ant-  were  they  which  eventually  separated 

werp;  seven  Couu(ies  :  Artois,  Hain-  from  Spain,  and  formed  the  Kepublic 

;  lilt.     Kbindors,     Nauiur,     Zutphen,  of  the  United  Provinces. 
*ilolIaiul,  'Zwluid  ;  live  Lurdsliips' 


K.T).  1558.]      CONDITION   OF  THE  NETHERLANDS.  99 

tablished  distinguished  schools  of  learning  and  art ;  so  that  even  an 
Italian,  who  visited  the  country  in  the  last  years  of  Charles  V.,  |C.^„,^#i^> 
did  not  disdain  to  compare  *  Antwerp,  for  its  trade,  to  Venice  jr-y 
Louvain,  for  its  science,  to  Padua ;  Ghent,  for  its  size,  to  Verona  ;  v-'A-t*-*''*^ 
and  Brussels,  for  the  beauty  of  its  site,  to  Brescia.'  ^  Flourish- 
ing as,  under  these  circumstances,  it  thus  was,  the  country,  before 
the  time  at  which  we  have  an-ived,  contributed  a  larger  revenue  to 
the  royal  exchequer  than  Philip's  Italian  dominions,  than  Spain 
itself,  or  even  than  the  golden  soil  of  Mexico  and  Peru.  So  im- 
portant indeed  to  the  treasury  was  the  amount  raised,  that  Charles 
himself,  with  all  his  tyrannical  desire,  as  bigot  and  as  sovereign, 
to  force  his  own  belief  on  all  his  subjects,  in  more  than  one  in- 
stance temporised  with  the  Flemings ;  and,  though  he  was  aware 
that  the  preachers  of  the  Reformation  had  found  no  small  number 
of  disciples  in  their  Provinces,  he  abstained  from  introducing  the 
Inquisition  into  some  of  the  wealthiest  states ;  and  in  other  cases 
connived  at  the  partial  violation  of  his  edicts.  And  it  was  only  in 
those  cities  where  he  anticipated  no  resistance  that  he  gave  the 
rein  to  his  sanguinary  intolerance,  and  dealt,  to  use  his  own  words, 
*  by  fire,  by  the  pit,  or  by  the  sword,'  with  all  who  were  even 
suspected  (for  evidence  of  such  acts  was  not  required)  of  favouring 
the  new  doctrines.^  ^        • 

But  connivance  and  toleration  of  any  kind  were  unendurable  to  /^Xt'i^ 
his  less  politic  heir.  Philip  was  a  prince  of  a  strangely  inconsistent 
character.  He  was  possessed  by  a  most  omnivorous  ambition,  yet, 
even  in  his  youth,  was  wholly  devoid  of  enterprise.  He  aspired  to 
add  both  these  islands  and  France  to  his  hereditary  dominions  ; 
but  the  means  by  which  these  acquisitions  were  to  be  obtained 
were  not  war  and  conquest,  but,  first,  the  utter  extinction  of  heresy 
in  his  own  temtories,  and  then  the  respect  and  gratitude  towards 
himself  as  the  champion  of  the  true  faith  which  this  result  would 
implant  in  the  breasts  of  all  true  believers  in  France  and  England, 
and  which,  as  he  expected,  would  induce  the  French  to  repeal  the 
Salic  law  which  they  had  so  long  cherished  as  the  fundamental 
principle  of  their  succession,  and  the  English  to  acquiesce  in  the 
assassination  of  their  Queen,  to  whom,  in  spite  of  many  and 
grievous  imperfections  in  her  character,  they  were  sincerely  at- 
tached.    He  knew,  as  his  father  had  known,  that  in  no  part  of 

1  Relatione  di  31.  Cavallo,  1551,  the  reign  of  Charles.  Motley  quotes, 
quoted  by  Trescott,  Philip  11.  vol.  i.  with  evident  approval,  the  estimate 
p.  29.9.    '  which  makes  them  at  least  50,000. 

2  There  is  a  great  difference  of  {Rise  of  Dutch  Republic,  i.  114), 
opinion  between  the  two  most  recent  which  Prescott  (Philip  11.  i.  o09) 
and  painstaking  historians  of  this  treats  as  an  incredible  exaggera- 
period  as  to  the  number  of  victims  tion. 

<tevoured  by  the  Inquisition  during 


100  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1558. 

his  dominions  were  Protestants  (adherents,  indeed,  not  so  gener- 
ally of  Luther  as  of  Calvin)  more  numerous  than  in  the  Nether- 
lauds  ;  and,  accordingly,  in  the  Netherlands  he  resolved  at  once  to 
proceed  to  their  utter  extirpation.  '  It  were  better,'  he  was  wont 
to  say,  *  not  to  reign  at  all  than  to  reign  over  heretics.'  And  it 
was  not  long  before  he  showed  that  his  interpretation  of  this 
offence  was  a  wide  one,  and  that  any  attempt  to  set  bounds  to  Ins 
authority,  even  when  his  mode  of  exercising  it  wa-s  incompatible 
with  and  subversive  of  pri7ileges  formally  secured  to  the  different 
Provinces  by  his  ancestors,  was  in  his  eyes  a  heresy  quite  as 
criminal  as  that  which  denied  the  supremacy  of  the  Pope.  His 
very  tirst  speech  to  the  States  described  all  heretics  as  equally  the 
foes  of  God  and  of  himself,  and  he  called  on  the  nobles  and 
councillors  to  aid  him,  not  in  recalling  them  from  their  errors,  but 
in  their  extermination.  It  was  not  an  invitation  to  which,  had  it 
stood  by  itself,  they  were  likely  to  respond  very  cordially,  indicat- 
ing, as  it  seemed,  a  purpose  to  extend  the  authority  of  the 
Inquisition,  and  to  put  it  in  more  active  operation  ;  but,  with 
singular  impolicy,  he  contrived  to  connect  it  in  their  minds  with 
fears  for  their  civil  liberties,  by  retaining  in  the  Provinces  a  strong 
division  of  Spanish  troops,  whom,  as  the  peace  with  France  had 
relieved  him  from  all  foreign  enemit-s,  it  was  suspected  that  he 
meant  to  employ  to  overawe  his  Flemish  subjects.  Among 
the  good  qualities  of  the  Flemings,  docility  had  never  been  con- 
spicuous. Their  freedom,  which  they  had  long  enjoyed  in  a 
degree  unequalled  by  any  other  people,  had  made  them  somewhat 
wanton  and  turbulent.  Being  prosperous  under  it,  they  were 
naturally  proud  of  it,  and  always  on  the  watch  to  resist  any 
attempt  to  tamper  with  it.  Nor  did  they  ever  want  leaders :  each 
p^'ovince  and  city  had  a  chief  magistrate,  known  as  governor, 
landgrave,  or  by  some  other  suitable  title,  who,  though  in  most  cases 
appointed  by  the  sovereign,  was  as  jealous  of  the  privileges  of  his 
countrymen  as  if  he  had  owed  his  olHce  to  their  election,  so  that 
not  only  was  there  a  spirit  of  resistance  always  alive,  but  a  system 
of  organisation  existed  also,  calculated  to  make  that  resistance 
effectual. 

But,  though  sovereign  and  subjects  thus  almost  from  the  begin- 
ning took  up  an  attitude  of  suspicion  towards  each  other,  the  first 
few  years  of  the  reign  were  a  period  of  comparative  tranquillity. 
Philip  himself  quitted  the  Netherlands  in  1559^  never  to  return ; 
leaving  his  half-sister  Margaret^  duchess  of  Parma,  Regent,  with 
three  councillorFlo  assist  her,  of  whom  Granvelle^  bishop  of 
Arras,  subsequently  promoted  to  the  Archbishopric  of  Mechlin 
and  the  rank  of  Cardinal,  who  had  for  some  years  been  his  own 
principal  confidant,  was  so  far  the  most  able  and  influential  mem- 


A.I).  1659.]     CHARACTEE  OF  WILLIAM  THE  SllrElJT.         101 

ber  that  he  became  in  fact  her  prime  minister.  Though  he  was  a 
Fleming-  by  birth,  yet  in  his  general  views  of  civil  and  religious 
policy,  in  his  desire  to  render  the  king  s  authority  as  absolute  in 
the  Netherlands  as  it  was  in  Spain,  and  to  compel  unreserved  and 
implicit  obedience  to  the  Church  of  Rome,  he  resembled  Philip 
himself.  In  his  disposition,  and  consequently  in  his  mode  of 
carrying  out  his  views,  there  were  some  material  difterences 
between  him  and  his  master.  Philip  was  reserved  and  gloomy 
ID  temper 5  harsh  in  demeanour;  and  considered  any  attempt  at  Q^ 
conciliation  where  he  conceived  that  he  had  a  right  to  command  ^<?-«^*€<w>^ 
derogatory  to  his  dignit3^  Granvelle,  with  quite  as  great  self- 
command  and  power  of  concealing  his  thoughts  and  intentions, 
was  frank  and  cordial,  as  well  as  refined  and  polished  in  his  man- 
ners, and  far  too  sagacious  and  able  to  be  unconciliatory.  Equally 
resolute  to  obtain  his  objects  as  far  as  possible,  he  was  wise  enough 
to  take  possibility  into  his  calculations,  and  preferred  to  admit 
some  modification  of  his  wishes  or  demands  to  risking  the  whole 
by  insisting  on  them  without  abatement.  He,  therefore,  occasion- 
ally advised  the  duchess  to  relax  some  of  the  edicts  wliich  from 
time  to  time  were  transmitted  from  Spain,  to  suspend  their  en- 
forcement, and  even  to  connive  at  their  nonperformance.  And  she 
received  similar  counsel  from  the  most  powerful  of  the  nobles  of 
the  country,  whom,  as  she  knew  him  to  have  stood  high  in  her 
father's  esteem  both  for  integrity  and  ability,  she  was  also  fre- 
quently in  the  habit  of  consulting  ;  and  who,  indeed,  as  governor 
of  the  important  provinces  of  Holland  and  Zeeland,  had  a  certain 
right  to  be  listened  to  in  transactions  by  which  they  were  aflected. 
William,  Prince  of  Orange,  in  whom  the  obligations  of  these 
kingdoms  to  one  of  his  descendants  give  all  Britons  a  peculiar 
interest,  had  attracted  such  notice  from  the  late  Emperor  as  a  child 
of  unusual  promise,  that  Charles  had  induced  his  parents,  though 
Lutherans,  to  entrust  his  education  to  his  care.  Accordingly,  the 
boy  from  his  twelfth  year  was  bred  up  as  a  Roman  Catholic  j  as 
he  grew  up  he  was  first  appointed  a  page  in  the  Emperor's  house- 
hold, was  gradually  employed  in  matters  of  public  importance,  and 
rose  in  the  Emperor's  favour  so  steadily,  that,  on  the  memorable 
occasion  of  the  abdication,  it  was  on  his  shoulder  that  Charles  leant 
while  delivering  his  parting  address  to  the  Estates-general  at 
Brussels.  In  intellectual  qualities  he  was  not  unlike  Granvelle, 
whose  brother  had  been  his  preceptor ;  not  perhaps  so  fertile  in 
resource,  but  more  farsighted  ;  equally  wary  and  prudent,  and 
equally  if  not  more  skilful  in  the  con -ealment  of  his  designs.  So 
profound  indeed  was  the  reserve  under  which  he  was  wont  to 
shroud  hi>i  resolutions,  that  he  obtained  the  nickname  of  The  Silent. 
He  was  firmly  attached  to  the  civil  liberties  of  the  Provinces;  on 


t62;  :    :  :\  '  i  modeen  histoky.  [a.d.  1559. 

religious  subjects  he  was  less  clear  in  his  views.  A  Lutheran  till 
twelve,  a  Roman  Catholic  since  that  time,  but  married  to  the 
heiress  ^  of  Maurice  of  Saxony,  he  was  at  this  time  hesitating 
whether  to  abide  in  his  new  religion  or  to  return  to  his  old  one : 
and  this  unsettled  state  of  belief  naturally  disinclined  him  to  ap- 
prove of  the  persecution  of  any  sect  whatever ;  he,  therefore,  took 
every  opportunity  of  inculcating  on  the  regent  the  impossibility  of 
inducing  the  Flemings  to  submit  to  the  Inquisition,  and,  as  a 
matter  of  course,  the  impolicy  of  making  such  an  attempt ;  and,  as 
her  own  disposition,  when  not  blinded  and  perverted  by  bigoted 
servility  to  Homish  doctrine,  led  her  to  prefer  mildness  to  severity, 
though  the  period  of  her  tenure  of  office  presents  a  series  of 
attempts  to  invade  the  privileges  of  the  different  Provinces,  and  of 
repeated  issues  of  edicts  of  persecution,  neither  were  carried  out 
with  the  unrelenting  steadiness  which  afterwards  distinguished 
the  Spanish  policy.  The  invasion  of  the  people's  liberties  was  met 
by  the  provincial  assemblies  with  remonstrances  and  petitions 
against  the  different  measures,  and  with  constant  requests  for  the 
convocation  of  the  Estates-general  as  the  lawful  council  of  the 
whole  country.  To  this  last  request  no  regard  was  ever  paid  ;  but 
some  of  the  measures  petitioned  against  were  so  manifestly  in- 
fringements of  the  national  law  and  of  the  charters  granted  by  the 
king's  predecessors,  that  Philip  was  forced  in  some  instances  to  give 
way,  though,  when  he  yielded,  he  marked  out  the  chief  petitioners, 
with  a  memory  that  never  forgot  nor  pardoned  offence,  for  future 
destruction ;  of  the  religious  edicts,  though  she  could  neither 
prevent  their  issue  nor  procure  their  recall,  the  regent  herself 
at  times  relaxed  the  execution.  Still  in  spite  of  his  occasional 
concessions  and  his  frequent  indulgences,  enough  remained  to  show 
Philip's  purpose  of  introducing  absolute  kingly  authority  over  the 
Provinces,  a  power  unknown  to  the  Netherlands,  whose  former 
rulers,  whatever  rank  they  might  hold  in  other  countries,  were 
there  contented  to  be  but  counts  and  dukes  :  and  of  establishinjr 
the  Inquisition  in  active  exercise,  a  tribunal  incompatible  with  the 
charters  granted  for  the  general  administration  of  justice.  And  no 
relaxation  of  his  edicts  by  the  deliberate  remissness  of  the  regent 
could  conceal  the  fact  tliat  from  time  to  time  men  and  women  in 
different  parts  of  the  country  were  burnt  alive  for  what  was  called 
heresy  :  and  that,  under  the  rule  of  one  who  was  a  foreigner  and 
who  despised  both  land  and  people,  life  and  property  were  daily 
becoming  less  secure.  For  there  was  this  essenti.al  difference  be- 
tween Philip  and  his  father :  Chailes  was  a  Fleming  by  birth,  and 

'  She  was  his  second  wife.  His  first,      Buren,  who  died,  leaving  him  one 
whom  he  had  married  at  eighteen,      son. 
Wixs  a  daughter  of   the  Count    de 


A.D.  1564.]     PHILIP  DISLIKES   THE   NETHEKLANDS.       103 

never  forgot  it,  but  was  attached  to  the  country  as  his  birthplace, 
preferred  it  to  every  other  part  of  his  dominions  as  his  abode,  and 
identified  himself  with  the  manners  and  feelings  of  the  people :  rlutcAJ^ 
Philip,  on  the  other  hand,  was  a  Spaniard  by  birth,  habits,  and  Y 

prej  udices.  And  no  two  nations  in  Europe  were  more  dissimilar  in  )>ajL"  ^  «, 
every  quality  and  point  of  view  than  the  Flemings  and  the 
Spaniards.  Though,  therefore,  Charles  was  quite  as  desirous  of 
despotic  power  as  his  son,  and,  as  shown  by  his  atrocious  chastise- 
ment of  the  insurrection  at  Ghent,  quite  as  fierce  in  enforcing  it ; 
and  though  he  was  a  relentless  persecutor  of  all  who  differed  from 
his  views  of  religion,  the  Flemings  balanced  his  general  regard  for 
them  against  his  tyranny,  and  endured  it  with  wonderfully  little 
complaint.  Under  Philip  some  fled  from  the  land,  and  those  who 
remained  behind  took  up  arms  to  overthrow  his  authority.  As 
Granvelle  was  generally,  though  not  quite  coiTectly,  regarded  as 
the  encourager  of  Philip  in  his  stubborn  rejection  of  all  petitions 
and  remonstrances,  he  became  the  chief  object  of  the  national 
hatred  ;  and,  to  propitiate  the  nobles,  the  duchess  prevailed  on  the 
king  to  remove  him  ;  but  though  his  dismissal  might  have  been 
accepted  with  thankfulness  if  it  could  have  been  taken  to  indicate 
any  changes  in  the  principles  of  the  administration,  it  was  wholly 
ineffectual  when  followed,  as  it  almost  instantly  was  followed,  by 
despatches  of  the  fiercest  character  from  Spain  enjoining  the  full 
execution  of  the  edicts  which  visited  heresy  with  death,  without 
regard  to  age  or  sex.  The  Prince  of  Orange  himself,  when  ordered 
to  enforce  the  edicts  in  his  provinces  of  Holland  and  Zeeland, 
positively  refused  to  comply,  expressing  his  resolution  rather  to 
resign  his  offices,  and  m.iny  other  governors  followed  his  ex- 
ample ;  while  a  large  body  of  nobles  and  burghers  formed  a  league 
known  in  Flemish  history  as  *  The  Compromise,'  binding  them- 
selves by  a  solemn  oath  to  resist  the  exercise  of  the  Inquisition 
at  the  hazard  of  their  fortunes  and  their  lives. 

In  civil  conflicts  a  party  name  and  a  watchword  are  often  of  no 
trifling  value  :  and  these  were  now  supplied  to  the  malcontents  by 
what  seemed  an  accidental  impulse,  though  it  was  perhaps 
guided  by  some  little  premeditation.  The  only  open  manifesta- 
tion of  discontent  that  had  yet  taken  place  had  in  it  something  of 
a  comic  character,  when,  in  ridicule  of  the  ostentatious  magnifi- 
cence aff'ected  by  Granvelle,  a  number  of  the  nobles,  with  Egmont 
at  their  head,  adopted  for  their  retauiers  a  livery  of  equally 
ostentatious  plainness  of  dark  grey  cloth  with,  for  a  shoulderknot, 
a  flat  piece  of  cloth  of  the  same  colour,  embroidered  with  a  head 
and  a  fool's  cap,  which,  being  of  a  scarlet  colour,  bore  some 
resemblance  to  a  cardinal's  hat.  And  now,  when  the  confederates 
of  the  Compromise  had  presented  a  petition  to  the  regent,  requesting 


104  MODEEN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1566. 

tlie  revocation  of  the  recent  edicts,  to  which  they  received  but  a 
curt  answer,  and  when  it  became  known  that,  on  her  expressing 
some  alarm  at  the  numbers  of  the  petitioners,  she  had  been  re- 
assured by  one  of  the  council,  who  bade  her  be  under  no  appre- 
hension, since  they  were  only  a  crowd  of  beggars ;  they,  at  one  of 
their  banquets  where  the  disdainful  speech  was  quoted,  accepted 
the  name,  boasting  that  they  were  ready  at  any  time  to  become 
beggars  for  the  welfare  of  their  country.  And  when  one  of  the 
nobles,  Count  Brederode,  a  boisterous  reveller,  who  had  evidently 
prepared  the  whole  scene,  presently  produced  a  beggar's  wallet 
and  a  wooden  bowl,  such  as  the  mendicant  fraternity  carried  about 
to  receive  broken  victuals,  the  company  adopted  those  emblems 
with  acclamation.  The  bowl  was  filled  with  wine,  amid  merry 
shouts  of  Vivent  les  Giteux  it  was  drained  eagerly  by  each  indivi- 
dual, and  from  this  'tragic  mirth,'  as  it  proved  to  be,  the  re- 
bellion which  ensued  has  been  commonly  known  as  the  Kevolt  of 
the  Beggars. 

Yet,  in  spite  of  these  fierce  demonstrations,  there  was  again  for 
a  brief  moment  comparative  tranquillity  :  a  calm  before  the  coming 
storm :  during  which  Margaret,  again  shrinking  from  putting  the 
king's  edicts  into  full  execution,  was  even  trying  to  obtain  his  and 
the  confederates'  acquiescence  in  a  modification  of  them,  when  she 
was  suddenly  exasperated  into  a  readiness  and  even  an  eagerness 
to  deal  as  sternly  with  the  recusants  as  Philip  himself  could 
desire,  by  the  fanatical  outbreak  of  the  Reformers  of  the  province 
of  Flanders,  who,  in  August  of  the  same  year,  fell  upon  all  the 
churches  in  the  district,  breaking  the  images,  in  imitation  of  the 
Iconoclasts  of  old,  whose  name  they  assumed,  defacing  all  the  or- 
naments on  the  church  walls ;  and,  as  the  cathedral  at  Antwerp 
was  pre-eminent  for  every  kind  of  beauty  above  all  other  buildings 
of  the  class,  reserving  for  that  their  most  furious  vehemence  : 
overthrowing  the  altar,  destroying  the  organ,  reputed  the  finest 
instrument  in  Europe,  and,  with  strange  irreverence,  breaking 
into  fragments  a  statue  of  the  Saviour  himself  The  contagion 
spread  through  other  Provinces ;  where  churches  were  so  ruth- 
lessly dealt  with  it  was  hardly  to  be  expected  that  monasteries 
and  convents  would  receive  more  merciful  treatment,  and  before 
the  end  of  the  week  many  of  the  fairest  cities  in  the  southern 
Provinces  bore  the  appearance  of  having  been  sacked  by  an  enemy, 
though  no  enemy  since  the  time  of  the  Vandals  would  thus 
have  selected  all  the  most  beautiful  objects  as  the  special  mark  for 
their  hostility.  It  was  hardly  to  be  wondered  that  Margaret 
should  look  on  such  atrocities  not  merely  as  a  sacrilegious  profana- 
tion, but  as  a  personal  insult ;  and,  tliough  the  Prince  of  Orange 
was  so  far  from  being  connected  with  it  that,  being  at  Antwerp  on 


A.D.  1568.]      WILLIAM  LEAVES  THE  NETHERLANDS.      105 

the  first  day  of  the  riots,  he  exerted  himself  vigorously  to  repress 
them,  and,  if  he  could  have  remained,  would  in  all  probability 
have  been  able  to  save  the  sacred  buildings  in  that  city,  she 
now  became  suspicious  of  him,  and  wrote  to  her  brother  in  dis- 
paraging and  distrustful  terms  of  both  him  and  Egmont.  The 
prince,  if  harmless  as  a  dove,  was  also  as  wise  as  a  serpent ;  he 
was  not  above  encountering  those  whom  he  knew  or  suspected  to 
be  his  enemies  with  their  own  weapons,  and,  having  a  great  com- 
mand of  money,  was  able  to  bribe  and.  keep  in  his  pay  some  of 
Philip's  secretaries,  so  that  scarcely  any  letter  was  written  or  re- 
ceived by  the  king  in  Spain  thut  was  not  communicated  to  him. 
He  at  once  st;  od  on  his  guard;  though  the  duchess  was  ignorant 
of  the  fact,  he  had  recently  returned  to  the  Lutheran  faith ;  and, 
believing  his  destruction  to  be  resolved  on,  he  took  care  from  this 
time  forth  never  to  place  himself  in  the  power  of  either  king  or 
regent.  In  one  point  he  differed  from  the  policy  of  his  enemies, 
since  he  at  all  times  preserved  a  regard  for  truth  and  honesty; 
when,  at  the  opening  of  the  next  year,  Margaret  sought  to  exact 
from  all  the  nobles  an  oath  of  implicit  obedience  to  Philip  what- 
ever his  commands  might  be,  though  Egmont  took  it,  he  refused 
it ;  and,  as  after  such  a  refusal  he  saw  no  safety  for  himself  in 
the  Netherlands,  he  withdrew  to  Germany,  earnestly  impressing 
on  Egmont,  for  whom  he  had  a  sincere  regard,  the  necessity  of  a 
similar  caution ;  but  warning  him  in  vain. 

The  duchess  did  not  remain  long  after  him.  The  outbreak  at 
Antwerp  had  been,  not  a  revolt,  but  merely  a  riot,  which,  the  very 
same  week  that  the  prince  quitted  the  country,  she  had  chastised 
with  great  severity,  rasing  to  the  ground  all  the  churches  of  the 
Reformers ;  putting  to  death  numbers  of  those  accused  of  partici- 
pation in  the  outrages ;  and  treating  the  Protestants  throughout 
the  land  with  such  merciless  rigour,  that  thousands  of  the  most 
industrious  citizens,  the  sinews  of  the  country,  began  to  fly  to 
foreign  shores ;  more  than  one  body  of  emigrants  seeking  an 
asylum  in  England,  and  repaying  her  protection  by  opening  new 
sources  of  manufacturing  wealth  to  her  docile  workmen.  The  emi- 
grants, however,  were  flying,  not  so  much  from  her,  as  from  one 
whom  they  understood  to  be  on  his  way  to  succeed  her  in  the  govern- 
ment, and  whose  evil  reputation  had  already  preceded  him,  though 
as  yet  he  had  had  no  opportunity  of  showing  to  what  wide- 
sweeping  and  relentless  ferocity  fanatical  bigotry  can  steel  the 
hearts  of  those  invested  with  authority.  The  duchess  had  more 
than  once  proposed  to  resign  her  office ;  hoping,  indeed,  that 
Philip  would  return  in  person  for  a  time  to  the  country  to  deal 
with  all  difficulties  on  the  spot;  but  the  king,  who  greatly  pre- 
feiTed  Spain,  was  not  inclined  to  grant  her  prayer,  till  the  out- 


106  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1567. 

rages  committed  at  Antwerp  led  him  to  believe  that  a  stronger 
hand  than  hers  was  necessary  to  crush  so  turbulent  a  people  as  he 
would  have  them  crushed  ;  and  in  the  summer  of  1567,  the  Duke 
of  Alva  was  sent,  with  an  army  officered  by  picked  veterans,  to 
take  upon  himself  the  military  command  in  the  Netherlands, 
which  was  soon  augmented  by  the  addition  of  the  supreme  civil 
authority  likewise.  It  is  from  the  arrival  of  Alva  that  the  Revolt 
of  the  Netherlands  may  be  said  to  date.  In  Charles's  war  on  the 
Protestants  in  Germany  we  have  seen  him  more  than  once  bearing 
a  part  in  the  most  important  operations,  in  which  he  had  fully 
established  a  reputation  for  high  military  skill,  erring,  if  he  erred 
on  any  side,  in  excess  of  caution.  But  he  had  equally  made  him- 
self a  name  for  unsparing  cruelty,  and  was  known  to  have  advised 
Charles  to  chastise  the  insurrection  of  Ghent,  though  the  city 
was  the  Emperor's  birthplace,  and  in  populousness  and  general 
importance  inferior  to  no  other  in  his  wide  dominions,  by  an  utter 
destruction  of  the  city,  and  the  decimation  of  the  inhabitants.  He 
was  not  less  conspicuous  for  dissimulation  and  perfidy  than  for 
cruelty.  And  he  now  descended  on  the  unhappy  Provinces  of 
which  he  was  appointed  governor,  resolved  to  reduce  them  to 
the  state  of  a  desert,  if  milder  measures  should  prove  insufficient 
to  enforce  uniform  obedience  to  the  king's  civil  authority,  and  the 
universal  adoption  of  the  king's  religion. 

He  began  with  a  rapidity  which  verified  the  Prince  of  Orange's 
worst  forebodings  and  most  anxious  warnings  to  his  friends ;  and 
his  first  measures  showed  with  painful  distinctness  that  no  past 
services,  no  general  obedience,  not  even  the  most  cordial  agree- 
ment with  the  king  on  questions  of  religion,  could  outweigh  a 
single  act  of  resistance.  Count  Egmont,  as  we  have  seen,  had 
greatly  contributed  to  one  brilliant  victory  over  the  French ;  another 
had  been  wholly  achieved  by  his  prowess.  He  was  a  zealous 
Roman  Catholic ;  as  gov.ernor  of  Flanders  and  Artois,  over  which 
he  had  been  placed  by  Philip  himself,  he  had  been  especially 
rigorous  and  unsparing  in  his  chastisement  of  the  Iconoclasts; 
having  been  recently  sent  on  a  mission  to  Spain,  ever  since  his 
return  he  had  sought  every  opportunity  to  express  his  confidence 
in  Philip's  justice  and  general  humanity;  he  had  taken  the  oath 
of  implicit  obedience,  which  Orange  had  refused  ;  and,  in  spite  of 
his  friendship  for  the  prince,  he  had  notoriously  rejected  his 
warning  invitation  to  make  common  cause  with  him  for  the 
common  safety.  But  he  had  signed  the  petition  for  the  removal 
of  the  Spanish  troops,  and,  as  Alva  had  again  brought  in  a 
foreign  army,  it  was  perhaps  feared  that  he  might  renew  his  re- 
monstrances against  conduct  so  much  at  variance  with  the  constitu- 
tion of  the  land.     Count  Horn  had  no  such  military  services  as 


A.D.  1567.]       EXECUTION  OF  EGMONT  AND  HORN.'        107 

those  of  Egmont  to  boast;  but  he  had  been  as  diligent  as 
his  friend  in  quelling  the  tumults  of  the  fanatics,  and  was  of 
unquestioned  fidelity  to  the  Roman  Catholic  faith.  But  he  too 
had  once  remonstrated  against  some  infringement  of  the  national 
liberties ;  and,  while  chastising  the  Iconoclasts  at  Tournay,  he 
had  allowed  the  Protestant  preachers  to  hold  their  meeting- 
houses outside  the  city  walls ;  though  some  of  the  king's  edicts  had 
declared  the  toleration  of  heretical  preaching  under  any  circum- 
stances an  act  of  treason.  J  here  were  hardly  two  men  in  the 
countiy  who  had  done  greater  service  to  the  government,  or  who 
could  be  more  surely  relied  on  as  its  supporters  in  all  measures 
which  were  not  flagrant  violations  of  every  law  known  in  the 
country. 

I  have  said  that  Alva  was  rapid  in  his  dealings.  It  was  not  till  the 
twenty-second  of  August  that  he  reached  Brussels,  and  on  the  ninth 
of  September,  having,  during  the  interval,  exerted  himself  to  disarm 
any  suspicions  which  they  might  have  entertained  by  the  most  studied 
courtesy,  he  suddenly  arrested  both  Egmont  and  Horn,  threw  them 
into  close  confinement,  and  in  the  summer  of  the  ensuing  year 
brought  them  to  trial  on  charges  of  treason  as  ridiculous  as  have  ever 
been  adduced  against  any  criminal  whom  it  was  predetermined  to 
condemn.  For  their  destruction  had  been  arranged  before  Alva  had 
left  Madrid  ;  and  to  ensure  it  they  were  brought  before  a  council 
which  he  had  created  on  purpose,  and  to  which  the  people  had 
already  given  the  name  of  the  Council  of  Blood.  There  could  be 
no  more  flagrant  violation  of  law,  even  of  that  law  which  Philip 
was  most  especially  bound  to  maintain,  than  the  arraignment  of 
Egmont  before  such  a  tribunal,  for  he  was  a  knight  of  the  Golden 
Fleece,  then  accounted  the  noblest  Order  in  Christendom,  the 
statutes  of  which,  framed  by  Philip's  predecessors,  expressly  for- 
bad a  knight  of  the  brotherhood  to  be  tried  for  any  offence  what- 
ever by  any  other  court  than  the  chapter  of  the  Order.  But  in  a 
proceeding  throughout  iniquitous  an  illegality  more  or  less  made 
no  difference.  As  if  it  had  been  Alva's  purpose  to  parade  his  utter 
disregard  of  all  justice,  the  property  of  his  prisoners  was  confiscated 
before  they  were  brought  to  trial.  Indeed,  if  it  were  possible  to 
add  to  the  infamy  of  the  massacres  which  marked  the  whole 
period  of  the  duke's  government,  such  addition  would  be  supplied 
by  the  circumstance  that  many  of  the  executions  were  dictated  by 
no  other  motive  but  sordid  covetousness.  He  promised  to  transmit 
to  the  treasury  at  Madrid  half  a  million  of  ducats  a  year,  as  the 
proceeds  of  the  confiscation  of  the  property  of  those  whom  he 
would  put  to  death.  The  counts  were  both  condemned,  and  on  the 
ninth  of  June  were  executed  in  the  great  square  of  Brussels,  to  the 
norror  and  grief  of  the  citizens,  by  whom  both  were  well  known 


108  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1667. 

Rnd  highly  esteemed,  and  with  whom  Egmont's  chivalrous  char- 
acter and  brilliant  exploits  had  made  him  especially  popular  j  and 
to  the  amazement  of  foreigners,  who  marvelled  at  the  folly  of  the 
king  who  thus,  at  a  time  when  his  relations  with  other  countries 
were  in  a  most  unsettled  state,  deprived  himself  of  one  of  his  most 
distinguished  warriors  and  most  faithful  servants.  Their  feeling 
was  pithily  expressed  by  the  French  ambassador  at  Brussels,  who 
wrote  to  a  friend  that  '  he  had  seen  the  head  fall  of  the  man  who 
had  twice  made  France  tremble.'  .  It  is  alleged  that  personal 
motives  contributed  to  bring  Egmont  to  his  death ;  that  Alva  did 
him  the  honour  to  be  jealous  of  his  fame  as  a  warrior,  and  remem- 
bered that  in  one  or  two  contests  of  skill  in  arms  he  had  been 
worsted  by  him :  and  it  is  affirmed,  too,  that  the  duke,  when,  on 
the  night  before  the  execution,  the  Countess  of  Egmont,  a  princess 
allied  with  the  greatest  houses  in  Germany,  hearmg  of  the  doom 
that  had  been  pronounced,  fell  at  the  duke's  feet  to  implore  mercy 
for  her  husband,  the  father  of  her  eleven  children,  he  dismissed  her 
with  the  assurance  that  the  count  would  be  released  on  the 
morrow,  which  the  unhappy  lady  looked  on  as  a  promise  of  com- 
fort,* not  dreaming  that  any  human  being  could  be  of  a  nature  so 
fiendish  as  to  insult  her  misery  with  such  cruel  irony.  But  few 
could  fathom  the  remorseless  ferocity  of  Alva : 

There  was  a  laughing  devil  in  his  sneer 
That  raised  emotions  both  of  rage  and  fear, 
And,  when  his  frown  of  hatred  darkly  fell, 
Hope  withering  fled  and  Mercy  sighed  farewell. 

The  execution  of  these  two  great  nobles  caused  one  general 
absorbing  feeling  of  indignation  throughout  the  whole  country. 
But  even  before  they  were  brought  to  trial,  Alva's  cruelty  to  others 
had  already  raised  a  revolt  against  his  and  his  master's  authority, 
lie  had  expressed  to  the  king  his  wish  that  'every  man  as  he  lay 
down  at  night  and  rose  in  the  morning  might  feel  that  at  any  hour 
his  house  might  fall  and  crush  him.'  ^  And  the  Council  of  Blood 
in  a  very  few  weeks  reduced  every  man  in  the  Netherlands  to  that 
state.  We  hold  the  memory  of  our  Queen  Mary  in  abhorrence, 
and  have  stigmatised  her  name  with  an  epithet  of  undying  infamy, 
because  in  three  years  she  put  277  persons  to  death  for  their 
religion.     Scarcely  a  week  elapsed  in  the  Netherlands  in  which 

1  Motley  reports  this  story  with  Philip,  followed  up  as  it  was    by 

evident  belief,  but  admits  that  it  rests  actions  full}'   corresponding,    prove 

on  the  authority  of  a  single  writer —  that  no  cruelty  that  can  be  imputed 

Iloofd,  and  adds  that,  *  for  the  honour  to  him  is  incredible, 
of   humanity,   one  would    wish    to  *  Correspondance  de  Philippe  IL, 

think  it  false.'     Rise  of  Dutch  Re-  ii.  4,  quoted  by  Prescott,  Philip  11.^ 

public,  ii.  199.     Ihit  such  language  ii.  207. 
as   that   quoted   from    his  letter   to 


A.D.  1567 J      PERSECUTION  IN   THE  NETHERLANDS.       109 

Alva  and  his  tribunal  of  blood  did  not  exceed  that  number.  On 
one  morninp;  eighty-four  persona  at  Valenciennes  were  sentenced 
to  death.  On  Ash  Wednesday  500  were  condemned  at  Brussels. 
Small  towns  could  furnish  thirty  or  forty  victims  to  the  execu- 
tioner in  a  single  day.  So  unprecedented  already  was  the  slaughter 
that  even  in  the  beginning  of  March  1508,  when  Alva  had  been 
scarcely  six  months  in  the  country,  the  Emperor  Maximilian,  him- 
self a  Roman  Catholic,  addressed  a  formal  remonstrance  to  the 
king  on  the  subject,  as  his  dignity  entitled  him  to  do,  since  the 
Netherlands  were  a  part  of  the  Germanic  body.  It  received  an 
answer  which  was  an  insult  to  the  remonstrant  from  its  defiance  of 
truth  and  common  sense,  and  which  cut  off  all  hope  from  the 
miserable  Flemings.  Philip  declared  that  what  he  had  done  had 
been  done  '  for  the  repose  of  the  Provinces,  that  no  one  who  knew 
the  facts  could  accuse  him  of  severity,  and  that  he  would  not 
change  his  conduct  though  the  whole  world  should  fall  in  ruin 
around  him/  and  almost  on  the  same  day  he  published  a  new  edict, 
confirming  a  decree  of  the  Inquisition  which  condemned  all  the 
inhabitants  of  the  Netherlands  to  death  as  heretics,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  a  few  persons  who  were  named.  The  historian  who 
records  the  fact  truly  remarks,  that  this  edict  is  probably  the  most 
concise  death-warrant  ever  framed.  In  their  utter  despair,  the 
Flemings  implored  the  aid  of  the  Prince  of  Orange,  who,  as  I  have 
mentioned,  had  quitted  the  country.  He  was  more  independent 
of  Philip  than  other  nobles,  possessing  as  he  did  a  consider.able 
estate  in  France  where  his  principality  of  Orange  was  situated, 
and,  in  right  of  his  wife,  still  more  important  territories  in  Germany. 
And  he  was  now  residing  at  Dillenbourg,  in  Nassau,  in  safety  from 
Philip's  threats,  and  from  the  formal  sentence,  which  in  addition 
to  the  general  condemnation  of  the  whole  people,  the  Council  of 
Blood  had  just  pronounced  against  him  by  name.  But  he  resolved 
that  in  such  an  emergency  it  did  not  become  him  to  weigh  his 
own  safety  against  the  claims  his  countrymen  had  on  his  exertions. 
After  a  few  weeks  energetically  spent  in  levying  troops  and  raising 
money  to  maintain  them,  he  published  a  document  which  he  en- 
titled his  '  Justification,'  and  which  stated  his  own  case  and  that 
of  the  Provinces  with  a  most  convincing  clearness ;  and  at  the  end 
of  April  he  took  the  field  at  the  head  of  a  small  force,  composed  of 
French  Huguenots,  Flemish  exiles  who  had  been  banished  by 
sentences  which  though  undeserved  they  might  look  upon  as 
merciful,  and  German  mercenaries :  a  motley  band,  whom  it  re- 
quired a  sanguine  confidence  in  the  justice  of  his  cause  to  enable 
him  to  regard  as  fit  to  contend  for  a  single  moment  with  the 
trained  veterans  of  Alva,  even  had  the  skill  of  the  commanders 
been  equal,  which  was  far  from  being  the  case. 


110  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1568. 

Thus  in  the  spring  of  1568  began  that  terrible  war  which  for 
forty  years  desolated  what.,  in  spite  of  great  natural  disadvantages, 
had  hitherto  been  one  of  the  most  prosperous  countries  of  Europe. 
I  do  not  propose  to  dwell  on  many  of  its  details  ;  to  do  so  would 
require  volumes,  nor  is  there  any  great  instruction  to  be  derived 
from  the  contemplation,  after  the  actors  have  passed  from  the 
stage,  of  battle  after  battle  and  siege  after  siege  presenting  nearly 
the  same  features.  And,  indeed,  the  pitched  battles  were  few.  At 
the  outset  Count  Louis  of  Nassau,  the  prince's  brother,  defeated 
and  slew  Count  Aremberg,  the  Spanish  governor  of  the  province 
of  Groningen,  very  nearly  on  the  spot  on  which,  in  the  palmy  days 
of  Rome,  the  fierce  valour  of  Arminius  had  annihilated  the  legions 
whose  loss  was  so  deeply  imprinted  on  the  heart  of  Augustus ;  and 
Alva  had  avenged  the  disaster  by  so  complete  a  rout  of  Louis  at 
Jemmingen,  that  more  than  half  of  the  rebel  army  was  slaughtered 
on  the  field,  and  Louis  himself  only  escaped  a  capture,  which 
would  have  delivered  him  to  the  scaffold,  by  swimming  the  Ems, 
and  escaping  with  a  mere  handful  of  troops,  all  that  were  left  of 
his  Jirmy,  into  Germany.  But  after  dealing  this  blow,  which  was 
struck  partly  in  vengeance,  and  partly  as  a  warning  to  terrify  the 
rebels  by  so  fearful  a  proof  how  unequal  they  were  to  the  conflict, 
Alva  rarely  fought  a  battle  in  the  open  field.  He  preferred  show- 
ing the  superiority  of  his  generalship  by  defying  the  endeavours  of 
the  prince  and  his  brothers  to  bring  him  to  action,  miscalculating, 
indeed,  the  eventual  consequences  of  such  tactics,  and  believing 
that  the  protraction  of  the  war  must  bring  the  rebels  to  his 
sovereign's  feet  by  the  utter  exhaustion  of  their  resources;  while 
the  event  proved  that  it  was  Spain  which  was  exhausted  by  the 
contest,  that  kingdom  being  in  fact  so  utterly  prostrated  by  con- 
tinued draining  of  men  and  treasure  which  it  involved,  that  her 
decay  may  be  dated  from  the  moment  when  Alva  reached  the 
Flemish  borders. 

His  career  in  the  Netherlands  seemed  to  show  that,  warrior 
though  he  was,  persecution  was  more  to  his  taste  than  even 
victory.  Victorious,  indeed,  he  was  so  far  as  never  failing  to 
reduce  every  town  which  he  besieged,  and  to  baffle  every  design 
of  the  prince  which  he  anticipated,  though  William  or  his  officers 
surprised  more  than  one  place  of  importance  which  he  never  ex- 
pected to  be  attacked,  and  some  of  which,  such  as  the  important 
ports  of  Brill  and  Flushing,  were  never  recovered  by  the  Spaniards 
during  the  whole  war.  While  every  triumph  which  he  gained 
was  sullied  by  a  ferocious  and  deliberate  cruelty,  of  which  the 
history  of  no  other  general  in  the  world  affords  a  similar  example. 
In  the  frenzy  of  evil  passions,  excited  by  long  resistance  and  by 
the  maddening  exultation  of  success,  it  has  happened  that  the 


A.D.  1668.]  CEUELTY   OF  ALVA.  Ill 

most  resolute  commanders  at  the  moment  of  a  victorious  assault 
have  been  unable  to  restrain  their  troops  from  deeds  of  outrage 
and  horror ;  but  they  have  strictly  forbidden  such  crimes  before, 
and,  as  far  as  lay  in  their  power,  have  severely  chastised  them 
afterwards.  But  whenever  Alva  captured  a  town,  he  himself 
enjoined  his  troops  to  show  no  mercy  either  to  the  garrison  or  to 
the  peaceful  inhabitants.  Every  atrocity  which  greed  of  rapine, 
wantonness  of  lust,  and  bloodthirsty  love  of  slaughter  could  devise 
was  perpetrated  by  his  express  direction,  as  if  his  desire  had  been 
to  determine  by  actual  experiment  whether  his  soldiers  or  his 
judges  and  executioners  were  more  ingenious  in  their  devices  of 
cruelty.  For  those  who  passed  sentence  in  the  courts  of  law,  and 
those  who  executed  them,  were  not  content  with  inflicting  the 
ordinary  forms  of  death.  As  new  crimes  were  invented,  for  not 
only  was  any  neglect  of  the  Romish  ceremonial  pronounced 
heresy,  and  the  slightest  remonstrance  against  any  notorious 
illegality  adjudged  to  be  treason,  but  to  give  alms  to  heretic  or 
traitor,  even  to  write  a  letter  to  a  fugitive  who  might  have  been 
prosecuted  as  such  had  he  remained  in  the  country,  though  the 
letter- writer  might  be  the  wife  or  mother  or  child  of  the  exile, 
involved  the  sympathiser  in  the  same  condemnation ;  so  also  new 
punishments  or  rather  tortures  were  devised,  and  daily  inflicted. 
Some  of  the  sentenced  victims  were  hung  up  by  the  legs  and  so 
starved  to  death  ;  some  had  their  flesh  torn  ofl"  by  hot  irons ;  some 
were  roasted  before  slow  fires ;  some  had  limb  after  limb  broken 
by  heavy  blows,  and  were  then  left  to  expire  in  agony ;  some  were 
flayed  alive,  and  their  skins  were  made  into  drums  whose  noise 
might, drown  the  cries  of  their  fellow-sufferers.  And  of  these 
almost  incredible  atrocities  the  infamy  belongs  equally  to  the 
general  and  to  the  king.  Alva  may  be  said  to  have  superintended 
them,  but  they  were  enjoined  in  general  terms  by  Philip  before 
they  were  inflicted,  and  approved  and  commended  by  him  in 
detail  afterwards.  ^ 

It  was  not  to  be  expected  that  such  wickedness  should  succeed 
in  the  end;  though  Alva,  with  premature  exultation,  erected  a  colos- 
sal statue  to  himself  in  the  citadel  of  Antwerp,  '  for  having,'  as  the 
inscription  on  the  pedestal  affirmed,  *  extinguished  sedition,  chas- 
tised rebellion,  restored  religion,  secured  justice,  established  peace.' 
Buthe  had  difficulties  to  encounter,  besides  those  of  his  military  opera- 
tions, and  such  as  he  was  less  skilful  in  meeting.  He  soon  began 
to  be  in  want  of  money.  A  fleet  laden  with  gold  and  silver  was 
driven  by  some  French  privateers  into  an  English  harbour,  where 
Elizabeth  at  once  laid  her  hands  on  it.  If  it  belonged  to  her  ene-  <~  j 
mies,  she  had  a  right,  she  said,  to  seize  it :  if  to  her  friends,  to  /y^  >^ 
borrow  it  (she  had  not  quite  decided  in  which  light  to  regard  the 


112  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.b.  1568. 

Spaniards,  but  the  logic  was  irresistible,  and  her  grasp  irremove- 
able),  and,  to  supply  the  deficiency,  Alva  had  recourse  to  expedi- 
ents which  injured  none  so  much  as  himself.  To  avenge  himself 
on  the  Queen,  he  issued  a  proclamation  forbidding  all  commercial 
intercourse  between  the  Netherlands  and  England  -,  the  model, 
one  might  fancy,  of  tjie  Berlin  decree,  by  which,  in  the  present 
century,  JSapoleou  tried  to  annihilate  ihe  trade  of  the  stubborn 
islanders ;  but  his  prohibition  damaged  the  Flemings  more  than 
the  English  merchants,  and  in  so  doing  inflicted  loss  upon  himself, 
by  disappointing  his  calculations  of  the  extent  to  which  he  could 
make  the  country  supply  him  with  the  means  of  urging  war 
against  itself.  For  he  at  the  same  time  endeavoured  to  compel 
the  States  to  impose,  for  his  use,  a  heavy  tax  on  every  description 
of  property,  on  every  transfer  of  property,  and  even  on  every 
article  of  merchandise  as  often  as  it  should  be  sold :  the  last  im- 
post, in  the  Provinces  which  were  terrified  into  consenting  to  it,  so 
entirely  annihilating  trade  that  it  even  roused  the  disapproval  of  his 
own  council ;  and  that,  finding  themselves  supported  by  that  body, 
even  those  Provinces  which  had  complied,  retracted  their  assent. 
He  was  roused  to  a  pitch  of  unusual  fury  by  such  a  reaction ;  to 
strike  terror  into  those  who  so  offended,  he  prosecuted  the  whole 
city  and  province  of  Utrecht  before  his  favourite  Council  of  Blood, 
and  pronounced  a  sentence  which  adjudged  them,  as  guilty  of 
treason,  to  have  forfeited  both  tlieir  public  charters  and  privileges, 
and  the  private  property  of  every  individual  citizen  ;  but  even  this 
monstrous  sentence  was  far  from  producing  the  profit  expected 
from  it :  and  after  a  time  he  was  forced  first  to  compromise  his 
demands  for  a  far  lower  sum  than  that  at  which  he  had  estimated 
the  produce  of  his  taxes,  and  at  last  to  renounce  even  that. 

He  was  bitterly  disappointed  and  indignant,  and  began  to  be 
weary  of  his  post.  Even  his  iron  nature  was  moved  by  the  con- 
sciousness of  the  universal  hatred  with  which  he  was  regarded  by 
every  human  being  in  the  Netherlands,  while  he  could  not  conceal 
from  himself  that  his  adversary  was  dail)'-  growing  stronger.  It  is 
not  a  new  observation  that  no  grievance  is  so  sure  to  provoke 
.  resistance  as  one  that  touches  the  poclvet ;  and  now  those  who  "Ead 
borne,  with  a  nK'rkn(\>s  which  was  alniost  abject  and  base,  to  see 
their  fellcw-citizcns  slaughtered  by  hundreds  at  a  time  on  charges 
of  heresy  which  they  felt  to  be  iniquitous,  and  of  treason  which 
they  knew  to  be  false,  joined  heartily  in  the  revolt  when  they 
saw  their  trade  ruined  by  his  edicts,  and  their  wealth  torn  from 
them  by  his  new  system  of  taxation ;  while  every  subject  lost  to 
the  king  was  an  adherent  gained  to  the  prince  who,  though  often 
baffled  and  defeated,  amid  all  discouragements  and  difficulties, 
kept  up  a  bold  face  and  a  stout  heart  j  though  forced,  from  in- 


A.B.  1573.]  RESIGNATION  OF  ALVA.  113 

ability,  to  pay  them,  to  disband  his  foreign  mercenaries,  he  found 
their  places  tilled  by  recruits  whom  Alva's  tyrannical  exactions 
drove  into  his  ranks ;  and,  in  the  sixth  year  of  the  war,  having 
counterbalanced  the  loss  of  Zutphen,  Naarden,  and  Haarlem 
(where  the  cruelties  perpetrated  by  Alva  would  alone  be  sufficient 
to  cover  his  name  with  undying  infamy),  by  the  acquisitions  of 
Brill  and  Flushing,  which  have  been  mentioned,  he  was  able  to 
present  a  more  formidable  front  to  his  enemy  than  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  war.  That  he  should  have  accomplished  so  much  was 
the  more  extraordinary,  that  he  was  wholly  without  allies.  He 
had  hoped  for  aid  from  England ;  but  Elizabeth,  though  she  had 
no  objection  to  seize  the  Spanish  treasure-ships,  and  though  she 
knew  well  that  in  retaliation  Philip  had  employed  an  emissary  to 
assassinate  her,  could  not  shake  off  her  habitual  irresolution,  nor  the 
niggardly  spirit  which  she  had  inherited  from  her  grandfather,  so 
as  to  determine  to  give  the  Flemings  aid,  which  must  cost  her 
money ;  while  Charles  of  France,  who  had  led  him  to  hope  for 
substantial  assistance,  and  who,  had  he  known  Philip's  secret 
designs,  had  as  good  cause  as  Elizabeth  herself  to  look  on  the 
Spaniard  as  his  most  dangerous  foe,  gave  ample  proof  of  the  im- 
possibility of  relying  on  his  promises  by  the  fearful  massacre  of 
^t.  Bartholomew.  The  prince  had  only  his  own  resources  to  rely 
upon ;  but  even  Alva  could  not  disguise  from  himself  that  they 
were  daily  proving  more  and  more  sufficient,  and  confessed  his 
moral  defeat  by  preferring  continual  requests  to  be  allowed  to 
resign  his  post.  To  fill  up  the  measure  of  his  disgust,  a  squadron 
which  had  been  recently  equipped,  under  the  prince's  sanction, 
*  The  Beggars  of  the  Sea/  as  its  commanders  named  it,  gave  his 
fleet,  though  superior  in  numbers,  a  severe  defeat  in  the  Zuyder 
Zee,  took  the  admiral,  Count  Bossu,  prisoner,  and  held  him  as  a 
hostage  for  some  nobles  who  had  recently  fallen  into  Alva's  hands, 
and  whom  in  consequence  he  dared  not  execute.  He  renewed  his 
entreaties  to  be  relieved ;  and,  at  the  end  of  the  year  1573,  Philip 
granled  them,  and  replaced  him  by  Don  Luis  deJReq^u^iaqs.  Alva 
boasted  that  during  his  government  "he  had  executed  18,600  pri- 
soners. It  is  believed  that  he  greatly  understated  the  number; 
while  those  who  had  perished  by  the  hands  of  his  soldiers  defied 
calculation.  And,  as  if  the  universal  hatred  which  he  had  drawn 
upon  himself  were  not  enough  unless  he  added  contempt  to  it,  he 
contrived  by  an  act  of  paltry  dishonesty  to  prove  that  he  was  a^ 
contemptible  as  he  was  detestable.  He  had  incurred  great  debts 
in  Amsterdam,  and  made  public  proclamation  that  all  demands 
against  him  were  to  be  sent  in  on  a  given  day ;  on  the  day  before 
that  appointed  he  quitted  the  city  ;  thus  defrauding,  and  in  many 
instances  ruining,  his  creditors,  who  however  might  perhaps  com- 


114  MODEKN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1576 

fort  themselves  by  the  reflection  that  it  was  goraething  to  have 
saved  their  lives,  when  their  debtor  could  as  easily  have  murdered 
as  cheated  them. 

Eequesens  governed  the  country  but  a  short  time,  dying  of  a 
fever  at  the  beginning  of  1576.  Ii^is  government  was  distin- 
guished by  two  events ;  first,  the  proposal  of  a  negotiation  for 
peace,  which  however  came  to  nothing,  since  the  prince  regarded 
it,  as  the  result  of  former  proposals  of  a  similar  kind  justified  him 
in  regarding  it,  as  merely  a  device  to  recover  Brill,  Flushing,  and 
one  or  two  other  towns  of  great  strength  and  importance  without 
fighting  for  them.  Such  manifest  traps  for  the  unwary  proved, 
perhaps,  that  the  king,  or  at  least  his  advisers,  saw  no  safe  way 
out  of  the  revolt  which  they  had  excited,  and  were  not  indisposed 
to  relinquish  war,  if  they  could  be  allowed  to  do  so  on  their  own 
terms ;  but  they  led  to  nothing  more,  and  tranquillity  was  yet 
many  years  distant. 

The  second  event  was  of  a  greater  practical  importance.  At 
the  end  of  1574  the  Provinces  in  revolt  formally  renounced  their 
allegiance  to  Spain;  and,  in  an  assembly  held  at  Delft,  in  Novem- 
ber, appointed  the  Prince  of  Orange  their  governor  and  regent, 
conferring  on  him  the  entire  control  of  the  war,  with  a  settled 
revenue  for  the  maintenance  of  the  army  and  of  the  needful  civil 
establishments.  And,  though  negotiations  for  peace  on  terms  of 
reunion  with  Spain  were  more  than  once  renewed  from  the  earnest 
endeavours  of  the  Emperor  to  mediate  between  the  parties,  and 
save  so  important  a  territory  for  his  kinsman,  they  all  proved 
futile ;  and  from  the  day  of  the  meeting  at  Delft  the  Provinces 
may  be  looked  upon  as  a  practically  independent  power. 

The  successor  of  Requesens  governed  the  country  for  even  a 
shorter  period  than  he ;  but  the  period  of  his  rule  is  memorable, 
since  it  was  in  his  time  that  the  affairs  of  the  country  first  became 
closely  connected  with  foreign  politics.  The  governor  was  Don 
John,  a  half-brother  of  Philip,  being  a  natural  son  of  the  late 
Emperor ;  illustrious  throughout  Europe  for  his  recent  victory  at 
Lepanto,  the  first  blow^  which  checked  the  advance  of  the 
Moslems,  who  had  previously  seemed  to  threaten  all  Christendom. 
15ut  in  one  respect  his  appointment  is  rather  an  episode  in  the  war, 
.  than  a  portion  of  it.  It  seems  probable  that,  though  his  renown 
HS  a  warrior  and  a  conqueror  was  splendid,  Philip  sent  him  to  the 
Netherlands,  not  so  much  to  maintain  his  power  and  to  extend  his 
own  fame,  as  in  order  to  remove  from  his  sight  one  of  whom  he 
was  jealous,  and  perhaps  to  find  occasion  in  his  failure  to  disgrace 
him ;  while  Don  John,  though  eager  to  win  fresh  credit  by  new 
achievements  on  a  new  scene  of  action,  valued  the  glory  which  he 
»  V.  infra,  c.  13. 


A.D.  1676.]  OBJECTS  OF  DON  JOHN.  115 

anticipated,  not  for  its  own  sake,  nor  as  a  means  of  confirming  his 
brother's  authority,  but  as  a  stepping-stone  to  procure  himself  an 
independent  kingdom. 

He  was  thirtj-one  years  of  age;  of  remarkable  personal  beauty 
and  grace ;  and  of  a  disposition  in  which  the  thirst  for  further 
celebrity  and  aggrandisement,  natural  in  one  who  had  already 
achieved  such  distinction,  was  largely  mingled  with  more  romantic 
feelings.  The  Helen  of  modern  Europe,  Mary  of  Scotland,  peer- 
less in  beauty,  unsurpassed  in  grace,  unequalled  in  the  fascinations 
which  she  exerted  over  all  who  approached  her,  had  now  been  for 
eight  years  treacherously  detained,  if  imprisoned  were  as  yet  too 
harsh  a  word,  by  one  whom  Protestants  could  not  affirm  to  have 
any  lawful  authority  over  her,  and  whom  Roman  Catholics  natu- 
rally asserted  to  be  influenced  by  no  feeling  but  that  her  prisoner's 
rights  to  the  English  crown  were  superior  to  her  own.  To  restore 
the  beauteous  enchantress  to  liberty ;  to  obtain  her  hand  as  the 
meed  of  his  service ;  to  establish  her  pretensions  to  the  throne 
of  both  divisions  of  Britain,  and,  with  her,  to  reign  over  an 
United  Kingdom,  of  which  one  portion  had  formerly  held  a  King  of 
France  in  chains,  and  had  fixed  a  Spanish  sovereign  on  his  throne, 
were  the  objects  which  originally  prompted  Don  John  to  solicit 
the  government  of  a  country  so  distracted  by  civil  war,  and  which 
for  the  most  part  regulated  his  general  policy  and  his  sepanite 
actions  while  holding  it. 

But  he  was  not  always  master  of  events,  though  a  shrewd  judge 
of  them.  He  at  once  discerned  the  real  character  of  the  contest  in 
which  he  had  embarked ;  but  the  very  week  in  which  he  reached 
the  seat  of  his  new  government  ^n  event  took  place  which  added 
incalculably  to  the  difficulty  of  his  task.  The  straits  in  which 
Alva  often  found  himself  for  money  have  been  already  mentioned ; 
but  the  Spanish  troops  who  accompanied  the  Prince  were  little  in- 
clined to  make  allowance  for  the  financial  embarrassments  of  their 
commanders.  In  the  autunm  of  1576  they  had  been  many  months 
without  pay,  and  they  broke  out  into  open  mutiny,  in  which  their 
officers  joined,  if  indeed  they  were  not  the  real  instigators  of  the 
outbreak.  They  threatened  Brussels  and  the  Council  of  State,  but 
found  that  city,  as  the  capital,  too  strongly  guarded.  But  with 
Antwerp,  which  was  even  wealthier,  and,  as  such,  a  more  tempting 
object  of  plunder,  the  case  was  different.  The  town  was  occupied 
by  German  troops,  but  the  citadel,  the  strongest  fortress  in  the 
country,  was  held  by  a  Spanish  garrison ;  Sancho  d'Avila,  their 
commander,  was  one  of  the  most  forward  mutineers,  and  he  tam- 
pered so  successfully  with  the  German  commander  in  the  town 
that  he  at  first  joined  in  the  conspiracy  to  disarm  the  citizens 
and  seize  the  city.     The  Count  de  Champagny,  a  brother  of  Car- 


M^. 


116  '  MODERN   HISTORY.  [a.d.  1576. 

dinal  Granvelle,  was  governor  of  the  city,  and,  being  a  Fleming 
himself,  was  as  jealous  as  anyone  of  the  presence  of  Spanish  troops 
in  the  country.  lie  obtained  intelligence  of  what  was  in  agita- 
tion, and,  greatly  alarmed,  sent  in  haste  for  some  regiments  of 
Walloons  and  of  Germans  which  formed  part  of  the  garrison  of 
Brussels,  which  was  now  safe ;  and  worked  with  sucb  adroitness 
on  the  jealous  feelings  always  subsisting  between  Germans  and 
Spaniards,  that  the  German  officers  who  had  promised  to  join 
d'Avila  repented  of  their  treason,  and  agreed  to  stand  by  him  in 
resisting  the  soldiers  of  the  citadel ;  so  that  the  mutiny  at  last 
assumed  the  aspect  of  war  between  the  city  and  the  citadel. 

D'Avila  was  prepared  for  such  a  contest :  he  had  secured  the 
aid  of  other  bands  of  Spaniards  who  had  been  distributed  among 
the  neighbouring  towns  and  forts,  and  had  thus  collected  a  force 
of  about  GjOOO  men ;  in  number  not  more  than  those  who  stood 
arrayed  under  Champagny  for  the  defence,  but  infinitely  superior 
to  them  in  military  discipline  and  experience,  and  in  that  hardi- 
hood which  a  knowledge  of  the  lawlessness  of  an  enterprise,  and 
a  consciousness  that  therefore  there  is  no  safety  but  in  success, 
are  calculated  to  engender.  The  fortifications  of  the  city  were  in 
very  bad  condition,  and  Champagny,  who,  from  the  first  appear- 
ance of  danger,  had  exerted  himself  energetically  to  put  them  in 
repair,  had  but  half  accomplished  his  work,  when,  on  the  morning  of 
the  third  of  November,  the  very  same  day  on  which  Don  John  reached 
liUxembourg,  d'Avila  led  on  his  battalions  to  the  assault.  What 
ensued  hardly  deserves  the  name  of  a  fight :  some  of  Champagny 's 
Germans  stood  their  ground  stoutly  for  a  while,  but  the  Walloons 
fled  without  striking  a  blow.  The  mutineers  mastered  the  walls, 
poured  into  the  town  ;  and  though  the  citizens,  headed  by  the 
leading  merchants,  ran  to  arms,  and  fought  gallantly  in  defence  of 
their  homes,  untrained  valour  has  never  yet  proved  a  match  for 
discipline,  and  their  unavailing  courage  but  added  to  the  slaughter 
and  tlie  horror.  The  Spaniards  pretended  to  be  exasperated  at  their 
resistance,  but  they  did  not  require  the  heat  of  conflict  to  sharpen 
their  ferocity.  Their  battle-cry,  as  they  swarmed  up  the  ramparts, 
had  been,  *  Santiago,  Spain  !  for  blood,  for  fire,  for  plunder,'  * 
and  massacre  and  havoc  were  almost  as  delightful  to  them  as 
rapine.  Before  night  they  were  masters  of  the  city.  The  city 
was  in  flames ;  a  thousand  houses  were  seen  on  fire  at  once. 
Scores  of  tlie  wretched  inhabitants  perished  in  the  conflagration : 
while,  so  hideous  was  the  cruelty  of  the  conquerors  to  those 
who  fell  into  their  hands,  so  prolific  of  every  kind  of  torture  and 
indignity  was  Spanish  invention,  that  those  who  thus  died  were 

1  *  Santiago,    Santiaj^o!    Espaita,      h,    sacco.'    Motley's  Eise  of  JJutck 
Espauii !  \i  sangre,  k  came,  h,  fuego,      Republic,  iii.  108. 


A.D.  1577.]      THE  SPANISH  FURY  AT  ANTWERP.  1 17 

perhaps  not  those  whose  fate  was  the  most  miserahle.  Virgil 
has  told  us  of  the  sack  of  Troy,  when,  exulting  in  the  termination 
of  their  toil  of  ten  long  years,  the  furious  Greeks  gave  temple  and 
palace  to  the  flames  : 

crudelis  ubique 
Lucius,  ubique  pavor,  et  plurima  mortis  imago.' 

But,  furious  as  was  I^eoptolemus,  avenging  the  death  of  his  sire, 
and  fierce  as  were  his  followers  (as  men  might  well  be  wh ; 
believed  that  some  of  their  Gods  delighted  in  slaughter),  no 
heathen  warriors  ever  perpetrated,  nor  did  any  heathen  poet  ever 
conceive  such  savage  barbarities  as  the  Spaniards  now  inflicted  on 
the  very  citizens  whom  they  had  been  appointed  to  defend,  and 
whose  sole  crime  was  the  possession  of  wealth  suihcient  to  com- 
pensate their  murderers  for  the  disappointments  caused  to  them 
by  the  bad  faith  or  insolvency  of  their  employers.  It  would  be  aa 
needless  as  painful  to  dwell  in  detail  on  the  horrors  of  the  next  day 
or  two,  as  they  have  been  handed  down  by  contemporary  histo- 
rians. It  is  indeed  hard  to  say  with  precision  how  many  thousands 
perished,  but  no  one  was  spared  who  either  had  money,  or  jewels, 
or  plate,  or  who  was  so  dear  to  those  who  possessed  such  treasures 
that  his  or  her  torture  could  be  expected  to  procure  a  discovery  of 
any  secret  hoards.  Nor  can  the  extent  of  the  destruction  wrought  be 
estimated,  except  in  general  terms.  The  Spaniards  were  not  dis- 
appointed in  their  expectations  of  plunder ;  and  it  is  believed  that 
the  six  thousand  soldiers  whom  d'Avila  led  on  divided  between 
them  property  to  the  value  of  nearly  six  millions.  It  seems  cert'iin 
that  still  more  was  destroyed  by  the  conflagration ;  but  the  entire 
damage  cannot  be  measured  even  by  these  enormous  figures,  for  it 
was  not  of  a  temporary  character.  The  city,  which  a  year  before 
far  exceeded  any  other  in  Europe  in  commercial  importance,  was 
ruined  for  ever ;  even  peace,  when  it  was  restored,  could  not  bring 
back  its  prosperity.  At  a  subsequent  period  in  the  war  the  city 
endured  a  protracted  siege,  which  attracted  the  eyes  of  all  Europe ; 
but  twelve  months  of  incessant  attacks,  directed  by  perhaps  the 
greatest  captain  that  Spain  had  ever  placed  at  the  head  of  an 
army,  effected  no  devastation  comparable  to  the  work  of  these 
two  days ;  and  the  decay  of  the  great  city  is  always  traced,  not 
to  Parma's  triumph  over  it,  but  to  the  Spanish  Fury,  as  it  was 
called,  the  attack  upon  it  by  d'Avila,  whose  duty  it  had  been  to 
protect  it.  p 

But,  grievous  as  was  its  ruin  to  one  as  anxious  for  the  prosperity  }^/f^kj^\j^  , 
of  the  whole  country  as  William  of  Orange,  in  one  respect  what    1^ 

1  All  parts  resound  witli  tumults,  plaints,  and  fears,  jArv**v*r'«-i 

And  grisly  death  in  sundry  shapes  appears. 

Dryden,  JEn.  ii.  498 


118  MODERN  HISTOHY.  [a.d.  1578. 

had  happened  greatly  assisted  his  views  by  the  conviction  which 
it  forced  on  the  generality  of  the  States,  that  similar  danger  im- 
pended over  them  all  if  they  did  not  avert  it  by  timely  vigilance 
and  union  ;  and  a  new  league  was  instantly  formed,  by  a  treaty 
known  as  the  *  Pacification  of  Ghent,'  subsequently  extended  and 
developed  by  a  second,  called  the  *  Union  of  Brussels,'  by  which 
the  whole  of  the  Provinces,  with  the  exception  of  Luxem- 
bourg, pledged  themselves  to  compel  the  governor  to  the  observ- 
ance of  all  the  ancient  charters  of  the  land,  and  to  the  dismissal 
of  the  Spanish  soldiery;  while  those  States  which  adhered 
to  the  Popish  doctrines  further  engaged  to  insist  on  complete 
toleration  and  religious  liberty  being  for  ever  secured  to  those  who 
had  embraced  the  new  opinions.  For  the  time  the  Spanish  Fury 
had  extinguished  the  most  bitter  of  all  animosities,  religious 
dissension,  and  had  doubled  both  the  moral  and  the  real  strength 
of  the  prince,  who  was  seen  to  be  devoting  himself  to  no  other 
object  but  the  establishment  of  general  freedom,  civil  and  religious, 
throughout  the  country. 

But  the  harmony  thus  established  was  of  brief  duration.  Don 
John  was  shrewd  enough  to  see  that,  if  the  constitutional  grievance 
of  the  presence  of  the  Spanish  troops  were  removed,  it  would  be 
easy  to  revive  the  ill-will  between  the  different  sects :  and  he 
was  greatly  aided  in  carrying  out  his  views  by  a  personal  popularity 
which  distinguished  him  very  favorably  from  his  predecessors. 
Alva  was  not  only  inhuman  in  disposition,  but  in  demeanour  was 
haughty,  morose,  and  repellent ;  formed,  as  it  were,  to  be  hated 
even  by  those  who  most  appreciated  his  talents,  and  who  coincided 
in  his  objects:  Don  John,  on  the  other  hand,  was  courteous, 
affable,  and  cordial  in  his  manner ;  entering,  with  apparent  zeal, 
into  the  national  sports  and  festivities,  presiding  at  banquets,  dis- 
playing on  all  suitable  occasions  graces,  which  in  a  prince  are 
themselves  virtues,  and  '  making,'  as  one  of  his  secretaries  wrote 
enthusiastically  to  Madrid,  ^the  hearts  of  the  whole  people  his  own.' 

Thus  armed  for  the  contest,  he  entered  into  it  with  equal  judg- 
ment and  vigour.  He  procured  from  Philip  a  document  with  the 
imposing  title  of  Jlhfi,  Perpetual  Edicjb,  which  promised  all  the 
political  advantages  which  the  confederates  aimed  at  in  the  treaties 
of  Ghent  and  Brussels ;  but  which,  while  professing  to  grant  these 
demands  in  the  matter  of  religion  also,  practically  nullified  the 
concessions  which  it  announced  by  the  stipulation  that  none  were 
to  be  valid  which  shouul  not  promote  the  interests  of  the  Catholic 
Church,  which  all  the  States  were  to  swear  to  maintain  as  the 
national  religion.  Such  a  decree  was  too  favorable  to  the  views 
«)f  the  Roman  Catholic  Provinces,  which  were  the  great  majority, 
Holland  and  Zeeland  being  the  only  States  which  were  purely 


A.D.  1678.]  THE  PERPETUAL  EDICT.  119 

Protestant,  not  to  be  accepted  by  most  of  them ;  and  the  natural 
refusal  of  Holland  and  Zeeland  to  accept  it  as  a  satisfactory  com- 
promise, tended  once  more  to  divide  them  from  the  rest :  while  the 
breach  was  widened  by  the  jealousy  which  many  of  the  wealthier 
nobles  felt  of  the  ascendency  of  the  Prince  of  Orange.  The  prince, 
indeed,  had  easily  brought  his  two  Provinces  to  disown  the  edict, 
having  been  the  more  urgent  with  them  to  do  so,  because  he  dis- 
trusted Don  John  fully  as  much  as  his  predecessors.  He  looked 
on  the  Don's  affability  as  mere  hypocrisy,  and  on  even  the  personal 
goodwill  which  he  professed  for  himself  as  a  mere  trap  to  ensnare 
him.  He  believed  him  to  be  in  his  heart  not  only  as  faithless  but 
as  cruel  as  Alva  himself,  and  he  consequently  began  more  earnestly  ; 
than  ever  to  seek  the  support  of  some  foreign  sovereign  who  should  (i(y^/^  ^  ^^ 
take  the  States  under  his  protection.  He  would  have  preferred  vj  1 1 1 
the  alliance  of  Elizabeth  ;  but  that  was  not  to  be  obtained  as  yet.  -  t^"^"^'^ 
Fully  occupied  with  her  own  dangers,  she  was  observing  France, 
and  shaping  her  policy  by  the  designs  and  practices  of  that  king- 
dom, of  which,  at  the  moment,  she  was  so  much  more  afraid  than 
of  Spain,  that  her  envoy  assured  Don  John  that  her  inclination 
was  to  aid  him  rather  than  the  States.  Orange  then  turned  to 
France,  hoping  that  Henry  III.  might  accept  the  Protectorate  for 
his  brother  Francis,  duke  of  Anjou,  the  prince  whom  Elizabeth, 
in  spite  of  her  constant  ridicule  of  his  ugliness  which  amounted 
almost  to  deformity,  was  constantly  professing  a  desire  to  marry. 
But  in  the  meantime  the  Catholic  nobles  had  opened  a  negotiation 
with  the  Archduke  Matthias,  the  brother  of  Rudolph,  who  had  just 
succeeded  his  father  on  the  Imperial  throne,  and  who  was  likely  to 
be  more  acceptable  to  the  people  because  he,  as  much  as  Philip, 
was  a  descendant  of  the  Duchess  Mary.  Matthias  eagerly  accepted 
their  invitation ;  and  at  once  hastened  to  the  Netherlands,  where 
Orange  also  cordially  received  him,  though  as  both  he  and  the 
Emperor  were  veiy  young,  the  prince  had  probably  less  confidence 
in  his  being  able  to  hold  his  ground  than  he  would  have  felt  in 
the  case  of  Elizabeth  or  of  a  brother  of  the  French  monarch. 

Orange's  own  Bower^bad  lately  been  considerably  augmented  by 
the '^aTprovinceofFlanders  having  elected  him  its  stadtholder, 
while  Brabant  also  had  appointed  him  to  the  office  of  Ruward, 
a  post  conferring  an  authority  so  nearly  supreme  that  it  had  gener- 
ally been  confined  to  the  heir  of  the  existing  sovereign.  The 
people  of  Flanders,  indeed,  had  been  excited  to  enthusiasm  in  his 
favour,  by  his  recent  recovery  of  Antwerp.  After  the  '  Fury,'  the 
magistrates  of  that  city  had  refused  to  admit  any  more  foreign 
troops  within  the  walls,  and  the  new  governor,  de  Liedekerke, 
who  was  believed  to  be  secretly  a  Protestant,  and  was  known  to 
De  a  vyarni  admirer  of  Orange,  had  by  lavish  bribes,  disguised  as 


120  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1678. 

payment  of  arrears  which  they  could  not  obtain  from  their  own 
government,  induced  the  bulk  of  the  garrison  of  the  citadel  to 
agree  to  evacuate  that  fortress.  Those  who  had  not  yet  been 
gained  over,  being  one  or  two  regiments  whose  officers  were 
zealously  attached  to  Don  John's  views,  while  negotiations  with 
them  were  still  going  on,  were  terrified  by  the  sudden  appearance 
of  a  strong  squadron  of  the  Beggars  of  the  Sea,  which  just  at  the 
critical  moment  was  seen  sailing  up  the  Scheldt.  Without  wait- 
ing to  conclude  the  bargain,  they  fled  with  precipitation,  some  to 
Bergenopzoom,  others  to  Breda,  where,  in  the  course  of  the  next 
few  weeks,  both  divisions  surrendered :  and  those  important  cities 
and  strongholds  were  thus  secured  to  the  confederate  cause  ;  and, 
to  save  Antwerp  itself  from  a  repetition  of  the  outrages  iVom  which 
it  had  so  severely  suffered,  the  portion  of  the  citadel  which  looked 
towards  and  menaced  the  city  was  destroyed,  that  part  only  being 
left  which  could  protect  it  against  attack  from  the  outside;  and  at 
the  same  time  the  statue  which  the  vainglory  of  Alva  had  erected 
to  himself,  was  broken  into  a  thousand  pieces,  fragments  of  it 
being  carried  off"  and  long  preserved  by  different  citizens  as 
memorials  of  their  undying  hatred. 

It  was  a  heavy  blow  to  Don  John,  and  his  vexation  was  equalled 
by  his  indignation.  In  a  tone  of  disappointment,  which  has  some- 
thing comical  in  it  when  we  remember  the  conduct  that  had  been 
pursued  in  the  Provinces  for  above  ten  years,  he  complained  to  his 
sister  that '  in  spite  of  all  the  good  which  had  been  done  to  this 
wicked  people,  they  abhorred  and  dishonoured  their  natural 
sovereign  Philip,  and  loved  and  obeyed  the  most  perverse  and  ty* 
rannical  heretic  and  rebel  on  earth,  the  damned  Prince  of  Orange.'' 
But  he  was  too  energetic  to  confine  himself  to  profitless  murmurs. 
On  the  eighteenth  of  January  1578,  Matthias  had  been  formally 
installed  at  Brussels  as  Governor-general ;  and  Don  John  reason- 
ably thought  that  every  day  of  his  presence  in  the  capital  was  not 
only  an  insult  to  Philip,  but  an  injury  tending  rapidly  to  the 
annihilation  of  the  royal  authority.  He  resolved  at  once  to  take 
the  field  ;  he  had  recently  received  some  considerable  reinforce- 
ments, and  one  whose  value  was  not  to  be  measured  by  its  mere 
numbers,  since  it  was  commanded  by  his  nephew.  Prince  Alex- 
ander of  Parma,  who  as  its  leader  was  to  give  the  first  proof  of  that 
pre-eminent  military  skill  which  established  his  own  fame,  and 
which,  if  the  valour  and  sagacity  of  one  man  could  have  counter- 
balanced the  impotence  and  folly  of  an  entire  government,  might 
have  preserved  or  recovered  for  his  master  the  dominions  which 
were  already  slipping  from  his  grasp.     Don  John  lost  no  time. 

1  *Que  es  este  condcnado  del  Principe  dc  Orange.'— /vc^cr  to  the  Emjyress, 
quoted  by  Motley,  iii.  256. 


A.D.  1678.]  THE  BATTLE  OF  GEMBLOUX.  121 

The  day  week  after  the  inauguration  of  the  archduke  at  Brussels, 
he  issued  a  proclamation  calling  on  the  people  in  all  the  Provinces 
to  make  their  instant  submission,  and  to  array  themselves  at  once 
under  his  banner ;  and  six  days  later,  on  the  last  day  of  January, 
he  fell  upon  the  army  of  the  confederates  at  Gemblours,  or  Gem- 
bloiix,  near  Namur.  The  two  armies  were  as  nearly  as  possible 
equal  in  numter,  each  consisting  of  about  18,000  infantry  and 
2,000  cavalry.  The  commander-in-chief  on  the  side  of  the  States 
was  a  general  named  Grignies,  a  veteran  of  St.  Quentin,  aided,  or 
hampered,  by  a  number  of  nobles  of  no  great  military  skill  and  no 
great  idea  of  military  subordination.  The  eldest  son  of  the  mur- 
dered Egmont  commanded  the  cavalry.  Don  John  in  person  led 
on  his  own  troops,  his  banner  bearing. a  crucifix  for  its  ensign,  with 
the  arrogant  inscription,  '  With  this  standard  I  overthrew  the 
Turks,  with  this  will  I  overthrow  the  heretics.'  The  confederates 
were  executing  a  retreat,  when  the  vanguard  of  the  Spaniards 
overtook  them  ;  but  while  their  rear  was  skirmishing  with  a  small 
troop  of  horse,  Alexander  perceived  that  their  main  body  was  dis- 
ordered by  the  difficult  character  of  the  ground  along  which  their 
line  of  march  lay.  Without  v/aiting  for  orders,  he  at  once  col- 
lected some  regiments  of  cavalry,  sent  back  an  aide-de-camp  to 
J3on  John,  to  report  that  '  he  had  plunged  into  the  abyss,  to  perish 
there,  or  to  come  forth  victorious,'  and  fell  upon  the  enemy  with 
irresistible  fury  ;  at  the  very  first  onset  he  brolce  their  squadrons, 
beyond  the  power  of  Egmont  and  of  Grignies  himself  to  rally 
them.  As  soon  as  they  were  routed,  he  turned  upon  the  infanti-y, 
discouraged  and  uncovered  by  the  defeat  of  the  cavalry.  A  panic 
seized  them  ;  they  broke  and  fled  in  wild  confusion  without  strik- 
ing a  blow,  leaving  their  standards,  their  guns,  and  600  prisoners 
in  the  hands  of  the  victor.  Alexander  pursued  them  off  the  field 
with  terrible  slaughter ;  it  is  said  that  the  killed  amounted  to  at 
least  7,000  men,  while  the  victors  scarcely  lost  a  dozen  of  their 
number.  So  decisive  a  victory  has  rarely  been  gained  by  such  a 
handful  of  men,  for  the  Spanish  infantry  never  came  into  action  at 
all.  But  Don  John  tarnished  his  own  and  his  nephew's  glory,  and 
justified  Orange's  suspicion  of  his  natural  disposition,  by  his  cruelty 
to  his  prisoners,  every  one  of  whom  he  slew  in  cold  blood. 

Yet,  though  this  victory  was  followed  by  the  reduction  of  many 
of  the  chief  towns  on  that  side  of  the  country,  it  rather  increased 
than  diminished  the  influence  of  William,  who  was  not  in  the 
battle,  since  it  was  attributed  not  to  his  want  of  judgment,  but  to 
the  mismanagement  of  the  Catholic  nobles  who  had  interfered 
with,  and  in  some  notorious  instances  had  counteracted,  his  plans. 
Even  the  very  next  week  the  great  city  of  Amsterdam,  which  had 
hitherto  stood  aloof  as  a  Catholic  city  in  a  Protestant  state,  joined 
1 


122  MODERN  HISTOKY.  [a.d.  1578. 

him  in  the  lea<^ae  against  the  Spaniards ;  and  (civil  freedom  in 
this  instance  requiting  the  obligations  under  which  she  had  often 
lain  to  religious  freedom)  not  only  established  toleration,  but  by  the 
conversion  of  great  numbers  of  her  citizens,  gave  no  small  support 
to  the  doctrines  of  the  Reformation.  Towards  the  end  of  the  sum- 
mer, Don  John  put  himself  at  the  head  of  a  larger  army  than  that 
which  had  scattered  his  enemies  at  Gemblours,  to  stamp  out  this 
CAv,  O  \  augmented  resistance.  But  he  was  fated  to  win  no  more  victories. 
1  ''Tv    Towards  the  end  of  September  he  was  attacked  by  a  fever,  which 

K^^v  after  a  few  days  proved  fatal.  Many  of  his  contemporaries  be- 
lieved that  he  had  been  poisoned ;  some  accused  Philip  of  the 
crime,  more  because  so  many  assassinations,  and  that  of  Don  John's 
secretary  among  them,  had  been  so  notoriously  planned  by  him 
that  no  suspicion  could  possibly  do  him  injustice,  than  because  any 
reason  could  be  alleged  why  the  king  should  wish  to  get  rid  of 
one  who  was  certainly  serving  him  with  great  zeal,  and  with  no 
inconsiderable  success.  Philip  himself  professed  to  suspect  the 
Queen  of  England,  who  had  at  last  shown  a  decided  disposition  to 
aid  the  States,  and  he  executed  two  Englishmen  on  the  charge  of 
having  been  employed  by  Walsingham,  Elizabeth's  secretary  of 
state,  to  commit  the  crime.  Perhaps  there  is  no  more  painful 
sign  of  the  general  wickedness  of  that  age  than  is  supplied  by  the 
fact  that  such  suspicions  were  commonly  hinted  about  at  the  death 
of  every  person  of  eminence.  There  not  only  is  no  proof  whatever 
that  Don  John  was  murdered ;  but  there  is  every  probability  that 
he  died  a  natural  death,  for  the  fever  which  was  asserted  to  have 
carried  him  off  was  raging  in  his  camp,  and  had  proved  fatal  to 
great  numbers  of  his  soldiers  before  he  himself  succumbed  to  its 
attack. 


A,D.  1678.]  ALEXANDER  OF  PARMA.  123 


CHAPTER  Yl. 
A.D.    1578  —  1609. 

DON  JOHN  on  his  death-bed  had  directed  that  his  nephew, 
Alexander  of  Parma,  should  exercise  his  authority  till  Philip's 
pleasure  could  be  taken.  Philip  confirmed  the  nomination,  though 
for  a  moment  he  thought  of  sending  back  the  duchess,  his  mother, 
to  resume  her  authority  as  regent,  and  of  limiting  the  son's  commis- 
sion to  the  direction  of  military  affairs.  But  he  soon  found  that 
the  prince  would  not  accept  a  divided  command  ;  while  the  pride 
of  the  duchess  would  be  more  gratified  by  seeing  the  power  in  her 
son's  hands,  than  by  having  its  exercise  again  entrusted  to  herself. 
And  in  consequence  Alexander,  whom  it  will  be  more  convenient 
to  call  by  the  title  to  which  he  soon  succeeded,  and  by  which  he 
is  generally  known,  of  the  Duke  of  Parma,  now  became  Governor 
of  the  Netherlands,  and  by^cmT  as  well  as  military  talents  showed 
himself  well  qualified  to  discharge  the  various  duties  of  that 
arduous  office.  As  a  general  he  soon  proved  pre-eminent  in  skill 
above  all  other  warriors  of  his  day  :  as  a  statesman  he  was  shrewd, 
farsighted,  and  wary  without  being  needlessly  suspicious.  In 
both  capacities  he  was  bold  without  rashness,  and  cautious  without 
timidity  :  as  a  great  prince,  though  naturally  as  haughty  as  any  *. 
Spaniard,  a  far  more  arrogant  race  than  his  countrymen  the  '^y.,,o.^'v--i^^ 
Italians,  he  could  yet,  to  serve  his  purpose,  lay  aside  his  pride,  and 
win  hearts  by  a  condescending  affability.  It  is  painful  to  add  of 
one  who  had  so  many  qualities  of  greatness,  that  he  was  as  deeply 
tainted  with  the  vices  of  falsehood  and  treachery  as  any  of  his 
countrymen,  and  that  his  very  first  triumph,  the  capture  of  Maes- 
tricht,  which  he  took  by  surprise  in  the  spring  of  1579,  proved 
him  to  be  to  the  full  as  inhuman  and  merciless  as  Alva  himself. 
The  city  was  given  up  to  his  soldiers,  who  were  enjoined  to  prac- 
tise pillage  and  murder  as  if  they  were  virtues,  and  happy  were 
those  citizens  whom  a  speedy  deathstroke  delivered  from  their 
truculent  hands. 

Yet,  for  some  time  after  the  assumption  of  the  government 
by  Parma,  the  war  languished.  New  conferences  were  opened  at 
Cologne,  with  the  professed  hope  that  some  means  might  be  devised 


124  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1579. 

for  accommodating  the  quarrel ;  and  during  the  negotiations,  ab- 
Burd  attempts  were  made  to  detach  Orange  from  the  cause  of  the 
States,  and  to  imTuceTim  to"1be  contented,  with  making  terms  for 
himself,  the  negotiators  assuring  him  that  he  could  demand  no 
conditions  which  they  would  not  cheerfully  grant.  It  was  not  a 
new  proposal;  it  had  been  made  before  by  Don  John,  who  had  pro- 
tested that  the  prince  could  not  conceive  the  love  that  Philip  was 
prepared  to  entertain  for  him.  But  Orange  was  well  aware  that 
Philip's  real  desire  was  to  procure  his  assassination  ;  and,  though 
he  was  by  no  means  devoid  of  a  desire  for  personal  aggrandisement, 
his  chief  ambition  had  a  nobler  object,  the  acquisition  of  an 
honorable  fame  as  the  deliverer  of  his  country  from  foreign 
tyranny,  and  the  establishment  not  only  of  civil  but  also  of  religious 
freedom  throughout  the  land. 

In  some  important  points  the  diplomacy  of  each  party  was 
crowned  with  success.  By  an  agreement  that  their  ancient 
privileges  should  be  respected,  Parma  succeeded  in  entirely  de- 
taching the  Walloon  Provinces  from  the  revolt ;  while  Orange 
fully  counterbalanced  that  disappointment  by  a  new  treaty,  known 
as  the  Union  of  Utrecht,  by  which,  in  June  1579,  the  plenipoten- 
tiari6g°~of  Holland,  ^eeland,  Gelderland,  Utrecht,  Friesland, 
Groningen,  and  Overyssel,  united  in  a  closer  alliance,  offensive  and 
defensive,  than  ever,  with  the  avowed  object  of  waging  war  against 
Philip  :  a  treaty  which,  two  years  and  a  half  later,  begot  another, 
by  which  they  formally  renounced  all  allegiance  to  him,  and 
proclaimed  their  own  perpetual  independence.  But  these  ar- 
y-  '^'^Y'*-**^  rangements  only  increased  Orange's  conviction  of  the  necessity  of 
placing  at  the  head  of  the  commonwealth  thus  formed,  a  foreign 
prince,  who  should  be  at  once  a  constitutional  ruler,  and,  by  the 
aid  which  he  would  be  able  to  ensure  from  his  own  country,  a 
protector.  In  spite  of  the  avowed  wishes  of  all  the  States  com- 
posing the  Union,  he  refused  the  government  for  himself;  but, 
though  the  act  would  not  have  had  the  same  appearance  of  self- 
abnegation,  it  may  be  doubted  whether  there  would  not  have  been 
as  real  disinterestedness  in  accepting  it.  It  was  not  so  enviable  a 
post  as  to  expose  its  occupant  to  the  charge  of  indulging  a  greedy 
ambition  ;  and,  even  if  it  had  been,  a  man's  country,  which  has  a 
claim  on  him  to  expose  himself  to  danger  and  even  to  death  in  her 
service,  has  surely  an  equal  right  to  expect  that  he  will  not  shrink 
from  possible  misconstruction.  And  it  seems  clear  that  as 
sovereign  of  the  whole  commonwealth  he  would  have  enjoyed 
greater  facilities  for  successfully  resisting  Philip  and  his  generals 
than  he  could  expect  as  Count  of  the  two  provinces  of  Holland  and 
Zeeland,  the  only  dignity  which  he  could  be  prevailed  on  to 
accept.     However,  his  resolution  on  this  point  was  unalterable ; 


7U..v-J*^"fC 


l.D.  1584.]   .    MUEDER   OF   WILLIAM  THE  SILENT.  125 

and,  as  Matthias  had  proved  wholly  unequal  to  the  burden,  and  as  his 

presence  in  the  country  broug-ht  it  no  aid,  nor,  apparently,  even 

sympathy  from  the  Emperor,  the  prince  once  more   turned  his 

eyes  towards  France  ;  and,  though  of  all  the  sons  of  Catharine  de 

Medici,  the  Duke  of  Anjou  was  perhaps  the  meanest  in  capacity 

and  the  most  contemptible  in  character  throughout  his  whole  life, 

William  prevailed  to  procure  the  despatch  of  an  embassy  to  France  to  /  7      U  ,1, 

offer  him  the  government,  an  honour  which  he  willingly  accepted ;  • 

hoping  to  be  able  to  convert  the  limited  authority  proffered  to  him  jv^.**^  jfj 

into  a  despotic  sovereignty.  {>«..*-^^  ^ 

William's  refusal  of  the  government  was  certainly  mischievous  ^  ^ 

to  the  country  when  it  led  to  the  imposition  on  it  of  a  master,  one 
of  whose  first  acts  was  a  treacherous  attack  on  the  important  city  of 
Antwerp  infutherance  of  his  ambitious  and  unconstitutional  design. 
And  it  in  no  degree  mitigated  the  resentment  which  was  borne  him 
by  the  king;  who,  in  the  summer  of  1580,  published  what  was  called 
a  Ban  against  him,  an  edict  of  outlawry,  which  in  express  terms  invited 
anyone  who  might  be  *  sufficiently  generous  of  heart '  to  murder  him  j 
promising  such  an  assassin  the  enormous  reward  of  25,000  golden 
crowns;  pardon  for  any  crimes,  however  heinous,  of  which  he  might 
ever  have  been  guilty,  and,  if  he  were  not  already  noble,  a  patent 
of  nobility.  Such  inducements  could  not  fail  to  bring  forth  can- 
didates; when  one  volunteer  stipulated  for  even  higher  terms, 
Philip  sealed  an  agreement  to  give  him  80,000  ducats  and  the 
cross  of  Santiago,  the  chief  order  of  knighthood  in  Spain.  In  fact, 
it  was  known  that  assassination  was  Philip's  favourite  crime ;  and 
that  he  would  think  no  recompence  too  great  for  one  who  would 
thus  rid  him  of  an  antagonist  whom  open  force  was  clearly  unable 
to  subdue.  So  plot  after  plot  was  laid  to  poison  him,  to  blow  him 
up  with  gunpowder,  to  stab  him,  to  shoot  him;  and  at  last  in  July 
1584  he  was  shot  through  the  heart  by  a  man  named  Balthasar 
Gerard,  who,  however,  it  must  be  said,  was  not  more  impelled  by 
the  desire  of  gain  than  by  a  fanatical  zeal  to  destroy  an  enemy 
of  the  Roman  Catholic  religion :  a  deed  which  the  Jesuits,  the 
authors  of  all  the  foulest  crimes  that  were  committed  in  that  age, 
assured  him  would  entitle  him  to  a  place  among  the  holiest 
martyrs  of  the  Church. 

The  prince  thus  foully  murdered  in  the  flower  of  his  middle 
age  (he  was  but  fifty-one),  was  undoubtedly  among  the  very 
ablest  men  of  a  period  singularly  prolific  of  civil  and  military 
ability.  He  was  a  brave  and  far  from  unskilful  soldier,  though,  in 
this  respect,  it  is  unfortunate  for  his  renown  that  he  was  matched 
against  so  eminent  a  commander  as  Alva,  to  whom  he  must  be 
confessed  to  have  proved  unequal.  But  as  a  statesman,  he  yields 
to  no  man  of  his  time.     It  was  his  intrepid  resolution  that  first 


^  \. 


126  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1581. 

animated  the  people  of  the  United  Provinces  to  resistance  to  a 
tyrant  who  trampled  on  their  constitutional  liberties  and  rights, 
and  who  sought  to  crush  their  religion  by  the  most  pitiless  perse- 
cution ;  and  it  was  his  sleepless  vigilance  and  profound  wisdom 
that  conducted  the  resistance  which  he  had  organised  so  far  on  its 
road  that  before  he  died  its  ultimate  success  may  be  said  to  have 
been  assured.  Nor  has  anyone  who  has  been  endowed  with 
equal  talents  ever  exercised  them  with  a  more  fixed  view  to  the 
welfare  of  his  country,  and  a  more  entire  disregard  of  personal 
objects.  His  love  of  civil  freedom  was  sincere  and  purej  his  con- 
stant advocacy  of  the  right  of  all  men  to  religious  freedom,  and 
consequently  of  the  duty  of  toleration,  though,  perhaps,  flowing 
in  some  degree  from  his  habit  of  regarding  the  differences  be- 
tween the  rival  sects  as  a  politician  rather  than  as  a  theologian, 
is  nevertheless  highly  honorable  to  him  as  a  proof  of  wisdom 
and  humanity  far  in  advance  of  his  time,  and  of  his  courage  in 
bearing  misconstruction  in  the  discharge  of  duty ;  since  in  that 
day  it  was  almost  admitted  as  a  maxim  that  a  reluctance  to  force 
on  others  the  adoption  of  one's  unbelief  by  the  severest  methods 
could  proceed  from  no  feeling  but  that  of  indifference  to  the 
truth.  If  there  be  any  point  on  which  his  political  judgment  may 
be  fairly  called  in  question  it  is,  as  has  been  already  intimated,  his 
refusal  to  take  upon  himself  the  supreme  authority  over  the 
commonwealth  which  he  had  created,  and  his  preferring  to  trust 
its  destinies  to  the  wretched  Anjou.  But  the  purity  of  the 
motives  which  dictated  that  refusal  no  one  can  doubt.  And,  if 
Washington  has  always  been  held  in  honour  for  the  moderation 
with  which  he  put  away  every  temptation  to  erect  for  himself  a 
permanent  authority  on  the  ruins  of  the  British  dominion  in 
America,  equal  praise  cannot  be  denied  to  him  who  refused  a 
sovereignty  which  the  whole  body  of  his  countrymen  more  than 
once  pressed  upon  his  acceptance. 

Great  as  was  the  grief  felt  throughout  the  Provinces  for  his  loss, 
it  may  be  questioned  whether  Philip's  crime  (for  he  was  the  real 
assassin,  and  not  the  miserable  wretch  who  fired  the  pistol),  was 
not  profitless  or  even  injurious  to  himself.  For  all  that  a  statesman 
could  do  William  had  done  so  completely  that  little  more  remained 
to  be  done  for  some  time.  But  the  commonwealth  had  greater 
need  than  ever  of  a  skilful  commander,  for  Parma  was  a  far  greater 
general  than  Alva ;  and  in  the  science  of  war  the  young  prince, 
who  soon  succeeded  to  the  lead  of  the  commonwealth  armies,  was 
at  least  equally  superior  to  his  father. 

It  was,  considering  the  critical  nature  of  the  time,  a  curious 
homage  to  the  hero  whom  they  had  lost,  when  the  States-General 
placed  his  second  son,  Maurice,  a  boy  of  seventeen,  at  the  head  of 


a.D.  1584.J  MAUEICE   OF  ORANGE.  127 

the  State  Council  which  was  to  carry  on  the  government.  His  ^A 
eldest  son,  now  nearly  thirty  years  of  age,  at  the  beginning  of  the  ^-^^^^^^^ 
troubles,  had  been  carried  off  by  the  Spaniards  from  Louvain,^  ;t  'V. 
v/here  his  father  had  incautiously  left  him  at  school,  and  had  been 
transferred  to  Madrid,  where  he  had  been  educated  as  a  Roman 
Catholic,  in  utter  ignorance  of  and  indifference  to  the  liberties 
of  the  Netherlanders.  But  Maurice,  his  half-brother,  the  only  son 
of  William's  second  wife,  Anne  of  Saxony,  had  been  trained  under 
his  fjither's  eye  with  a  natural  solicitude  ;  and  those  who  met  to 
consider  how  that  father's  place  could  best  be  filled,  well  knew 
how  great  was  the  opinion  which  he  had  entertained  of  the  boy's 
capacity.  He  gave  a  proof  of  the  sobriety  of  his  judgment  and  of 
his  courage  at  the  very  outset,  when,  far  from  being  dazzled  by 
the  dignified  position  thus  offered  him,  he  required  three  days  to 
deliberate  on  the  propriety  of  accepting  it ;  and  when,  after  that 
interval  of  patient  consideration,  full  of  peril  as  his  father's  fate 
had  proved  such  a  position  to  be,  he  frankly  undertook  it. 

At  the  same  time,  still  adhering  to  William's  policy  of  securing 
for  the  commonwealth  a  foreign  protector,  the  Council  opened  a 
negotiation  with  flenry  III,  of  France.  The  Duke  of  Anjou  had 
died  shortly  before  the  murder  of  the  prince ;  and  now  it  was 
resolved  to  propoj^e  to  the  king  himself  to  succ^^ed  him,  binding  r*"*"^^  ry^ 
him  equally  to  allow  to  all  the  free  exercise  of  their  religion,  and  -CS'l^  -f)^^ 
to  maintain  all  the  civil  rights  and  privileges  of  ench  state  and  ' 

city.    jVIaurice,  young  and  new  to  office  as  he  was,  did  not  scruple 
to  resist  the^ropo.^al  with  great  vigour.     He  was  more  under  the 
influence  of  personal  ambition  than  his  father ;  and,  knowing  that 
the  sovereignty  of  the  commonwealth  had  been  offered  to  hira,  he 
had  probably  already  formed  a  hope  that  hereafter  it  might  be 
tendered  to  himself  also,  and  he  was  therefore  far  from  inclined 
to  favour  any  scheme  which  might  prevent  such  a  consummation. 
He  was  overruled  ;   but,  though  a  formal   embassy  was  sent  to 
Paris   to   make   the    offer,  it    obtained   no  satisfactory   answer. 
Henrv,  indeed,  coveted  one  or  two  of  the  Flemish  seaports,  and 
would  have  been  especially  glad  to  obtain  the  island  of  Walcheren  ; 
but  he  had  other  objects,  in  which  he  took  a  much  deeper  interest. 
He  was  afraid  of  Philip's  intriguing  with  the  party  of  the  League,^ 
and  he  was  chiefly  led  to  entertain  and  protract  the  discussionC^j^,^^^  ^ 
with  the  ambassadors  of  the  States  by  the  hope  that  the  Spaniard,  , 
in  order  to  prevent  his  concluding   any  agreement  with  them,/  *^*^^-^><r-'T^ 
would  himself  make  an    alliance  with  him    on    more  favorable  ^ 

terms  than,  if  this  fear  were  removed,  he  would  be  inclined  to 
admit.  He  did  not  suspect  that  at  that  very  moment  Philip  was 
negotiating  a  treaty  with  the  Guises,  still  less  that  he  was  en- 
deavouring to  prevail  on  the  King  of  Navarre  also,  though  a  heretic, 


128  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1584. 

to  take  arms  against  him  ;  and,  less  than  either,  that  he  still 
cherished  a  secret  hope  of  inducing  the  League  to  accept  himself 
as  King  of  France,  instead  of  the  Cardinal  Bourbon,  whose  claims, 
•when  anything  should  render  the  throne  vacant,  the  treaty  of 
Joinville  bound  him  to  advance  and  to  maintain.  Finally,  Henry 
III.  not  only  refused  the  offers  made  to  him,  but  exerted  himself, 
with  Henry  of  Navarre  (over  whom,  as  his  cousin  and  heir,  he 
had  an  influence  which  his  character  would  not  have  given  him), 
to  prevent  him  also  from  aiding  the  States,  which  were  thus 
eventually  driven  to  reopen  negotiations  with  England,  and  to 
purchase  her  aid  by  conditions  which,  after  his  death,  threatened 
great  danger  to  the  commonwealth. 

Parma,  who  had  for  some  months  been  preparing  for  active 
operations,  but  whose  force,  consisting  as  it  did  of  little  more  than 
18,000  men,  was  very  inadequate  to  the  work  which  he  desired  to 
do,  was  so  much  encouraged  by  William's  death,  that  he  at  once 
took  the  field,  hoping,  however,  to  save  his  men  by  such  liberality 
of  promise  to  the  different  cities  which  he  intended  to  reduce  as 
might  induce  them  to  avoid  a  siege  by  voluntary  surrender.  He 
was  not  altogether  disappointed.  Dendermonde  soon  yielded  ;  so 
did  Ghent.  After  a  few  months  he  became  master  of  Mechlin 
and  Brussels;  and  the  only  places  of  great  importance  on  that 
side  of  the  Netherlands  which  remained  in  the  possession  of  the 
commonwealth  were  Ostend,  Sluys,  and  Antwerp.  The  last 
appeared  to  him  to  be  the  most  important,  and  at  the  same  time 
the  least  impregnable,  though  the  energy  with  which  the  muni- 
cipal authorities  had  latterly  applied  themselves  to  strengthen  its 
defences  forbad  him  to  entertain  the  least  hope  that  they  would 
follow  the  example  of  the  other  cities,  and  submit  without  the 
most  irresistible  necessity.  The  destruction,  indeed,  of  that  vast 
commercial  wealth,  and  still  more  of  that  security  which  is  the 
foundation  of  such  wealth,  which  d'Avila  had  inflicted,  no  policy 
could  repair ;  but  the  citizens  had  done  much  to  efface  the  visible 
injuries  which  he  had  wrought :  they  had  rebuilt  and  strengthened 
the  fortifications,  had  replaced  and  augmented  the  artillery,  had 
widened  and  deepened  the  fosse,  and,  as  far  as  those  defences 
could  ensure  safety,  had  rendered  it  safe  from  any  ordinary 
attempts.  Had  they  taken  the  advice  of  William  the  Silent,  they 
would  have  made  it  absolutely  unassailable  ;  for  he,  who,  as  has 
been  mentioned,  was  master  of  all  the  king's  secret  views,  was 
not  without  information  as  to  many  of  the  designs  of  his  servants. 
As  early  as  the  beginning  of  1584  he  had  become  aware  that 
Parma  Avas  planning  an  attack  on  Antwerp,  and  had  commu- 
nicated his  knowledge  to  his  great  friend,  the  Lord  of  Sainte 
Aldegonde,  who  held  the  office  of  burgomaster  or  chief  magistrate. 


A.D.  1584.]  THE   SIEGE   OF  AKTWERP.  129 

So  correct  was  his  intelliofence,  that  he  was  aware  even  of  the 
means  which  the  duke  intended  to  employ  for  the  reduction  of  the 
city  months  before  he  made  the  slightest  demonstration  against  it. 
Antwerp  lies  not  far  from  the  mouth  of  the  Scheldt ;  its  safety 
depended  on  its  keeping  open  its  communication  with  the  sea ; 
Parma's  hope  of  subduing  it  lay  in  his  cutting  off  that  commu- 
nication ;  and  he  had  already  conceived  the  audacious  notion  of 
effecting  that  object  by  throwing  a  bridge  across  the  great  river, 
though  it  was  nearly  half  a  mile  broad  and  sixty  feet  in  depth. 
It  was  a  marvellous  conception :  but  the  possibility  of  accomplish- 
ing it  did  not  depend  upon  him,  but  upon  the  citizens ;  for,  like 
most  of  the  citie.^  on  or  near  the  coast,  Antwerp  was  surrounded 
by  an  expanse  of  low  land  which  had  been  reclaimed  from  the  sea, 
and  which  the  sea  was  only  kept  from  overrunning  by  a  system 
of  dykes  and  sluices  ;  and  the  temporary  perforation  of  two  of 
these  dykes,  known  as  the  Blawgaren  and  the  Kowenstyn  dykes, 
would  for  the  time  bring  the  sea  so  close  to  its  walls  on  the  side 
which  they  sheltered,  that  there  would  be  no  hindrance  nor  limit 
to  the  continual  introduction  of  reinforcements  and  supplies  of  all 
sorts  ;  and  the  city  might  then  bid  defiance  to  any  enemy  whose 
means  of  attack  were  limited  to  a  land  force.  William,  therefore, 
recommended  the  instant  opening  of  a  passage  through  the  two 
dykes  ;  but,  though  the  wisdom  of  thus  taking  timely  precautions 
was  undeniable,  the  advice  was  not  acted  upon.  St.  Aldegonde, 
though  a  man  of  great  brilliancy  of  talent,  it  might  almost  be 
said  of  genius,  was  not  a  man  on  whom  a  city  could  depend  for 
its  energetic  defence  in  time  of  peril.  He  had  many  virtues  :  he 
was  an  amiable  man,  an  honest  man,  a  fearless  man.  He  had 
many  accomplishments  :  he  was  an  elegant  scholar,  a  linguist,  an 
orator  and  a  poet,  learned  both  in  law  and  theology,  and  had 
shown  considerable  skill  as  a  diplomatist ;  but  he  wanted  decision 
and  firmness :  so  that,  instead  of  influencing  those  of  less  know- 
ledge and  judgment  than  himself,  he  was  apt  to  yield  to  them, 
and  to  submit  his  own  superior  capacity  to  their  prejudices  or 
obstinacy.  And  so  it  happened  on  this  occasion.  The  city  council, 
when  he  laid  William's  suggestions  before  it,  at  once  discovered 
their  value,  passed  an  order  to  open  the  dykes,  and  entrusted  hioi 
with  the  task  of  seeing  that  their  order  was  executed.  It  might 
have  been  thought  that  nothing  more  was  needed.  And  nothing 
more  would  have  been  needed  had  St.  Aldegonde  been  capable  of 
doing  his  duty  resolutely.  But,  instead  of  at  once  carrying  out  the 
vote  of  the  council,  he  listened  to  every  kind  of  objection.  The 
butchers  of  the  city  grumbled  :  the  lands  that  the  piercing  of  the 
dykes  would  submerge  were  valuable  as  pasture  ;  they  were  esti- 
mated as  aifording  food  for  12,000  oxen,  and  to  depiive  them  of 


130  MODEKN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1584. 

such  grazing  ground  would  raise  the  price,  and  diminish  the 
supply  of  meat.  Others  pronounced  the  measure  unnecessary, 
because  the  scheme  of  bridging  the  Scheldt,  on  which  the  argument 
in  favour  of  it  was  founded,  was  in  their  judgment  impracticable. 
For  both  reasons  the  municipal  guard  was  alleged  to  be  wholly 
opposed  to  it,  and  inclined  to  resist  its  execution  by  force ;  and  to 
this  combined  opposition  St.  Aldegonde  gave  way,  sharing  himself, 
it  is  believed,  in  the  opinion  that  the  construction  of  the  bridge 
was  beyond  Parma's  resources.  Meanwhile  Orange  was  murdered ; 
there  was  no  one  left  to  watch  the  Spanish  commander's  move- 
ments with  adequate  vigilance,  and  that  most  energetic  chief  went 
on  with  his  preparations  unchecked  and  indeed  unnoticed. 
■f  I  have  said  that  generally  speaking  one  siege  is  too  like  another 
to  make  it  worth  while  to  enter  into  the  details  of  such  operations ; 
but  that  of  Antwerp  forms  an  exception  to  this  rule,  in  the 
extraordinary  character  of  the  difficulties  to  be  surmounted,  and  of 
the  expedients  by  which  they  were  overcome ;  so  that,  as  the  most 
striking  achievement  of  the  greatest  general  of  the  age,  it  seems  to 
claim  a  special  record,  while  some  of  the  exploits  of  the  defenders 
of  the  city  are  almost  equally  deserving  of  commemoration.  In 
spite  of  the  neglect  of  Orange's  timely  warning,  a  happy  com- 
bination of  ingenuity  and  boldness  had  more  than  once  retrieved 
their  early  blunders,  and  had  brought  victory  and  safety  within 
their  reach,  when  the  supineness  of  some  leaders  and  the  over- 
confidence  of  others  threw  away  the  advantages  which  had  been 
gained.  And  few  lessons  are  more  permanently  instructive  than 
those  which  teach  by  example  how  a  single  oversight  may  ruin 
the  best  laid  designs,  and  defeat  them  at  the  very  moment  of 
their  accomplishment. 

The  means  at  Parma's  disposal  would,  to  any  other  general, 
have  seemed  totally  inadequate  to  the  undertaking,  for  his  entire 
force  did  not  amount  to  12,000  men ;  and  even  after  the  Spanish 
*  Fury '  the  population  of  the  city  was  estimated  at  at  least 
eight  times  that  number.  But  he  trusted  to  turn  its  very  strength 
and  populousness  against  it ;  and,  as  they  forbad  the  hope  of  re- 
ducing it  by  force  of  arms  in  actual  conflict,  to  starve  it  into 
surrender  by  cutting  off  its  supplies.  With  this  view,  as  early  as 
June  1584,  before  the  murder  of  Orange,  he  had  begun  to  build 
forts  higher  up  the  river,,  and  to  attack  some  of  those  in  the  pos- 
session of  the  commonwealth  which  mig«ht  be  regarded  as  out- 
posts of  the  great  city,  capturing  Liefkenshoek,  a  post  of  sonie 
importance,  from  its  situation,  which  was  only  nine  miles  from 
Antwerp,  on  the  very  day  on  which  Gerard  accomplished  his  deed 
of  blood  at  Delft.  Presently  he  occupied  an  island  called  Kalloo, 
half-way  between  Liefkenshoek  and  the  city,  and  constructed  on 


A.B.  1685.]  PARMA  BRIDGES  THE  SCHELDT.  131 

it  vast  magazines  and  woikshops,  which  he  filled  with  artisans  of 
all  kinds  from  every  town  under  his  authority.  At  last,  towards 
the  end  of  the  autumn,  he  began  to  build  his  bridge.  Close  to 
Kalloo  he  had  formed  a  sandbank  in  the  bed  of  the  river,  which 
somewhat  diminished  its  depth,  though  even  there  the  width  was 
800  yards.  On  each  side  of  the  stream  at  that  point  he  erected  a 
strong  fort,  one  of  which  he  named  Philip,  in  honour  of  the  king ; 
the  other  he  called  St.  Mary,  whom  he  had  adopted  as  the  espe- 
cial patroness  of  his  enterprise  ;  and  between  them  he  began  to 
sink  huge  piles,  strong  enough  to  bear  a  solid  roadway  twelve  feet 
in  breadth,  with  towers  and  blockhouses  to  protect  the  work.  Then, 
at  last,  the  citizens  began  to  see  the  necessity  of  the  precautions 
which  the  prince  whom  they  had  lost  had  recommended  eight 
months  before.  They  now  all  consented  to  piercing  the  great 
dykes  ;  but  it  was  too  late;  Parma  had  seen  their  importance,  as 
well  as  Orange,  had  seized  and  fortified  them,  and  it  was  neces- 
sary to  wrest  them  from  his  iron  grasp  before  a  gap  could  be  made 
in  either. 

Other  schemes  were  more  tempting,  as  being  easier  than  such  a 
feat.  The  town  of  Boisleduc,  at  no  great  distance,  was  one  of 
the  chief  sources  from  which  he  drew  his  supplies,  and  Count 
Hohenlo,  an  officer  well  known  for  his  adventurous  spirit,  though, 
unluckily,  equally  notorious  for  his  dissolute  lawless  character, 
undertook  to  surprise  it.  The  first  part  of  the  enterprise  he 
accomplished  with  skill  and  good  fortune ;  a  party  of  soldiers 
placed,  during  a  dark  winter's  night,  in  ambush  near  the  gate, 
surprised  and  mastered  the  guards  at  daybreak,  and  Hohenlo  him- 
self, taking  prompt  advantage  of  their  success,  poured  into  the 
town  at  the  head  of  his  advanced  guard  of  700  men,  3,500  more 
following  at  no  great  distance.  He  had  won  his  prize  without 
losing  a  single  man;  and,  with  a  ferocity  which  was  too  character- 
istic of  him,  at  once  gave  the  men  whom  he  had  with  him  leave 
to  plunder  it  before  his  other  divisions  came  up.  They  dispersed 
through  the  different  streets  in  search  of  booty,  pillaging  every 
house  that  looked  tempting,  and  meeting  with  no  resistance,  for, 
strange  to  say,  there  was  no  garrison  in  the  place,  when  the  very 
disorder  which  their  success  had  engendered  ruined  them.  A 
handful  of  troops,  not  above  seventy  in  all,  had  arrived  in  the 
town  on  the  previous  evening  on  their  way  from  Breda.  They 
now  united  themselves  to  some  of  the  burghers,  whom  the  Sieur 
Elniont,  the  governor  of  the  city,  had  got  together  at  the  first 
alarm,  attacked  some  of  the  plunderers,  who  were  roving  through 
the  town  in  small  bands,  and  who  at  once  fled  before  them.  Their 
panic  communicated  itself  to  their  comrades.  Hohenlo,  instead  of 
trying   to  rally  his  men,  quitted  the  town,  and  hastened  off  to 


132  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1585. 

bring  up  the  main  body;  but  before  he  could  reach  the  gates 
again,  the  citizens  had  let  down  the  portcullis,  and  had  taken  his 
advanced  guard  in  a  trap.  A  few  let  themselves  down  from  the 
walls  and  escaped,  but  the  rest  were  overpowered  and  slain  to  a 
man ;  and  thus,  through  Hohenlo's  rapacious  licentiousness,  an 
enterprise  which  might  have  covered  him  with  glory  redounded 
to  his  dishonour.  And  one  hope  of  escape  for  Antwerp  was  cut 
off:  Parma  himself  declared  to  Philip,  when  he  reported  the 
occurrence  to  him,  that  '  had  the  rebels  succeeded,  he  must  at  once 
have  raised  the  siege.'  And  he  took  good  care  not  to  leave  so 
important  a  place  any  longer  undefended. 

The  second  failure  was  even  more  disappointing.  By  the  twenty- 
fifth  of  February  the  bridge  was  completed  ;  and  the  duke  was  so 
confident  of  its  efficiency  to  secure  its  object,  that,  a  spy  having  been 
seized  within  his  lines,  he  showed  him  every  part  of  the  work,  and 
sent  him  back  to  his  fellow-citizens  with  a  charge  to  report  what 
he  had  seen,  and  to  declare  to  them  that  the  siege  would  never  be 
abandoned,  but  that  the  bridge  would  either  be  his  grave  or  hia 
path  into  Antwerp.  But  there  was  in  the  city  a  Mantuan  engi- 
neer of  great  ingenuity,  named  Gianibelli,  who  bore  special  ill- 
will  to  the  Spaniards  for  some  slights  which  he  had  received  from 
them,  and  who  was  eager  to  requite  them  by  proving  to  the  duke 
that  the  bridge  of  which  he  boasted  was  not  so  invincible  as  he 
flattered  himself.  He  laid  his  plans  before  the  city  council,  pro- 
mising to  destroy  the  bridge  if  they  would  place  three  large 
vessels  of  their  fleet  at  his  disposal.  Fated  throughout,  as  it 
would  seem,  to  place  their  confidence  in  those  who  did  not  deserve 
it,  and  to  deny  it  to  those  who  did,  they  were  some  time  before 
they  would  listen  to  his  proposal  at  all ;  and,  when  they  did,  they 
gave  him  two  small  boats  instead  of  the  ships  which  he  had 
asked  for ;  and  yet  with  them  he  accomplished  all  that  he  had 
foretold.  lie  converted  each  vessel  into  an  infernal  machine 
or  explosion  ship,  on  a  scale  such  as  had  never  before  been  con- 
ceived ;  though,  in  the  present  century.  Lord  Cochrane,  who  seems 
to  have  taken  the  Italian's  work  for  his  model,  constructed  some 
of  still  greater  magnitude  and  power. ^  Each  contained  7,000  lbs. 
of  powder  of  unusual  strength,  made  b}-^  Gianibelli  himself  for  the 
purpose,  which  was  enclosed  within  stone  walls  of  great  thickness, 
to  increase  the  resistance  and  consequent  violence  of  the  explo- 
sion, while  above  the  roof,  which  was  of  still  greater  solidity,  were 
piled  vast  masses  of  stones,  cannon  balls,  grenades,  and  every  con- 
ceivable missile.  The  ingenious  mechanist  would  not  trust  to  one 
mode  of  firing  them ;  but  one  vessel,  the  Fortune,  was  provided 

•  Lord  Cochrane  fully  describes  vessels'  as  he  calls  them.  — .1j//o- 
the   construction   of  his    'explosive      biography  of  a  Seaman,  c.  y.y.x. 


A.D.  1585.]    THE   EXPLOSION  SHIPS  OF  GIANIBELLI.     133 

with  a  slow  match ;  the  other,  the  Hope,  was  to  be  discharged 
by  a  trigger  moved  by  clockwork.  When  all  was  prepared,  on  the 
appointed  night,  the  fifth  of  April,  they  were  sent  down  the  stream 
against  the  bridge,  preceded  by  a  squadron  of  small  craft,  fitted  as 
fire-ships,  with  combustible  materials  of  all  kinds.  Having  been 
turned  adrift  without  a  single  man  on  board  to  guide  them,  the 
fire-ships  ran  aground  at  different  spots,  and  did  no  harm;  though 
in  one  way  they  produced  an  effect  for  which  they  had  not  been 
designed,  since  at  their  first  appearance  Parma,  not  detecting  their 
real  character,  but  thinking  them  a  fleet  whose  crews  were  to 
assault  the  bridge,  at  once  caused  the  drums  to  beat  to  arras,  and 
collected  the  bulk  of  his  army  to  repel  the  expected  attack.  The 
Fortune,  too,  failed  to  reach  the  bridge,  and  the  slow  match,  not 
having  been  calculated  with  sufficient  precision,  produced  a  very 
trifling  explosion.  But  the  Hope  was  more  fortunate.  She  struck 
the  bridge  itself  at  the  most  vulnerable  point,  where  the  central  por- 
tion, which  was  floating,  was  joined  to  that  which  was  solid.  As 
a  thin  wreath  of  smoke  was  seen  circling  over  the  deck,  a  band  of 
Spaniards  leapt  down  on  it  to  extinguish  the  flame ;  some  of  the 
officers  laughed  loudly  at  the  failure ;  some  were  less  easy  in  their 
minds ;  and  one,  seizing  Parma  himself,  who  was  close  at  hand 
gazing  down  on  the  vessel,  but  who,  by  some  impulse,  unusual 
indeed  in  one  so  calm  and  resolute,  yielded  to  his  subaltern's  im- 
portunity, dragged  him  from  the  spot.  The  next  moment  the 
Hope  blew  up,  with  an  effect  which  even  now  surpasses  every 
similar  incident  in  the  annals  of  war  :  two  hundred  feet  of  the 
bridge  were  swept  away:  a  thousand  Spanish  soldiers,  with 
many  of  their  bravest  officers,  were  blown  to  atoms.  Parma  him- 
self, as  it  was,  had  a  narrow  escape  :  he  was  struck  down  sense- 
less by  a  fragment,  and  his  page,  who  was  just  behind  him,  was 
killed ;  but  though  he  speedily  recovered,  his  bridge  was  irre- 
parably damaged ;  and  with  it  his  whole  hope  of  effecting  the 
reduction  of  the  city  for  which  he  had  been  toiling  with  such 
unwearied  skill  for  so  many  months  was  extinguished,  if  only  his 
enemies  had  had  the  resolution  to  avail  themselves  of  their  great 
success.  But  former  misconduct  had  earned  for  the  admiral  the 
unenviable  title  of  Runaway  Jacob,  though  it  had  not  convinced 
St.  Aldegonde  of  the  folly  of  again  employing  him.  On  this 
eventful  night  he  had  been  charged  with  the  task  of  launching 
the  different  engines  of  destruction  on  their  cruise,  and  had  been 
directed,  as  soon  as  the  explosion  should  have  taken  place,  to 
send  his  barge  to  the  bridge  to  ascertain  the  result :  if  a  breach 
had  been  effected,  he  was  to  send  up  a  rocket,  at  the  appearance  of 
which  a  fleet,  lying  ready  a  mile  or  two  lower  down,  and  laden 
with  provisions,  was  at  once  to  make  sail  and  re-victual  the  city. 


134  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1585. 

But  he  was  so  terrified  by  the  explosion  that,  though  he  sent  the 
barge  up  to  make  the  investigation,  he  never  waited  for  its 
return :  her  crew,  catching  the  contagion  of  his  cowardice,  never 
ventured  to  approach  the  bridge;  but,  after  rowing  about  for  a 
while,  came  back  with  the  false  statement  that  it  had  received  no 
injury.  It  was  not  till  three  days  afterwards  that  a  soldier  of 
Hohenlo's  swam  up  and  learnt  the  truth,  and  by  that  time  Parma 
had  so  nearly  repaired  the  breach  which  had  been  made  that 
St.  Aldegonde  gained  nothing  from  his  intelligence  but  the  morti- 
fication of  learning  how  great  was  the  success  which  had  been 
achieved,  and  how  utterly  it  had  been  thrown  away. 

The  third  failure  must  have  been  still  more  grievous  to  him, 
since  it  was  his  own  folly  which  was  to  blame  for  it.  Though 
Parma  had  occupied  and  fortified  the  dykes  which  Orange  would 
have  had  him  pierce,  the  force  which  defended  them  was  not  so  great 
as  to  render  an  attack  upon  them  hopeless.  Could  they  be  mastered, 
the  dykes  might  still  be  severed  and  Antwerp  might  still  be  saved. 
In  this  hope,  a  month  after  the  attack  on  the  bridge,  St.  Aldegonde 
organised  an  attack  on  the  Kowenstyn  Dyke,  the  conduct  of 
which  he  entrusted  to  Hohenlo,  who  was  burning  to  retrieve  the 
credit  he  had  lost  at  Boisleduc.  As  before,  Hohenlo  succeeded  up  to 
a  certain  point,  only  to  fail  afterwards  ;  though  his  ultimate  defeat 
was  on  this  occasion  owing  to  no  fault  of  his,  but  to  the  short- 
comings of  those  appointed  to  support  him.  But,  as  there  was 
encouragement  even  in  the  partial  success  which  he  had  attained, 
three  weeks  later  St.  Aldegonde  made  another  attempt  on  a  larger 
scale,  of  which  he  took  the  chief  command  himself.  On  the  twenty- 
sixth  of  May  a  huge  fleet  of  200  sail,  in  two  divisions,  one  under  his 
own  orders,  the  other  under  Hohenlo,  each  conveying  a  strong 
body  of  land  forces,  came  down  on  the  dyke  from  two  different 
quarters,  and,  after  a  fierce  combat  with  its  defenders,  three 
thousand  soldiers  of  the  commonwealth  stood  victorious  on  the 
summit.  A  body  of  sappers  and  miners  whom  they  had  brought 
with  them  at  once  began  to  pierce  it;  and  in  an  hour  or  two 
had  effected  so  clear  a  breach  that  one  barge  loaded  with  pro- 
visions for  Antwerp  passed  through.  Once  more  the  victory  was 
won,  had  those  who  had  won  it  had  but  the  sense  to  persevere  in 
the  brief  labour  still  necessary  to  secure  and  to  complete  it.  But 
the  hour  which  should  have  been  so  employed  was  otherwise 
spent ;  with  childi^-h  exultation  both  the  leaders,  St.  Aldegonde  as 
well  as  Hohenlo,  sprang  into  the  vessel  whose  passage  through 
the  dyke  was  the  proof  and  first-fruits  of  their  success,  eager  for 
the  petty  triumph  of  bearing  in  person  the  happy  news  of  its  now 
assured  safety  to  the  city,  which  had  been  gradually  learning  to 
resign  such  hopes.     They  lit  bonfires,  they  rang  the  bells,  they 


A.D.  1585.]  FIGHT  ON  THE  DYKE.  135 

assembled  the  cliief  citizens  at  a  rapidly-prepared  banquet  in  the 
town  hall ;  and  while,  amid  their  toasts  and  cheers,  they  were 
discussing  what  should  be  the  treatment  of  the  still  numerous 
Spanish  force  on  the  dyke,  whose  retreat  was  cut  off,  and  who 
must  by  that  time  have  surrendered,  they  leanit  to  their  dismay 
that  the  victory  of  which  they  had  been  counting  the  spoils  had 
been  wrested  from  their  hands. 

They  had  been  quick  enough  to  take  their  success  for  granted ; 
but  soldiers  who  httd  been  trained  under  Parma  were  not  the  men 
to  acquiesce  in  a  defeat  while  a  single  chance  remained  of  re- 
trieving it;  and  never  was  more  clearly  shown  than  now  the  value 
of  that  spirit  which  one  man  of  genius  can  infuse  into  all  his 
followers.  The  maintenance  of  the  dyke  was  so  important,  and 
his  expectation  that  the  citizens  would  once  more  attempt  to  master 
it  was  so  confident,  that  he  had  entrusted  its  protection  to  some  of 
his  most  approved  officers.  Two  were  countrymen  of  his  own, 
Capizucca  and  Piccolomiui,  commanders  of  his  Italian  Legion. 
Their  chief  was  a  veteran  German,  Count  Mansfeld,  who  had 
passed  a  long  life  in  camps  ;  and  had  learned  the  value  of  time  in 
war.  Parma  was  on  the  mainland,  in  his  tent,  some  miles  from 
the  scene  of  action  ;  but,  should  they  wait  for  him  to  join  them  and 
assume  the  direction,  it  was  certain  that  the  enemy  would  have 
time  to  complete  the  destruction  of  the  dyke  before  he  could 
ari'ive.  Mansfeld  resolved  at  once  to  attack  the  conquering 
battalions  (he  did  not  dream  that  their  commanders  had  deserted 
them)  ;  and,  if  he  could  effect  nothing  else,  at  least  to  occupy  them 
so  fully  as  to  prevent  their  doing  further  injury  to  the  dyke  till 
the  general-in-chief  should  come.  They  had  less  time  to  wait 
for  him  than  they  feared.  He  had  been  roused  by  the  first  guns 
which  had  been  fired  ;  and,  with  an  instinctive  perception  of  what 
must  be  the  object  of  attack,  had  at  once  hastened  to  the  spot ;  and, 
though  impeded  in  his  progress  by  a  division  of  St.  Aldegonde's  fleet, 
he  soon  forced  his  way  to  the  scene  of  action,  where  Dutch  and 
Spaniards  were  fighting  with  a  fury  that  had  never  been  surpassed 
in  the  whole  war,  on  the  narrow  causeway  which  formed  the 
top  of  the  contested  dyke.  The  contest  had  become  too  unequal. 
Ills  troops,  well  commanded  by  Mansfeld  and  his  officers,  were 
already  proving  more  than  a  match  for  antagonists  who  had  been 
left  without  any  commanders  at  all.  His  arrival  and  assumption 
of  the  command  was  decisive.  He  turned  some  of  his  batteries  on 
the  fleet  which  had  brought  the  assailants  to  the  dyke ;  and  the 
sailors,  dismayed  by  the  unexpected  cannonade,  and  fearing  lest 
the  tide,  now  rapidly  ebbing,  should  leave  them  aground  and  help- 
less, fled  in  confusion,  leaving  their  comrades  on  the  dyke  without 
escape,  and  wholly  at  Parma's  mercy.     They  were  soon  over- 


136  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1585. 

powered,  and  slain  almost  to  a  man ;  and  with  the  defeat  of  this 
attempt,  the  resistance  of  the  city  ended.  St.  Aldegonde,  though 
honest  and  personally  brave,  was  morally  weak  and  spiritless. 
The  very  fact  that  his  late  enterprise  had  so  nearly  succeeded  dis- 
heartened him  more  than  if  the  failure  had  been  more  complete. 
He  was  too  thoroughly  dispirited  to  take  courage  even  from  the 
intelligence  which  he  received  from  England  that  Elizabeth  had 
almost  resolved  to  send  aid  to  the  city  ;  and,  inless.than  a  fortnight 
after  his  victory  had  been  thus  turned  into  defeat,  he,  listened  to 
an  invitation  from  Parma  to  a  conference  on  the  state  of  affairs. 
Such  a  meeting  could  have  no  object  but  a  discussion  of  the  terms 
of  surrender ;  and  though  the  burgomaster  tried  to  delude  himself 
with  the  pretence  that  its  object  was  a  general  treaty  of  peace, 
such  was  not  Parma's  intention.  The  great  duke,  as  we  have 
said,  was  not  a  mere  soldier,  he  was  a  statesman  j  and  to  aid  his 
statesmanship  he  brought  that  subtle  and  indescribable  gift  of 
influencing  the  minds  of  all  those  with  whom  he  was  brought  into 
contact,  which  is  one  of  the  surest  marks  of  a  great  man.  St. 
Aldegonde  was  fascinated  by  his  address,  and  easily  won  over  to 
agree  with  him  in  the  futility  of  further  resistance.  Though  he  had 
professed  at  first  to  imagine  that  he  was  going  to  treat  with  Parma 
on  terras  of  equality,  and  though  for  a  moment  he  did  make  such 
'efforts  as  consist  of  plausible  and  well-expressed  arguments  to  obtain 
favorable  terms,  he  yielded  them  all  one  by  one.  Parma  obtained 
^  a  complete  ascendency  over  him  ;  and  at  last,  after  two  months  of 

negotiation,  he  signed  a  capitulation,  by  which  he  obtained  indeed 
permission  for  the  garrison  to  march  out  with  the  honours  of  war, 
but  procured  no  single  concession  to  the  citizens,  save  that  of 
permission  for  all  the  Protestants  to  emigrate.  He  made  no 
stipulation  for  religious  freedom,  none  for  the  very  ftiiutest  tolera- 
tion ;  and  placed  the  civil  liberties  and  privileges  of  the  city  equally 
at  Philip's  mercy,  by  consenting  to  the  re-establishment  of  a  foreign 
garrison  in  the  citadel. 

The  gallant  French  veteran  La  None,  who  had  been  a  prisoner 
of  war,  but  who  while  the  siege  was  proceeding  was  exchanged, 
i  y^      and  had  visited  Parma  at  Antwerp,  and   had  seen  the  bridge, 
0  advised  him  when  the  city  had  fallen,  as  in  his  opinion  fall  it  must, 

.^^p-^  to  hang  up  his  sword  at  its  gates,  and  let  it  be  his  last  and  crown- 
u»-*t»\j,'  ing  trophy.  And  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  general  belief 
was  that  the  reduction  of  that  great  city  and  fortress  must  ter- 
minate the  rebellion.  From  the  first  commencement  of  the  siege 
the  Spaniards  had  openly  spoken  of  it  as  an  enterprise  that,  in 
whichever  way  it  ended,  would  be  decisive  of  the  war.  '  If,'  they 
would  say  to  the  citizens,  '  we  get  Antwerp,  you  shall  all  go  to 
mass  with  us  ;  if  you  save  Antwerp,  we  will  all  go  to  conventicle 


A.D.  lo87.]  ELIZABETH  SENDS  AID.  137 

with  yoa.'  But  thougli  the  means  for  sustaining  the  revolt  were 
grievously  crippled  by  the  fall  of  the  great  city  and  fortress,  the 
spirit  -which  had  kindled  it  was  as  resolute  and  undaunted  as  ever. 
And  some  amends  were  made  to  the  Netherlanders  even  for  so  great  /If  ^^  s 

a  disaster  by  the  effect  which  it  had  in  deciding  Elizabeth  to  send^^^^^'^^ 
them  succours  from  England.  Negotiations  had  been  going  on  be--|/  y^ 
tween  England  and  the  commonwealth  for  many  months,  but  the  ^-'**'t-/ 
Queen's  habitual  irresolution,  and  her  equally  innate  parsimony, 
which  she  seems  to  have  inherited  from  her  grandfather,  had  pre- 
vented the  conclusion  of  any  treaty  till  too  late  to  save  l?Lntwerp  ; 
but,  in  July  1585,  Barneveld,  the  pensionary  or  chief  magistrate  of 
Rotterdam,  a  man  whose  political  capacity  had  gradually  procured 
him  the  chief  influence  in  the  commonwealth,  had  crossed  over 
to  England  himself  in  the  hope  of  effecting  a  final  arrangement ; 
and  though  he  was  unable  to  prevail  on  Elizabeth  to  assume  the 
sovereignty  of  the  country  to  which  he  invit^ed  her,  he  did  at  last, 
by  consenting  to  place  Flushing  and  Brill  in  her  hands,  as  security 
for  the  payment  of  whatever  expense  she  might  incur,  obtain  from 
her  the  substantial  assistance  of  an  English  division,  amounting  in 
infantry  and  cavalry  to  6,000  men,  besides  those  required  to  garri- 
son the  two  towns. 

To  how  great  an  extent,  though  Norris,  and  Sidney,  and  Vera 
were  among  the  officers,  the  efficiency  of  her  aid  was  imperilled 
and  diminished  by  the  appointment  to  the  chief  command  of  her 
infamous  favorite  Leicester,  a  man  whose  incapacity,  civil  as  well 
as  military,  was  almost  equal  to  his  wickedness,  it  rather  belongs 
to  the  history  of  our  own  country  to  relate.  His  conduct 
throughout  his  stay  in  the  Netherlands  presents  one  unbroken 
tissue  of  intrigue,  incompetency,  and  disaster.  He  desired  a 
higher  rank  than  that  of  the  Queen's  lieutenant,  and  the  States  ^^  — 

were  not  unwilling  to   gratify  him  by  making   him  governor-  "  '^* 

general  of  all  the  Provinces ;  his  acceptance  of  which  awakened 
the  jealousy  and  provoked  the  displeasure  of  his  ever-suspicious 
mistress,  who,  although  willing  that  her  officer  should  possess  tho 
supreme  authority,  was  by  no  means  inclined  to  look  with  appro- 
bation on  his  assumption  of  the  title.  And  he  had  hardly  pacified 
her,  when  he  began  to  show  his  want  of  political  ability  by  quar- 
relling with  all  the  leading  statesmen  of  the  land,  even  of  those 
who  were  most  favorable  to  him.  As  a  soldier,  to  match  him 
against  Parma  was  absurd,  but  nothing  but  the  very  jxtremity  ot 
mismanagement  could  have  lost  Deventer  and  Sluys.  And  as  men 
began  to  question  his  possession  of  even  so  ordinary  a  virtue  as  per- 
sonal courage,  and  as  Barneveld  soon  obtained  distinct  proof  of  his 
faithlessness  and  treachery,  he  presently  denounced  him  as  warmly 
as  he  had  originally  defended  his  appointment  j  and,  thoroughly 


138  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1592. 

dishonoured  and  despised,  the  proud  earl  returned  to  England  in 
the  summer  of  1587.  His  treachery,  which  consisted  in  attempts 
to  obtain  possession  of  other  fortresses  belonging  to  the  common- 
wealth, which  might  enable  him  to  dictate  in  every  transaction  of 
peace  and  war,  had  indeed  been  practised  in  obedience  to  instruc- 
0^  tions  from  his  government  at  home  ;  but  Elizabeth  was  contem- 
plating a  still  greater  betrayal  of  the  interests  of  her  allies,  and 

>rf-/*'-»J»v  throughout  1587  was  listening  to  proposals  for  a  peace  with  Spain, 
artfully  held  before  her  by  Parma  as  a  bait  to  throw -her  off  her 
guard  while  preparations  were  maturing  tor  the  great  invasion  of 
her  kingdom,  on  which  the  entire  efforts  of  Spain  were  now  con- 
centrated. 

Parma's  exertions  to  co-operate  with  the  Armada,  and  his  sub- 

1^^^^..,^    sequent  employment  in  France,  whei*e  the  position  of  Henry  IV., 

whose  legitimate  claims  to  the  throne  after  the  assassination  of 

,  tf-^,-*^  Henry  III,,  in  August  1589,  coupled  with  the  energy  with  which 
he  was  enforcing  them,  threatened  the  defeat  of  Philip's  designs 
in  that  kingdom,  gave  a  respite  to  the  Netherland  warriors.  The 
great  duke  himself  received  a  wound  which,  at  the  end  of  1592, 

^ proved  mortal ;  and  his  death  for  the  first  time  turned  the  scale 

//  ^  of  military  ability  in  favour  of  the  Netherlands  ;  for  his  successor 

^^■Q"  in  the  government  was  the  Archduke  Ernest,  a  younger  brother  of 
Matthias.  When,  after  little  more  than  two  years  of  office,  he  died 

•*-*\»  of  premature   decay,  his  place,  after  a  short  interval,  was  filled  by 

*^  ^  a  fourth  brother,  Albert,  who,  though  a  cardinal  and  an  archbishop, 

'  was  to  receive  the  Infanta  Isabella  as  a  wife,  and  the  seventeen 

^^^  ^    Provinces  as  her  dowry.     But  neither  of  these  princes  were  able 

men ;  and  while  the  reins  of  authority  were  dangling  in  their  hands, 

Maurice  was  rapidly  developing  a  capacity  not  unworthy  of  his 

father.     As  a  statesman,  he  was  perhaps  hardly  less  shrewd,  had 

s,^i0\,„^„^  his  acuteness  been  combined  with  equal  firmness  and  self-posses- 
sion ;  for  want  of  which  he  often  allowed  himself  to  be  overruled, 
even  in  the  conduct  of  warlike  operations,  by  inferior  men.  As  a 
soldier,  ho  was  unquestionably  far  superior  to  William.  From  his 
earliest  youth  he  had  studied  scientifically  the  whole  art  of  war, 
and  especially  that  branch  of  it  which  relates  to  the  attack  and 
defence  of  fortified  towns  ;  and  he  had  applied  himself  also  to  the 
details  of  the  organisation  and  equipment  of  the  army,  introducing 
many  improvements:  arming  the  cavalry  with  carbines;  and 
establishing  the  engineers,  with  a  corps  of  sappers  and  miners,  as 
a  distinct  branch  of  the  service.  And  while  Parma  was  out- 
generalling  Henry  in  Normandy,  and  Ernest  lying  on  his  sick  bed 
at  Brussels,  he  was  giving  practical  proof  of  the  value  of  his  new 
tactics  by  the  recovery  of  many  important  towns  to  the  common- 
wealth.   So  clear  was  his  superiority  over  his  Spanish  antagonists, 


A.D.  1593.]  SUCCESSES  OF  PRINCE  ItlAUJlICE.  139 

that  tlie  arcliduke  could  see  no  means  of  subduing  him  but  by 
procuring  his  assassination  ;  but  the  plots  formed  with  that  object 
failed.  Maurice  lived  ;  and,  by  the  steady  progress  which  he  made, 
gradually  inspired  his  troops  with  such  confidence,  that  at  last  he 
ventured  to  measure  them  with  the  Spaniards  in  the  open  field. 
Throughout  the  whole  war,  as  we  have  seen,  the  armies  employed 
on  either  side  were  very  small,  and  the  force  which  he  designed 
to  attack  did  not  much,  if  at  all,  exceed  5,000  men  ;  who,  unde^ 
General  Varax,  were  occupying  a  central  position  at  Tumhout,  in 
Brabant,  which  enabled  them  to  threaten  most  of  the  towns  in 
that  district. 

The  result  of  the  action  surpassed  his  warmest  expectations, 
though  none  was  ever  fought  less  as  the  commander  intended.  He 
had  collected  for  the  attack  a  force  half  as  large  again  as  that  of 
the  enemy  ;  but  Varax,  on  hearing  of  his  approach,  retreated  with 
such  celerity,  that  when  Maurice,  who,  with  Count  Hohenlo, 
pressed  on  in  pursuit,  at  the  head  of  his  advanced  guard,  at  last 
overtook  them,  he  had  scarcely  1,500  men  with  him,  and  Varax 
was  within  sight  of  a  narrow  pass  between  a  river  and  a  deep 
morass,  which  if  he  should  once  reach  and  enter  would  render 
farther  pursuit  impracticable.  Maurice  detached  Hohenlo  to 
wheel  round  behind  some  broken  ground  with  some  squadrons  to 
cut  him  off  from  it.  That  oflUcer,  never  deficient  in  energy,  lost  no 
time  in  executing  his  orders ;  and  he  no  sooner  appeared  laetween 
the  Spaniards  and  the  pass,  than  they,  though  the  very  choicest 
soldiers  in  the  service,  were  seized  with  a  sudden  panic.  Their 
cavalry  halted  in  evident  confusion.  Hohenlo,  to  increase  their 
disorder,  sounded  a  charge  and  led  on  his  men.  They  at  once 
broke  in  every  direction,  trampling  down  their  own  infantry,  who 
fled  "with  equal  precipitation.  In  less  than  an  hour  the  whole 
Spanish  army  was  irretrievably  routed;  Varax  and  2,000  men 
were  slain,  500  prisoners  were  taken,  while  the  conquerors  did  not  ')/Vu__^/ 
lose  a  dozen  men.  The  men  lost  to  the  Spaniards  was  not  un-  •  '^^^^J^ 
important,  but  the  moral  effect  of  the  victory  was  almost  incalcu-  d_^A^  \^i 
lable,  for  there  had  hitherto  been  no  instance  of  Spaniards  having  \)       . ' 

been  successfully  encountered  by  equal  numbers,  and  now  one  of 
their  bravest  commanders  had  been  disgracefully  routed  by  a  fai 
inferior  force.     The  last  year  of  Philip's  life  was  clouded  by  the  ^ 
intelligence  that  his  soldiers  were  no  longer  invincible.     In  the  ^A/L^  ^L. 
autumn  of  thejiext  year,  1598,  he  died  ;  and  his  death  certainly^ 
brightened  the  prospects  of  ine  commonwealth,  as  though  i^Q0*^\JUfjCx4^ 
change  of  sovereign  made  no  alteration  in  the  Spanish  policy,  it  J      f-i 
rendered  it  very  unlikely  that  it  would  continue  to  be  followed  up  ft-*-**^ 
with  that  relentless   perseverance   which   was  the  predominanfTtjT  ,A-u£_ 
feature  in  the  character  of  Philip  II.  *^ 


140  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1598. 

^JPhilip  jIL  \vaa  very  difTerent  from  his  father.  He  might  have 
been  thought  amiable,  if  his  conduct  through  life  had  not  seemed 
rather  to  proceed  from  weakness  and  indolence  than  from  active 
intention  of  any  kindj  the  father  had  himself  examined  and 
regulated  almost  every  separate  detail  of  his-vast  empire ;  the  son 
left  everything  to  a  favorite,  the  Duke  of  Lerma,  whose~sole 
object  was  to  amass  an  enOTmous  fortune.  JNot  that  the  difference 
between  the  two  sovereigns  was  felt  at  the  first  moment.  On  the 
contrary,  just  at  that  moment  a  new  Spanish  commander,  Mendoza, 
admiral  of  Aragon,  was  displaying  considerable  military  talent, 
though  sullying  his  achievements  with  a  cruelty  equal  to  that  of 
Alva ;  while  the  financial  difficulties  of  the  commonwealth,  which, 
as  was  natural,  increased  as  the  war  was  protracted,  caused  such  a 
reduction  in  Maurice's  army  that  for  some  months  he  was  utterly 
unable  to  make  head  against  him.  And  when  at  last  those  em- 
barrassments were  surmounted,  and  he  again  found  himself  in 
command  of  a  respectable  force,  his  renewed  str3ngth  led  to 
quarrels  between  him  and  Barneveld,  which  were  eventually  pro- 
ductive of  most  pernicious  consequences.  The  pensionary,  though 
^^^-^^mAaI  wholly  ignorant  of  war,  had  unhappily  the  same  loudness  for  inter- 
fering in  military  operations,  that  a  century  later  influenced  the 
Dutch  deputies  to  mar  the  best  laid  plains  of  Marlborough,  though 
his  counsels  were  of  a  very  different  character  from  theirs  They, 
from  over  caution,  prevented  the  great  English  general  from  strik- 
ing blows  of  which  the  success  was  certain  :  he,  rash  in  his  igno- 
rance, was  constantly  urging  Maurice  to  undertakings  which,  to  the 
prince's  experienced  judgment,  seemed  beyond  his  strength,  though 
with  that  want  of  firmness  which  was  the  chief,  if  not  the  only 
defect  in  his  character,  he  more  than  once  allowed  himself  to  be 
overruled.  Barneveld  insisted  on  his  invading  Flanders  and  be- 
sieging Nieuport,  because  from  its  harbour  privateers  issued  out 
upon  the  merchantmen  of  Ilotterdam  and  Amsterdam.  Though 
the  English  general,  Sir  Francis  Vere,  than  whom  no  man  was 
less  inclined  to  make  or  to  see  difficulties,  and  his  own  cousin 
Louis  William,  of  Nassau,  a  commander  equally  remarkable  for 
skill  and  daring,  coincided  with  Maurice  in  the  impracticability  of 
the  enterprise,  he  gave  way  and  undertook  it,  only  to  find  his 
judgment  so  completely  confirmed  that,  though  he  gained  a 
brilliant  victory  in  the  field  over  the  Spanish  army  which  sought 
to  hem  him  in,  and  which,  when  apparently  on  the  point  of  accom- 
plishing their  object,  was  seized  with  a  sudden  panic,  he  was  still 
unable  to  prevent  the  reinforcement  of  the  garrison,  and  was  com- 
pelled to  retre.at  under  circumstances  which  his  late  victory 
rendered  only  the  more  vexatious  and  mortifying. 

The  attempt  on  Nieuport  led  to  a  retaliation,  which  is  the  most 


A.D.  1601.]  THE  SIEGE  OF  OSTEND.  141 

memorable  occurrence  in  the  later  years  of  the  war.  The  com- 
monwealth had  retained  one  stronghold  in  Flanders,  the  port  of 
Ostend.  And  as  the  Rotterdam  merchants  and  Barneveld  had 
dictated  the  march  against  Nieuport,  so  now  the  Flemish  politi- 
cians urged  the  archduke  to  expel  the  rebels  from  Ostend,  promis- 
ing a  large  contribution  towards  the  expenses  of  the  siege.  He 
adopted  the  design,  and  accepted  the  offer ;  and,  in  July  IGOl, 
commenced  what,  with  the  exception  of  the  investment  of.Gibral- 
tar  in  the  last  century,  is  the  longest  siege  on  record.  Like  most 
other  towns  in  that  country,  Ostend,  besides  the  solid  fortifica- 
tions of  bastions,  ramparts,  and  counterscarps  with  which  it  was 
abundantly  furnished,  was  further  defended  by  deep  ditches  and 
canals,  intersecting  the  whole  of  the  surrounding  lands,  and  easily  ] 

flooded.  And  it  was  held  by  a  garrison  of  nearly  10,000  men,  from 
various  countries,  Dutchmen,  Germans,  Lutherans,  French  Hugue- 
nots, under  Chatillon,  a  grandson  of  the  old  Admiral  Coligny,  and 
English  volunteers ;  the  whole  being  under  the  command  of  the 
gallant  Vere.  The  besieging  army  did  not  greatly  exceed  the 
strength  of  the  garrison ;  but  they  brought  to  the  work  a  pro- 
digious train  of  artillery  of  the  largest  calibre  that  had  ever  yet 
been  seen;  and  an  enthusiasm  proportioned  to  the  greatness  of 
tlieir  task,  an  enthusiasm  shared  and  skilfully  encouraged  by  the 
Infanta  herself,  who  would  often  visit  the  trenches  and  fire  one  of 
the  heaviest  guns  with  her  own  hands.  Thus  animated  by  her 
example,  the  artillerymen  kept  up  a  cannonade  of  unprecedented 
vigour.  They  boasted  of  having  fired  often  2,000,  and  never  fewer 
than  1,000,  shots  a  day  during  the  whole  siege.  And  while  the 
guns  were  battering  the  walls  above-ground,  mines  were  piercing 
their  foundations  below ;  and  whenever  the  slightest  breach  was 
effected,  the  archduke  would  send  storming  parties  to  assault  it, 
and  a  terrible  conflict  would  ensue,  which  invariably  terminated  in 
the  discomfiture  and  slaughter  of  the  assailants ;  sometimes  when 
the  attacking  party  had  been  more  than  usually  formidable,  the 
aid  of  the  waters  also  being  invoked,  and  the  sluices  opened  to  cut 
off  its  retreat,  and  overwhelm  them  in  a  fresh  and  still  more  im- 
avoidable  destruction.  The  constant  capture  of  prisoners,  which 
was  the  result  of  these  attacks,  had  one  permanent  and  most  bene-  ^^yy  >d-.— 
ficial  effect  in  the  way  of  humanising  war.  Hitherto  it  had  been  * 
the  practice  to  demand  for  each  prisoner  a  ransom,  which,  if  he 
were  of  high  rank  or  fame,  was  often  fixed  at  an  enormous  amount; 
and  it  was  admitted  that,  if  the  sum  demanded  were  not  paid,  the 
life  of  the  captive  was  at  the  mercy  of  his  captor.  Only  the  year 
before  this  siege  began,  Maurice,  having  taken  500  prisoners,  sent 
the  archduke  a  message  that  if  a  specified  ransom  were  not  paid 
before  a  certain  dav,  he  would  hang"  every  man.     And  the  threat 


142  •  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1603. 

was  not  considered  to  be  any  departure  from  ordinary  usage  or  any 
undue  straining  of  the  strict  rights  of  a  conqueror.  But  now  the 
leaders  on  both  sides  began  to  find  the  advantage  of  exchanging 
prisoners  ;  and,  though  it  was  some  time  before  the  example  thus 
set  was  universally  followed,  and  sanguinary  fanatics,  like  Cromwell 
at  Drogheda  and  Wexford,  and  Tilly  at  Magdeburg,  still  massacred 
those  who  fell  into  their  hands,  the  advantages  of  mercy  gradually 
recommended  it  to  all,  and,  before  the  end  of  the  century,  the 
humanecomnierce  became  the  universal  practice. 

For  more  than  two  years  the  siege  was  protracted  without  any 
appearance  of  drawing  to  a  termination.  Vere  had  quitted  the 
government  to  join  Maurice  in  the  field,  but  his  place  was  filled 
by  other  officers  of  equal  resolution.  If  the  Archduke  gained  an 
advantage  in  one  quarter,  he  lost  one  in  another.  And  his  opera- 
tions were  crippled,  as  Parma's  had  been  before,  by  want  of  money 
to  pay  his  soldiers,  some  of  whom  even  proceeded  to  open  mutiny 
and  to  negotiations  with  Maurice  ;  when,  in  the  summer  of  1603, 
the  siege,  which  had  now  lasted  two  years,  suddenly  assumed  a 
new  character  by  the  appointment  to  the  chief  command  of  an 
Italian  noble  who  had  never  seen  a  field  of  battle  in  his  life.  Some 
of  his  younger  brothers  had  shown  a  warlike  disposition ;  and  one, 
Frederic,  had  lately  lost  his  life  in  a  naval  engagement  with  the 
Beggars  of  the  Sea.  But  the  eldest  of  the  family,  the  Marquis 
Ambrose  Spinola,  had  no  military  experience,  and  owed  his  ap- 
pointment solely  to  his  vast  riches.  The  archduke  was  at  a  stand- 
still for  want  of  money ;  when  the  marquis,  who  was  not  only  very 
wealthy  himself,  but  who  had  also  great  influence  among  the 
money-dealers  of  his  native  city  of  Genoa,  undertook  to  provide 
the  funds  that  might  still  be  required,  on  condition  of  having  the 
chief  command  of  all  the  king's  forces  in  the  Netherlands  entrusted 
to  him.  His  terms  were  accepted.  He  hastened  to  Ostend.  With 
the  intuition  of  genius  he  at  once  discerned  that  the  points  of 
attack  had  been  injudiciously  selected,  and  many  of  the  means 
which  had  been  relied  on  had  been  ill  devised,  for,  besides  the 
straightforward  work  of  battering  with  cannon  and  assaulting  with 
forlorn  hopes,  vast  sums  of  money  had  been  expended  on  floating 
bridges  and  floating  batteries,  with  which  the  archduke  and  his 
engineers  had  sought  to  close  up  the  harbour,  and  thus  prevent 
the  introduction  of  supplies  on  which  the  town  depended. 
But  at  once  Spinola  changed  the  line  of  attack,  and  directed 
his  eftbrts  against  the  western  side  of  the  town  which  hitherto 
h  d  scarcely  been  assailed ;  and  taking  a  full  share  of  the  per- 
sonal toil,  and  exposing  himself  as  freely  as  the  meanest  of  his 
soldiers,  he  infused  such  a  new  spirit  into  his  followers,  reducing 
outwork  after  outwork,  and  so  gradually  creeping  closer  to  the 


A.D.  1604.]  THE  FALL  OF  OSTEND.  143 

walls,  that  it  became  evident  that  his  triumph,  though  it  might  be 
delayed,  could  not  be  permanently  averted. 

In  war,  as  in  other  things,  it  is  as  great  an  advantage  to  be  able 
quickly  t©  foresee  the  certainty  of  a  disaster  as  the  possibility  of 
a  success.  By  the  spring  of  1604  Maurice  perceived  that  the  fall 
of  Ostend  was  inevitable ;  but  a  misfortune  which  could  not  be 
prevented  might  be  counterbalanced,  and  with  18,000  men  he 
moved  against  Sluys,  both  as  a  fortress  and  a  harbour  far  more  im- 
portant than  Ostend  ;  and,  moreover,  one,  the  possession  of  which 
by  the  Spaniards  was  in  some  degree  a  discredit  to  the  common- 
wealth, since  it  belonged  to  Zeeland,  and  had  always  been  loyal  to 
its  cause,  till  it  was  lost  by  the  incompetency  of  Leicester  seventeen 
years  before.  Spinola  appreciated  its  value ;  but  though  he  more 
than  once  quitted  his  trenches,  and,  leaving  but  a  small  division  to 
maintain  his  position  before  Ostend,  marched  with  his  main  body 
against  the  prince,  and  fought  one  or  two  brisk  actions  in  its 
defence,  he  was  unable  to  save  it.  After  a  siege  of  three  months, 
it  surrendered  in  the  middle  of  August ;  and  Maurice  was  ren- 
dered, by  its  acquisition,  indifferent  to  the  fate  of  Ostend,  though 
again  he  so  far  deferred  to  Barneveld's  entreaties  as,  contrary  to 
his  judgment,  to  make  one  more  attempt  to  relieve  it.  The  endea-  Y 
vour  failed,  as  he  foresaw  that  it  must,  and  at  last  on  the  twentieth  ^^^^  •^ 
of  September  the  garrison  capitulated  ;  Spinola  doing  himself  (yV^  ^.yC 
honour  as  well  as  his  enemies  by  the  honourable  terms  which  he 
granted  them,  consenting  that  they  should  march  out  with  all  the 
honours  of  war,  and  even  entertaining  the  chief  officers  at  a  stately 
banquet  in  recognition  of  the  gallantry  of  their  defence. 

The  fall  of  Ostend  was  the  last  incident  of  striking  importance 
in  the  war.  It  was  continued,  indeed,  for  five  years  more,  but  with 
great  languor  on  both  sides.  Spinola  moved  towards  the  north, 
showing  as  brilliant  skill  in  the  open  field  as  he  had  displayed  in 
the  conduct  of  a  siege ;  but  being  unable  to  gain  an  advantage 
which  should  have  a  real  influence  on  the  final  result,  because 
Maurice,  guiding  his  operations  by  statesmanlike  rather  than  by 
purely  military  views,  and  seeing  clearly  that  the  resources  of 
Spain  were  so  nearly  exhausted  that  for  himself  to  avoid  defeat, 
was  to  reap  all  the  benefits  of  victory,  more  than  once  declined  a 
battle  even  when  the  odds  were  greatly  in  his  favour;  and,  post- 
poning his  own  renown  to  the  permanent  welfare  of  his  country, 
steadily  refused  to  run  the  slightest  risk  which  might  imperil 
what  he  now  felt  sure  of  obtaining  without  it.  His  caution  was 
rewarded,  and  his  anticipations  were  realised.  Though  desertedM/  ^JiJ^lL  > 
by  England,  whose  new  king  (for  Elizabeth  had  died  in  1603)  ^^  — 

preferred  the  alliance  of  Spain,  and  by  France,  whom  Henry  IV.,  }^4^  jjA-^'^ 
in  spite  of  the  promises  of  substantial  aid  which  he  had  at  first  held  iih         ^ !!: 


144  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1606. 

out  to  liim,  was  tempted  to  a  similar  union  with  Philip,  in  hopes 
of  obtaining  possession  of  the  whole  seventeen  Provinces  for  him- 
self as  a  dowry  of  the  Infanta,  who  was  to  marry  the  Dauphin, 
the  promised  bride  and  bridegroom  being,  as  yet,  scarcely  out  of 
their  cradles;  he  was  still  able  to  baffle  all  Spinola's  designs, 
though  by  1606  the  marquis  had  a  well-appointed  force  of  24,000 
men  at  his  disposal,  to  which  he  himself  could  oppose  nothing 
equal ;  and  by  the  beginning  of  the  next  year  the  archduke  him- 
self began  to  recognise  the  impossibility  of  any  longer  continuing 
the  war,  and  to  limit  bis  hopes  to  withdrawing  from  it  with 
credit.  The_negotiations  did  not  proceed  y§ry  rapidly ;  it  was 
impeded  by  the  vicious  constitution  of  the  commonwealth,  accord- 
ing to  which  the  separate  consent  o7  each' province,  and  even  of 
many  of  the  chief  cities,  was  necessary  ;  and  partly  by  the  man- 
oeuvres of  the  archduke,  who  endeavoured  to  have  the  terms  and 
ratification  drawn  in  his  name  only,  so  that  it  should  still  be  in 
the  power  of  the  king  to  repudiate  it.  But  Barneveld  and  Maurice 
were  too  shrewd  to  fall  into  such  a  snare ;  and  the  archduke's 
desire  to  come  to  terms  was  quickened  by  the  intelligence  that  a 
fleet  belonging  to  the  commonwealth  had  sailed  into  the  Bay  of 
Gibraltar,  and  had  attacked  and  destroyed  a  Spanish  fleet,  though 
composed  of  far  larger  vessels,  and  commanded  by  one  of  the  most 
skilful  sailors  in  the  king's  service,  Don  Juan  d'Avila,  a  veteran, 
who,  in  his  youth,  had  gained  no  small  honour  against  the 
Turks  at  Lepanto.  Heemskerk,  the  Dutch  commander,  had  ex- 
horted his  men  to  let  ^that  day  begina  series  of  naval  victories, 
which  should  make  their  countiy  illustrious,  and  lay  the  founda- 
tion of  an  honourable  peace  by  enabling  the  statesmen  at  home  to 
dictate  its  terms.'  His  men  were  animated  by  his  own  spirit. 
They  had  learned,  from  the  English  defeat  of  the  Armada  that 
"SIRall  ships  well  hanclled"were  so  much  more  manageable  than  the 
huge  Spanish  galleons,  that  the  disparity  between  them  and  the 
enemy  they  sought  was  not  so  great  as  it  seemed.  Their  little 
vessels  sailed  round  and  round  the  unwieldy  Spaniards,  firing  up 
at  their  lofty  sides  with  deadly  eff'ect,  while  half  the  Spanish  shots 
passed  over  them  without  injury  ;  pursuing  these  tactics,  they 
burnt  some,  sank  others,  and  finally  captured  or  destroyed  the 
whole  Spanish  fleet;  though  their  admiral  Heemskerk,  and  more 
than  one  of  his  most  gallant  captains,  fell  in  the  hour  of  victory. 
It  was  evident  that  the  Dutch  were  more  formidable  at  sea  than 
on  land ;  and  by  sea  the  Spaniards  were  conscious  that  they  them- 
selves were  far  more  vulnerable. 

Still  even  under  this  additional  pressure,  the  negotiations  pro- 
ceeded but  slowly.  And  it  was  two  years  before  peace  was  con- 
cluded ;  which,  even  then,  was  nominally  only  an  armistice  for 


A.D.  1606.]  PEACE.  145 

twelve  years.     Such  an  arrangement  seemed  to  the  archduke  to  )t»^tvv^v    H 
save  the  pride  of  his  sovereign,  as  it  avoided  the  appearance  of  ^  -4 

consenting  to  the  perpetual  independence  of  those  whom  every  ^±^ttf  ^^ 
Spaniard  still  considered  rebels.     But  Maurice  and  Barneveld  cared  r    / 
little  for  appearances,  as  long  as  their  liberty  for  which  they  had'H*'**^^^t^ 
so  long  been  fighting  were  practically  secured.     They  felt  no  ap-  W        ^ 
prehension  that,  at  the  end  of  the  period,  Philip  would  renew  war  to  ^^ 
refix  on  their  necks  a  yoke  which  they  had  now  proved  their  ability 
to  throw  off;  and  on  the  ninth  of  April  1609,  the  treaty  was  signed ; 
which,  though  its  purport  was  somewhat  shrouded  in  a  long  series 
of  articles  and  clauses,  did  in  fact  acknowledge  the  absolute  freedom 
of  the  Seven  Provinces :  their  liberty  to  trade  with  all  the  Spanish 
settlements ;  their  authority  to  make  regulations  respecting  re- 
ligion;  in  other  words,  their  right  to  entire  and  absolute  self- 
government;  and  established  the  Dutch  commonwealth  as  a  sepa- 
rate and  independent  state. 

The  war  that  was  thus  concluded  was  the  most  remarkable  that 
the  world  had  yet  seen.  It  had  lasted  above  forty  years.  It  had 
been  successfully  waged  by  a  nation  which  did  not  consist  of  more 
than  a  million  and  a  half  of  people,  and  which  could  never  raise  a 
million  of  money  in  a  year,  against  a  potentate  who  could  com- 
mand the  services  of  at  least  ten  times  their  numbers,  and  who  had 
at  his  disposal  the  revenues  of  Spain,  of  the  greater  part  of  Italy, 
and  all  the  treasures  of  the  New  World.  Its  effects,  too,  were  not 
transitory,  but  so  permanent  that  they  remain  in  full  force  to  the 
present  day.  So  long  a  contest  had  strained  the  resources  of  both 
to  the  utmost.  Holland  had  incurred  a  vast  debt  if  measured  by 
the  extent  of  her  countr}^  and  income  ;  she  had  also  lost  many  of 
her  noblest  sons,  with  a  multitude  of  those  citizens  whose  skill  and 
industry  had  formed  no  trivial  portion  of  the  national  wealth  and 
resources.  But  the  contpst  itself  had  not  only  stimulated  her 
spirit,  but  developed  and  increased  her  strength.  Before  the  next 
generation  had  passed  away  she  had  become  a  power  in  the 
European  system,  whose  alliance  was  coveted  by  foreign  statesmen, 
and  was  able  to  add  no  trifling  weight  to  more  than  one  con- 
federacy. And  at  the  present  day,  under  an  improved  constitu- 
tion, she  combines  a  consideration  abroad  accorded  to  few  but 
the  most  extensive  monarchies,  with  an  internal  tranquillity  and 
prosperity  surpassed  in  no  country  but  our  own. 

To  Spain  the  cost  of  the  struggle  had  been  far  heavier.  She 
was  estimated  to  have  spent  200  millions  of  ducats,  and  to  have 
lost  300,000  men.  Before  the  end  of  the  conflict  she  was  com- 
pletely exhausted ;  and  from  this  time  forth  she  began  to  descend 
rapidly  in  the  scale  of  nations,  nor  has  she  ever  recovered  the 
proud  poeition  which  she  had  occupied  before  the  contest  com- 
8 


146  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1606. 

menced.  While  Holland,  before  the  end  of  a  century,  more  than 
repaid  the  aid  she  had  received  from  England,  by  sending  forth  a 
descendant  of  Maurice  to  assist  the  English  themselves  in  the 
establishment  oftjeir  ovs^n^^constitutional  freedom,  J5pain  had 
become  so  powerless  and  degraded,  that  almost" aTTEe  E<.rte  time 
foreign  princes  arranged  the  partition  of  her  dominions  without 
condescending  to  consult  her  own  sovereign  on  the  subject.  At 
the  beginning  of  the  present  century,  if  she  preseived  or  recovered 
any  degree  of  independence,  it  was  won  for  her  by  the  efforts  of 
others,  not  by  her  own.  And,  within  the  last  few  months,  her 
degradation  has  been  consummated,  or,  if  that  had  been  completed 
before,  its  recognition  has  at  least  been  publicly  proclaimed  by 
her  acceptance  of  a  sovereign  connected  with  her  by  no  ties  of 
blood,  and  whose  chief  recommendation  to  support  as  yet  is,  that 
he  may  be  presumed  to  be  ignorant  of  Spanish  manners,  and  un- 
tainted with  Spanish  principles.^ 

*  The  authorities  for  the  two  pre-  Republic  and  the  United  Nether- 
ceding  chapters  have  been  chiefly  lands,  Prescott's  Philip  II.,  Schiller'a 
Motley's  three  works  on  the  Dutch      Revolt  of  the  Netherlands. 


A.D.  1517.]  THE  HUGUENOTS.  147 


(Wvt^twi 


CHAPTER  YII. 
A.D.  1517—1589. 

WE  have  seen  with  what  ferocious  and  insane  cruelty  Charlea 
and  Philip  endeavoured  to  crush  the  Reformation  in  their 
Flemish  dominions.  The  persecution  to  which  the  French  Reformers 
were  exposed  was  not  less  savage  ;  the  destruction  of  the  Vaudois, 
and  of  the  victims  of  the  St.  Bartholomew  massacre,  even  exceeding 
in  horror  any  single  atrocity  committed   in  any  other  country. 
And  if,  through  the  vacillation  of  successive  sovereigns,  and  the 
degree  in  which  they  subordinated  their  zeal  for  religious  uni- 
formity to  their  political  or  personal  views,  the  Reformers  in  France 
did  occasionally  enjoy  a  respite,   and  were   even   treated  with 
apparent  toleration,  the  indulgence  thus  momentarily  shown  to 
them   was   a   cruel   and   ensnaring  kindness,    aggravating  their  f^'—^      g  -^ 
eventual  sufferings,  and  ensuring  their  more  complete  destruction.  *'*^*^''^'>%^  ' 
In  a  former  chapter  it  has  been  said  that  Francis  was  as  resolute  ^^'^JL^y^,^^^,,,^ 
as  Charles  to  suppress  the  Reformation  by  force.    Yet,  in  religion, 
as  shown  in  adherence  to  the  Pope,  he  was  certainly  no  bigot.     . 
More  than  once  he  formed  alliances  with  other  potentates,  even  ^^y^^jyi^t^ 
with  the  Inlidel  bultan,  with  tKe  express  object  of  wresting  from 
the  Pope  a  portion  of  his  dominions,  and,  in  at  least  one  instance,    '^^^^-t^^v!^ 
of  expelling  him  from  Rome  itself.     But,  in  considering  the  perse-  ^ 

cutions  of  the  Protestants  in  France,  the  Huguenots,^  as  they  were    '^l-t*-**-,..*^ 
called,  and  the  long  civil  wars  to  which  those  persecutions  gave  rise^ 
we  must  distinguish  the  feelings  which  actuated  the  sovereigns  from 
those  which  excited  their  Catholic  subjects.   Neither  Francis  I.,  nor  ^jJxLy^j^     C/ 
any  of  his  successors,  cared  for  anything  beyond  the  maintenance  -y  ^  Z^ 

of  their  own  authorit3^     As  again,  many  of  the  most  active  of  the  Tl  ^  ^^ 
Catholic  nobles,  such  as  the  Duke  of  Guise,  only  made  a  handle  of  1/^ 

1  The  name  was  derived  from  cer-  (Davila,  lib.  I.).      Other  derivations  <y>^J^^ 

tain  subterranean  caves  near  Tours,  have  been  given.     Sismondi  affirms      ^^y' 

railed  Ugone.     Si  chiamavano  questi  the  name  to  have  been  formed  from 

communemente   Ugonoti,   perch^  le  the  German  Eidgenossen,  oath-takers, 

prime  radunanze  che  si  fecero  di  loro  i.e.  Confederates.     But  the  authority 

nella  citta  di  Tour's,  furo  fatte    in  of  a  contemporary,  such  as  Davila, 

certe    cave  sotterranee    vicine    alia  seems  the  best  on  which  to  rely, 
porta   che   si    chiamava    di    Ugone 


Ji/^yt^ 


148  MODEEN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1525. 

religion  to  cover  their  views  of  personal  ambition  ;  and  as,  on  the 
other  hand,  it  can  hardly  be  doubted  that  some  of  the  Huguenot 
chiefs  were  influenced  in  their  adhesion  to  the  new  religion  by 
considerations  of  the  importance  which  they  derived  from  the 
position  they  thus  acquired,  as  heads  of  a  formidable  party. 
But  the  bulk  of  the  middle  and  lower  classes  were  sincere  :  on 
the  one  side,  in  the  fervour  with  which  they  embraced  the  new 
doctrines;  on  the  other,  in  the  zeal  with  which  they  sought  to 
Jl  hjrl^i  ^^^^^P^*®  what  they  denounced  as  heresy :  and,  as  the  two  parties 
v  fj  were  believed  to  be  very  nearly  balanced  in  point  of  numbers, 

^1^^^^  this  comparative  equality  not  only  protracted  the  contest,  but  by 
protracting  it,  embittered  the  animosities  which  are  at  all  times 
inseparable  from  one  entered  into  for  such  a  cause. 

Nothing  at  first  gave  indications  that  the  Reformation  would, 
in  France,  be  productive  of  such  events  as  presently  flowed  from 
it.     Francis  himself  was  too  much  occupied  with  foreign  politics 

Lto  pay  any  regard  to  theological  disputes  (of  which  he  did  not 
foresee   the  consequences)  ;    and  the   two   ladies  who   had  the 
greatest  influence  over  him,  his  sister  Marguerite  de  Valois;  ^  and  his 
SAAA^C^'^  mistress,  the  Duchess  d'Etampes,  both  regarded  the  Reformers  with 


/r>«>ww' 


Tu*.  QjJi  •    ^'•'^•^"^^  ^  feeling  to  which  he  was  probably  inclined  to  defer,  till 


shortly  after  his  release  from  his  captivity  in  Spain,  a  riot  in  Paris 
roused  him  from  his  indifference,  and  led  him  to  identify  re- 
sistence  to  Popery  with  a  general  lawlessness  which  threatened  his 
own  authority  likewise.  No  part  of  the  Romish  worship  was  so 
off*ensive  to  the  Reformers  as  the  adoration  of  images.     As  early 


U*^^  as  1525  a  woolcomber  of  Meaux,  named  Jean  de  Clerc,  was  burnt 

alive  for  breaking  an  image  of  the  Virgin  in  that  city ;  and  on 
Whit  Sunday  1528,  a  fanatical  mob  in  Paris  tore  another  image, 
which  stood  at  the  corner  of  a  street,  from  its  pedestal ;  and,  after 
dragging  it  for  some  distance  through  the  mud,  battered  it  to 
pieces  with  every  niarlc  of  derision  and  insult.  Francis  not  un- 
naturally regarded  such  an  outrage  as  a  violation,  not  of  the 
ecclesiastical,  but  of  the  civil  law,  with  which  his  own  sovereign 
dignity  was  inextricably  bound  up.  His  feelings  towards  all  who 
could  be  supposed  to  agree  with  the  imagebreakers  underwent  an 
instantaneous  and  entire  revolution.  Iluguenotism,  as  it  now 
seemed  to  him,  led  directly  to  acts  of  insurrection,  if  it  was  not 
insurrection  itself;  and  from  that  unfortunate  day  intolerance 
became  the  principle  of  the  French  government;  toleration  was 
but  an  occasional  and  reluctant  respite.  To  expiate  the  insult 
offered  to  the  Virgin,  a  new  statue  was  made  of  solid  silver,  which 
he  himself,  at  the  head  of  a  magnificent  proce'ssion  of  princes, 

She  was  the  mother  of  Jeanne     consequently  grandmother  of  Henry 
d'Albret,  queen    of   Navarre  ;   and     IV. 


A.D.  1535.]  PERSECUTION  IN  FRANCE.  149 

prelates,  and  lay  nobles,  solemnly  replaced  on  the  profaned  and 
vacant  pedestal.  And,  by  his  express  order,  prosecutions  of  the 
adherents  of  the  new  religion  were  instituted  in  every  province 
in  which  they  were  found;  he  himself,  forgetful  of  the  proverb 
that  a  king's  face  should  give  grace,  on  one  occasion  attending  at 
what  was  blasphemously  called  *  an  Act  of  Faith,'  ^  and  feasting  his 
eyes  on  the  agony  of  those  convicted  of  heresy,  as  they  perished 
by  lingering  tortures  in  the  flames.  It  was  on  this  occasion  that, 
seated  on  his  royal  throne,  he  made  an  oration  to  the  people,  in 
which  he  solemnly  announced  his  resolution  not  to  spare  even  his 
own  children,  if  they  should  be  unfaithful  to  the  tenets  of  their 
ancestors,  and,  warming  with  his  own  denunciations,  protested 
that,  if  one  of  his  own  hands  were  to  become  infected  with  heresy, 
he  would  cut  off  the  offending  member  with  -the  other. 

Yet,  almost  at  the  very  moment  that  he  was  thus,  as  he 
flattered  himself,  giving  a  deathblow  to  those  whom  he  had  learned 
to  regard  as  rebels  alike  against  kingly  as  against  ecclesiastical 
rule,  a  man  was  arising  among  his  subjects  who  was  to  give  the 
Keformers  of  France  that  of  which  they  stood  most  in  need,  a  fHjj^  <Jf^ 
distinct  and  defined  system,  a  watchword  and  a  name.    As  yet  ^ 

they  were  only  partially  followers  of  a  German  monk  in  his  denial 
of  error ;  and  between  the  German  and  the  French  mind  there 
existed  aven  then  a  clearly  marked  difference,  if  it  may  not  be 
said  a  natural  repugnance,  which  disposed  each  people  to  seek  a  .  .  ^ 
leader  from  among  themselves.  The  Germans  had  already  theirs  '  ^^-^-i^  ^^ 
in  Luther  and  Melancthon;  and  such  an  one  now  offered  himself 
to  the  French  in  Calvin,  a  native  of  Noyon  on  the  Oise,  who  was 
gifted  by  nature  with  talents  of  the  highest  order,  and  who, 
though  only  twenty-six  years  of  age,  had  already  acquired  a 
variety  of  learning  which,  even  in  that  studious  age,  few  of  his  con- 
temporaries equalled,  and  none  surpassed.  Having,  almost  before 
he  arrived  at  manhood,  joined  the  opponents  of  Popery,  he  had 
fled  from  Paris  when  the  persecution  became  violent ;  and,  after  a 
brief  sojourn  in  different  towns,  which  he  successively  found  in- 
secure, he  had  quitted  his  country  altogether,  and  had  established 
himself  at  Basle^  where  he  employed  himself  in  frammg  a  new 
theological  and  ecclesiastical  discipline,  and  in  drawing  up  an 
exposition  of  it,  which  in  153G  he  published  under  the  title  of 
'  I'he  Christian  Institution,'  and  which  he  dedicated  to  Francis  ra  ■ 
himself,  smce  one  oi'  the  principal  objects  at  which  it  professed  v-*-'*-'*— 
to  aim  was  the  demonstration  that  the  doctrines  of  true  religion, 
as  they  were  understood  and  carried  out  by  the  Reformers,  in- 
volved nothing  dangerous  to  the  Koyal  authority  or  the  tranquillity 

»  «Auto-da-fd* 


150  MODERN  HISTOEY.  [a.d.  1536. 

of  the  kingdom.  It  is  a  singular  proof  of  the  antagonism  which 
from  the  first  existed  between  the  two  great  Reformers,  even 
when  apparently  acting  in  harmony  with  the  same  object,  that  in 
the  whole  treatise  he  never  once  mentioned  Luther's  name  ;  ^  and 
in  the  principles  which  he  advanced  he  went  far  beyond  those 
wliich  had  been  promulgated  in  the  Confession  of  Augsburg ; 
rejecting  much  which  Luther  and  Melancthon  had  admitted 
without  scruple  ;  disowning  the  authority  of  general  councils  and 
V_,^    the  institution  of  bishops,  and  laying  down  a  system  of  doctrine 


^^f^^-A^*' 


in  many  parts  wholly  new,  and  in  some,  especially  in  those  which 
concerned  the  sacraments,  as  it  seemed  to  the  Lutherans,  irreve- 
rent. Yet  the  philosophical  complexion  of  his  reasoning  and  the 
precision  of  his  logic  were  so  agreeable  to  the  national  intellect, 
that  his  conclusions 'were  at  once  adopted  by  the  whole  body  of 
the  French  Reformers.  Calvinism  became  their  creed;  and  perhaps, 
in  its  inflexible  stubbornness,  it  was  better  calculated  to  arm 
them  for  the  struggle  which  awaited  them  than  the  system  laid 
down  by  the  German  Reformers,  who,  though  equally  firm  in 
their  maintenance  of  every  principle  which  involved  important 
truth,  were  not  disposed  to  make  unnecessary  enemies  by  un- 
yielding rigour  on  points  which  they  looked  upon  as  indifferent. 
Singularly  enough  Francis  had  no  sooner  pledged  himself  publicly 


^j^,_^,r,A^y^     to  the  extirpation  of  heresy  than  he  embarked  in    a  ^course  of 

-    V    ,-/    foreign  policy,  incompatible  with  the  execution  of  his  threats.   He 

'*^   3  JVr- became  eager  to  renewlTostilities  against  the.  Emperor ;  and  in 

fk    "i      the  winter  of  the  very  same  year  in  which  he  uttered  his  frantic 

a  tft^rr^.    and  cruel  threats,  he  began  to  court  the  Protestant  princes  of 

fA^   Germany  -,  and,  to  propitiate  them ,  released  those  of  his  own  subjects 

l4^  Cy  r-*»^liom  he  had  thrown  into  prison,  and  even,  as  has  been  already 

Vj       mentioned,^  invited  Melancthon  to  France.     But  it  is  not  worth 

while  to  dwell  on  the  vacillations  of  this  inconstant  and  worthless 

prince,  persecuting  men  at  one  moment,  caressing  them  at  another; 

now  putting  himself   under  the    absolute    guidance   of   Popish 

counsellors,  now  inviting  the  Turk  to  aid  in  expelling  the  Pope 

himself  from  his  capital.     The  only  lesson  which  can  be  learned 

from  the  contemplation  of  such  weakness  is,  that  the  greatest 

excess  of  cruelty  is  compatible  with  an  utter  absence  of  sincerity. 

^  •       And  it  must  increase  our  contempt  of  Francis  himself  to  see  that 

(»-c»>w*^}iig  barbarity  to  his  subjects  had  not  even  the  miserable  excuse  of 

conscientious  bigotry,  which  is  pleaded  for  Philip ;  but  that  to  the 

octrines  for  questioning  which  he  doomed  thousands  of  his  people 

^OjLv^-V*to  slaughter  he  was  himself  so  wholly  indiflerent  that  he  was  at 


^. 


't^ 


*  It  is  Avcii  said  thatLuthfir  is  not     voluminous  writings. 
mentioned  in  any  part  of  Calvin's  ^  gee  ante,  c.  iv. 


A.D.  1545.]  PEKSECUTION  OF  THE  VAUDOIS.  151 

all  times  willing  to  subordinate  every  religious  consideration  to 
the  most  passing  caprice. 

Even  in  his  enmity  to  Charles  he  had  no  fixed  principle  of 
policy.  A  brief  and  indecisive  campaign  was  followed  by  an 
almost  equally  short  peace.  A  fresh  war,  that  made  memorable 
by  the  battle  of  Cerisoles,  was  soon  terminated  by  another  treaty. 
At  each  restoration  of  peace  he  bound  himself  more  strongly  than 
before  to  enforce  uniformity  of  religion  throughout  his  own 
kingdom ;  and  the  last  treaty,  the  Peace  of  Crdpy,  led  immediately 
to  the  series  of  transactions  which,  of  all  others,  have  covered  the 
name  of  Francis  with  the  most  indelible  infamy.  There  was  no 
district  of  France  in  which  the  new  doctrines  were  espoused  so  »  i 
eagerly  as  in  the  portion  of  Provence  known  as  the  Pays  de  Vaud ;  I/*j^kmA<^ 
indeed,  the  natives  themselves  denied  the  novelty  of  the  doctrines,  fLTjlyy^ 
and  maintained  that  they  had  never  accepted  the  innovations  of 
successive  Popes,  but  had  preserved  the  old  Apostolic  J'Qligionrjjj,^ 
unmodified  and  undefiled.  Such  an  assertion  was  even  more^'^^^ 
offensive  to  the  champions  of  Popery  than  the  recantation  of  those  fU/^ljlJ^ 
doctrines  by  the  German  Reformers  or  by  the  Calvinists.  And  in  f  v^ 
1540  Francis  had  compelled  theProvenc^al  parliament  to  publish  an 
edict  of  more  than  usual  ferocity  against  the  Vaudois  Protestants ; 
by  which  not  only  death  was  denounced  as  the  punishment  of 
every  man,  slavery  or  banishment  of  every  woman  and  child,  who 
was  guilty  of  heresy,  but  the  desolation  of  the  whole  district  was 
enjoined.  Not  only  were  the  towns  and  villages  to  be  burned,  the 
detached  houses  to  be  razed,  and  the  orchards  to  be  cut  down, 
but  even  the  caves,  which  were  numerous  throughout  the  district, 
and  which  often  alforded  a  refuge,  and  sometimes  a  place  of 
worship,  to  those  who  fled  from  the  rage  of  their  persecutors, 
were  to  be  explored  and  demolished.  The  fresh  outbreak  of  war 
suspended  the  execution  of  this  decree  for  a  time.  But  the  Peace 
of  Crepy  was  emphatically  a  treaty  of  persecution.  Charles  easily 
persuaded  Francis  that  lenity  to  those  who  disobeyed  his  authority 
in  any  matter,  whether  spiritual  or  temporal,  was  fraught  with 
danger  to  the  authoiity  of  every  monarch  in  Christendom. 
Francis  bound  liimself  more  solemnly  than  ever  to  enforce 
obedience  with  the  most  unsparing  rigour ;  and  the  Romish 
priests  who,  as  he  felt  his  strength  decaying,  began  to  obtain 
increased  influence  over  him,  pert*uaded  him  that  in  a  strict  per- 
formance of  his  undertaking  lay  his  sole  hope  of  salvation. 
Accordingly,  on  New  Year's  Day  1545,  he  sent  peremptory  orders 
to  the  Count  de  Grigiian,  governor  of  Provence,  to  carry  out  the 
decree  issued  fiveyears  before;  and  he  and  his  lieutenant,  the 
Baron  d"Opp«Sda,  president  of  the  parliament,  executed  his  com- 
mands with  a  ruthless  zeal  which  showed  how  cordially  they 


152  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1546. 

approved  of  them.  Even  tlie  atrocities  which  350  years  before 
bad,  on  a  somewhat  similar  pretext,  been  perpetrated  on  the 
Albigeois  were  outdone  now.  M.  de  Grignan  reported  to  his 
master  that  the  Vaudois  were  not  without  means  of  resistance ; 
that  they  could  assemble  15,000  men  in  arms.  To  prevent  the 
assemblage  of  such  a  body,  the  utmost  secresy  was  desirable ;  to 
crush  any  resistsmce  which,  if  once  assembled,  it  might  make,  the 
aid  of  a  military  force  was  indispensable.  And  thus,  to  the 
relentless  inhumanity  of  ecclesiastical  persecutors  was  added  the 
professional  fury  of  a  soldiery  taught  in  that  age  to  consider 
bloodshed,  rppiue,  and  licentiousness  as  its  legitimate  occupation. 
Hoon  after  the  publication  of  the  original  edict,  Francis,  who,  as 
has  been  mentioned,  had  again  quarrelled  with  the  Emperor,  had 
offered  pardon  to  all  who  should  recant ;  but  now  the  object  of 
those  who  were  appointed  to  execute  the  edict  was  to  prevent  any 
from  availing  themselves  of  that  offer  by  recantation.  No  warning 
was  given ;  and  the  unhappy  Vaudois,  who,  though  they  saw  a 
formidable  force  gradually  collecting  on  their  coast,  believed  it  to 
be  designed  to  take  part  in  a  naval  expedition,  had  no  suspicion 
of  the  storm  which  was  about  to  break  upon  their  heads ;  when, 
at  Easter,  Oppeda,  taking  command  of  the  troops,  suddenly  crossed 
the  Durance,  the  river  celebrated  by  Livy  as  the  line  of  Hannibal's 
march,  and  at  once  commenced  the  work  of  devastation  and 
massacre.  The  very  next  morning  three  large  villages  were  set 
on  fire,  the  soldiers  in  their  fury  hardly  stopping  to  pillage  them, 
and  every  human  being  was  slaughtered.  The  next  day  the 
invaders  pressed  on  (we  may  use  terms  of  regular  warfare,  as  the 
whole  district  was  treated  like  an  enemy's  country,  save  that 
rarely  indeed  had  an  enemy's  country  been  so  mercilessly 
desolated),  spreading  themselves  more  widely,  as  they  saw  that 
no  resistance  was  to  be  apprehended ;  but  continuing  the  same 
atrocities,  or  even  worse,  their  rage  seeming  to  grow  more 
furious  a  s  it  fed  itself  with  fresh  victims.  From  some  towns 
every  citizen  had  fled  before  they  reached  them.  From  others 
they  were  seen  to  be  still  fleeing.  The  fuiritives  were  pursued, 
were  dragged  back  into  their  dwellings  which  were  then  set  on 
fire,  while  the  savage  soldiers  watched  the  doors  to  prevent  their 
escape,  and,  if  any,  in  the  madness  of  their  ngony,  tried  to  force 
their  way  out,  drove  them  back  with  their  spears  into  the  flames. 
We  may  forbear  the  recital  of  horrors  worse  than  death  to  which 
many,  and  those  the  most  defenceless  portion  of  the  wretched 
inhabitants,  were  exposed.  In  less  than  a  fortnight,  Oppeda 
could  report  to  his  employers  that  in  twenty-two  towns  and 
villages  not  a  house  was  left  standing,  that  of  the  people  3,000 
were  already  slaughtered,  that  his  soldiers  were  ceaselessly  ex- 


^B.  1547.]  DEATH  OF  FRANCIS.  153 

ploring  the  woods  for  those  who  had  escaped,  and  that  so 
completely  was  the  food  of  the  whole  district  destroyed  that 
undoubtedly  those  who  might  elude  discovery  must  perish  of 
cold  and  hunger.  Francis,  by  a  public  edict,  expressed  his  high 
approval  of  his  officer's  energy  and  success,  and  held  him  up  as  an 
example  for  the  imitation  of  others.  But  it  was  nearly  his  last 
decree.  As  for  the  rest  of  his  reign  there  was  pe^ce  between 
France  and  all  her  former  enemies,  the  persecution  of  heretics 
went  on  vigorously ;  at  Meaux,  where  the  new  doctrines  had  first 
been  preached,  so  that  *  a  heretic  of  Meaux '  was  for  some  years 
synonymous  with  Protestant,  and  at  Paris  itself,  fires  were  con- 
tinually lighted  for  the  execution  of  those  who  were  convicted, 
many  of  those  accused  being  tortured  or  mutilated  before  they 
were  put  to  death.  But  neither  these  deaths  nor  the  flatteries  of 
the  priests  who  urged  them  could  prolong  the  life  of  their  per- 
secutor. Incessant  debaucheries  had  rendered  Francis  an  old  man 
before  his  time ;  even  had  there  not  been,  as  there  was,  actual 
disease,  the  art  of  the  physicians  was  powerless  to  give  strength 
to  an  exhausted  constitution ;  and  on  the  last  day  of  March  1547 
he  died. 

Though  himself  possessed  of  no  learning  or  accomplishments, 
Francis  had  encouraged  such  pursuits  in  others,  giving  an  asjlum^^^^i^^^-^ 
in  France  to  foreign  scholars  whom  the  troubles   of  their  own  * 
countries  from  time  to  time  drove  into  exile,  and  by  substan-^*'^'^***' 
tial  rewards  stimulating  his  own  subjects  to  emulate  their  industry. 
And  they  repaid  him  by  the  most  fulsome  eulogies  of  talents  and 
of  virtues  of  which  every  part  of  his  career  proves  him  to  l*8,ve/l  ^^^ 
been  wholly  destitute.     That  he  was  possessed  of  great  personal  ^  * 

strength  and  activity,  and  that  he  excelled  in  the  warlike  exercises 
which  were  the  education  and  pastime  of  that  age ;  nay,  that  he 
was  endued  with  enterprising  and  undaunted  courage  may  be  ad- 
mitted, but  these  attributes  are  but  the  distinctions  of  any  ordi- 
naiy  noble  or  knight,  not  the  qualities  of  a  great,  much  less  of  a 
good  king.     As  a  statesman,  he  adopted  no  measures  from  well-  n^  ^^ 
considered  views  of  the  interests  of  his  people,  or  even  from  any 
anxiety  on  the  subject,  but  regulated  his  whole  policy  alike  in  ^T'l-PT 
declarations  of  war  and  in  negotiations  of  peace  by  the  merest  - 
caprice.     As  a  general,  he  conducted  his  operations  without  judg-{J^^  Cj. 
ment,  showing  no  skill  either  as  a  strategist  in  a  campaign,  or  as  ^ 

a  tactician  in  battle.     As  a  king,  he  showed  himself  equally  devoid  /^ 
of  good  faith,  of  humanity,  and  of  decency.     One   of  his  pre-  ^-^       ' 
decessors  on  the  throne,^  who  resembled  him  in  the  misfortune  of 
his  captivity,  had  set  a  noble  example  in  preferring  to  return  to 

1  John  II. 


154  MODEKN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1547. 

Vr  -N,     his  prison  rather  than  violate  his  engagements,  and  in  declaring 

..^     that  if  *  truth  were  banished  from  all  the  rest  of  the  world  she 

~T^I^\ ought  ever  to  find  a  home  in  the  bosom  of  princes.'  But  Francis 
^  ^^V  made  engagements  with  the  deliberate  intention  of  breaking  themj 
^  JyfTll^Mfihowing  himself  as  devoid  of  knightly  honour  in  extricating  him- 
self from  difficulties,  as  of  wisdom  and  skill  in  involving  himself 
in  them.  There  is  little  need  to  enlarge  on  the  want  of  humanity 
in  a  king  who  could  order  the  slaughter  of  thousands  of  peaceful 
subjects,  against  whom  the  very  officers  appointed  to  examine  into 
their  habits  could  bring  no  charge  but  that  of  a  renunciation  of  the 
Pope's  authority  in  matters  of  religion.  And  he  who  for  such  a 
cause  could  command  and  approve  such  wholesale  destruction,  set 
his  people  at  the  same  time  a  constant  example  of  the  most  scanda- 
lous licentiousness  such  as  had  never  before  been  witnessed  on 
a  throne.  It  was  his  conduct,  shameless  alike  in  falsehood,  in 
profligacy  and  barbarity,  vices  not  to  be  atoned  for  by  picking  up 
Leonardo  da  Vinci's  paintbrush,  or  by  inviting  Erasmus  to  preside 
over  a  college  which  was  never  founded,  his  open  derision  of  all 
restraint,  of  all  decency,  of  everything  that  had  ever  been  held 
honourable  or  respectable  among  men,  that  first  sowed  the  seeds 
of  that  general  demoralisation  of  the  whole  French  people  of  which 
they  are  to  this  day  reaping  the  bitter  fruit. 

lie  had  taught  his  evil  lessons  to  apt  scholars  :  for  no  period  in 
the  history  of  any  nation  is  fraught  with  greater  dishonour  and 
misery  than  the  reig;ns_of  his  son  andjiis  three  grandsons.  Nor  is 
there  any  in  which  the  misefy'o?  the  people  howed  more  directly 
from  the  iniquity  of  its  rulers.  Not,  indeed,  that  Henry  II.  was 
either  as  profligate  or  as  deliberately  cruel  as  Francis  ;  but  the 
history  of  his  reign  is  not  the  only  instance  in  which  weakness  and 
facility  of  temper  have  caused  as  great  mischief  as  more  deliberate 
wickedness.  In  many  respects  his  character  was  not  unlike  that 
of  our  Charles  II.  He  was  graceful,  accomplished,  good-humoured, 
and  affable ;  by  no  means  wanting  in  discernment,  but  his  ruling 
passion  was  love  of  his  own  ease  ;  he  could  not  take  the  trouble  to 
govern,  but  submitted  himself  and  the  interests  of  his  kingdom  to 
the  guidance  of  his  mistress,  the  notorious  Diana  of  Poitiers, 
duchess  de  Valentinois,  and  of  one  or  two  dissolute  nobles  who 
were  his  favorites,  because  they  were  hers.  Diana,  perhaps,  be- 
cause the  Duchess  of  d'Etampes,  whom  she  mortally  hated,  had 
favoured  the  Protestants,  regarded  them  with  bitter  animosity. 
The  other  fiivorites  saw  the  policy  of  adopting  her  views ;  and,  in 
submission  to  their  persevering  influence,  Henry  published  decrees 
of  persecution  as  fierce  as  the  worst  which  had  been  issued  by 
Francis ;  and  would  even  have  established  the  Inquisition  in  the 
kinsdom,  if  the  parliament,  with  a  pertinacity  which  it  rarely 


A.D.  1659.]  THE  REFORMING  PARTY.  155 

exhibited  for  so  praiseworthy  an  object,  had  not  positively  refused 
to  repfister  the  edict.  With  characteristic  indolence,  he  declined  to 
exert  himself  to  compel  obedience  to  his  authority ;  and  his  life 
was  not  long  enough  to  give  the  patrons  of  that  detestable  tribunal 
an  opportunity  of  renewing  their  instances. 

During  his  reign  the  history  of  the  Reforming  party  in  France 
had  in  some  degree  changed  its  character.  Previously  Catholics 
had  been  the  undisputed  masters  of  the  situation ;  the  Protestants 
being  allowed  just  so  much  toleration,  or  being  exposed  to  such 
persecution,  as  their  sovereign  might  permit  or  command.  But 
they  had  gradually  learned  their  strength ;  and  from  the  time  of 
Henry's  accession  they  began  to  resist  persecution,  to  claim  as  a 
right  the  same  freedom  for  the  exercise  of  their  religion  which 
their  German  brethren  had  secured  at  Passau,'  and  to  show  a 
resolution,  if  remonstrance  and  entreaty  should  fail,  to  extort  such 
concessions  by  force  of  arms.  It  is  probable  that  they  overrated 
their  own  numbers;-  being  led  perhaps  to  exaggerate  them  from 
their  strength  in  the  upper  classes,  which  was  more  easily  estimated 
than  among  the  commons;  for  the  Reformation  in  fjranceha^ 
this  peculiarity,  that  it  worked  downwards,  not  upwards ;  that  its 
firSt-atih^T^hTs'cahferiof  from"  the  p^^  aiid  uiimflirenced  ranks  of 
society,  but  from  the  noble,  the  wealthy,  and  the  powerful ;  they 
indeed  being  those  who  had  suffered  most  severely  from  the 
exactions  and  usurpations  of  the  Catholic  priesthood.  The  spirit 
or  fashion  of  the  Reformation  penetrated  even  into  the  royal 
palace,  for  besides  Marguerite  de  Valois,  who  was,  to  say  the  least, 
inclined  to  Hugueuotisra,  and  the  Bourbon  princes,  who  openly 
professed  it,  the  royal  children  themselves  were  allowed  to  use 
Huguenot  prayers  and  to  sing  Marot's  psalms.  It  was  not  strange 
therefore  that  the  Huguenots  in  France  should  feel  themselves 
entitled  to  treat  with  their  opponents  on  terms  of  equality ;  while 
if  they  should  be  compelled  to  resort  to  force,  they  had  leaders  of 
reputation  for  both  courage  and  military  skill,  whom  they  could 
confidently  trust  with  the  command  of  their  armies.  The  Prince 
ofConde  was  a  gallant  and  energetic  captain;  the  admiral 
Uoligny  nad  gained  a  deservedly  high  reputation  by  the  stoutness 
of  his  defence  of  St.  Quentin,  though  after  the  defeat  of  the  con- 


J  See  ante,  c.  iv.  at  a  fourth  of  the  whole.   D'Anquetil 

2  All  estimates  of  the  comparative  (Esprit  de  la  Ligiie,  i.  46)  says  that 

numbers  of  the  adherents  of  the  old  Coligny  persuaded  Conde'  to  engage 

and  of  the  new  religion  are  menly  in   the    conspiracy  of  Amboise    by 

conjectural,  as  we  have  not  even  any  proving  to  him  that  there  were'  more 

means  of  ascertaining  the  population  t!ian  two  millions  of  Reformers  capa- 

of  the  whole  nation     De  I'Hopital  is  ble  of  bearing  arras,'  which  is  abso- 

Baid  to  have  estimated  the  Huguenots  lutely  impossible. 


156  MODERN  HISTOEY.  [a.d.  1559. 

stable  under  its  walls  the  permanent  preservation  of  the  place  was 
impracticable.  He  was  also,  above  all  his  contemporaries,  a  man 
of  unimpeachable  virtue  and  honour.  And  as,  with  the  exception 
of  the  Duke  of  Guise,  there  was  no  Catholic  leader  who  had  not 
lost  character  in  the  recent  campaigns  against  the  Spaniards,  the 
Huguenots  were  not  without  grounds  for  the  confidence  which 
they  entertained  in  the  issue  of  any  contest  to  which  they  might 
be  driven. 

Henry's  comparatively  early  death,  caused  by  an  accidental 
wound  in  a  tournament,  Avas  probaby  favorable  to  his  fame,  as  the 
shortness  of  the  reign  of  his  eldest  son  and  successor  Francis  II. 
procured  him  also  panegyrics  to  which  a"  longer  iite  might  pro- 
bably  have  disentitled  him.  Francis,  though  but  a  boy,  was  already 
married  to  tbe_b£autiful  Queen  of  Scotland,  a  niece,  on  the  mother's 
side,  of  the  Duke  of  Guise,  whom  the  recovery  of  Calais  had  made 
thcrinosl*  popular  man'  in  France.  He  was  also  a  man  of  great 
talents,  great  ambition,  and  few  scruples,  and  was  unconsciously 
aided  in  his  projects  by  the  influence  of  his  niece,  who  regarded 
his  person  with  affection  and  his  renown  with  natural  pride. 
Francis,  whose  constitution  was  already  undermined  by  a  mortal 
disease,  was  as  feeble  in  mind  as  in  body ;  and  his  more  energetic 
wife  easily  persuaded  him  to  trust  everything  to  Guise,  who 
speedily  monopolised  all  the  highest  offices  in  the  kingnom,  and, 
there  can  be  little  doubt,  began  to  plan  the  deposition  of  his 
nephew  and  his  own  elevation  to  the  throne,  as,  in  the  earlier  days 
of  France  Pepin  had  superseded  Childeric.  How  merciless  would 
have  b^en  his  rule  may  be  seeiT  from  the  unparalleled  ferocity  with 
which  he  compelled  his  youthful  sovereign  to  punish  those 
engaged  in  what  is  known  as  the  Conspiracy  of  Amboise,'  endea- 
vouring even  to  make  that  design  (wnicn  nad  certainly  been 
formed  with  the  intention  of  serving,  and  indeed  of  saving,  the 
king  himself)  a  pretext  for  the  execution  of  one  prince  of  the 
blood  royal,  and  for  the  assassination  of  another,  the  King  of 
Navarre,  in  his  presence. 

'  The  Conspiracy  of  Amboiso,  so-  tion       Hundreds    perished    by    the 

called  because  it  was  intended  to  have  hands  of  the  public  executioners,  and 

been  carried  into  effect  at  that  town,  hundreds,  bound   hands  and  feet  to- 

where    Francis    was    residin<?,    was  gether,  were  thrown  into  the  Loire, 

entered    into     by    the    Huguenots,  And   thus,   in   the  year  1660,  Avere 

headed  by  the  Prince  de  Condo,  witli  exactly  anticipated  the  Noyades  of 

the  object  of  delivering   the  young  the  Revolution,  except,  indeed,  that 

king  from  the  power  of  his  uncles,  a  prince  of  the  Church,  the  Cardinal 

It  was  betrayed  to  Guise,  and  he  per-  of  Lorraine,  tooli  the  place  of  the 

suaded  the  king  to  treat  it  as  high  butcher   Carrier.' — Stephcjts  on    the 

treason.     'The   punishments    wliich  History  of  trance.  Lecture  lb. 
followed  ar&  too  horrible  for  descrip- 


k.T).  1560.]  DEATH   OF  FRANCIS  11.  157 

Rut  in  less  than  a  year  and  a  half  after  his  accession,  on  the  fifth 
3f  December  1560,  Francis  died,  and  was  succeeded  by  his  brother 
Charles,  a  bo^  of  ten  years  of  at^e  ;  and  these  events  for  a  while 
extinguished  the  power  of  the  house  of  Guise,  and  transferred  the 
chief  authority  to  the  queen-dowager,  the  widow  of  Henry  II., 
whose  influence  had  hitherto  been  overpowered,  first  by  that  of 
Diana  of  Poitiers,  and  afterwards  by  that  of  Mary,  but  who,  from 
this  time  to  the  day  of  her  death,  a  period  of  more  than  twenty- 
seven  years,  exercised  the  supreme  power  in  the  kingdom. 
Catharine  de  Medici,  a  niece  of  Pope  Clement  VII.,  who  had  (\jJL 
negotiated  her  marriage  with  the  French  prince  while  both  were 
still  children,  was  stained  by  every  kind  of  guilt  that  can  make 
man  or  woman  infamous.  Yet  her  crimes  proceeded  from  motives 
differing  from  those  which  swayed  the  otner  wicked  women  who 
had  influence,  and  none  but  wicked  women  had  influence,  in  that 
age.  She  was  not  licentious  and  voluptuous,  she  was  not  rapacious, 
she  was  not  even  cruel  in  disposition,  or  in  cases  where  she  could 
obtain  her  ends  without  cruelty.  But  she  was  absolutely  heart- 
less, conscienceless,  faithless,  shameless.  Her  one  object  was 
power :  for  that  she  had  hitherto  dissembled ;  for  that  she  now 
began  to  manoeuvre  and  intrigue ;  for  that  she  was  prepared  to 
betray  and  to  murder  friends,  kinsmen,  and  enemies  alike,  even 
half  a  nation  if  they  seemed  to  stand  in  her  way  or  to  endanger  her 
acquisition  or  her  maintenance  of  that  dominion  on  which  all  her 
desires  were  fixed.  To  the  religious  questions  which  agitated  the 
nation  she  was  profoundly  indifferent.  Catholics  and  Huguenots 
were,  alike  in  her  eyes,  only  measured  by  the  use  which  she  could 
make  of  them  ,•  and  she  showed  favour  to  each  party  alternately,  as 
she  fancied  each  inclined  to  rely  upon  her  aid  and  to  assist  her 
own  designs. 

The  nominal  authority  was  soon  acquired.  Before  Francis's 
death  the  States-General  i  had  been  convoked  to  meet  at  Orleans. 
They  were  formally  opened  by  the  new  sovereign  before  the  end  of 
the  year ;  and  from  the  day  of  their  meeting  Catharine,  with  the 


1  The  States- General,  established  were  still  confined  to  presenting  re- 

by  Philip  IV.  (Le  Bel)  in  1301,  were  monstrances  against  grievances;  and 

the  representatives  of  the  three  es-  to    entreating    redress  :    a    petition 

tates:  the  Clergv,   the  Nobles,  and  Avith  which  they  had  no  means  of 

the  Commons  ^Le  Tiers  Etat),  and  enforcing   compliance ;  so   that,    in 

so  far  to  a  certain  extent  resembled  reality,  they  were  powerless  for  good  ; 

our  British   Parliament.     But   thev  and,  gradually  ceasing  to  be  useful 

never  extended  their  authority,  as,  by  «ven  as  a  screen,  they  were  discon- 

a  skilful  use  of  the  power  of  the  purse,  tmued  at  the  beginning  of  the  1  /  th 

our   House   of  Commons  gradually  century,    and    were    not    convened 

enlarged    theirs.      Their    privileges  again  till  the  lU-fated  year  I  /  89. 


158  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1661. 

acquiescence  of  all  parties,  assumed  the  office  of  regent :  while  at 

the  beginning  of  the  next  yeftl*  GUise  retired  from  the  court ;  and  a 

»    ■»       less  cautious  or  crafty  person  than  Catharine  might  have  supposed 

y4AjU^k^  that  all  obstacles  were  removed  from  her  path  ;  but  suspicion  was 
a  part  of  her  nature.     She  soon  learnt  that  Guise  had  united  him- 

jlJ^  *  self  with  the  Constable  Montmorenci  and  with  the  Marshal  St. 
^'*'^'^*^  Andr^,  an  union  which  showed  a  resolution  on  his  part  to  force 
his  way  back  to  power.  And  she  was,  in  consequence,  driven  to 
connect  herself  with  the  King  of  Navarre  and  his  brother  the 
Prince  of  Conde.  The  King  of  Navarre  was  declared  Lieutenant- 
General  of  the  kingdom,  an  office  which  gave  him  the  supreme 
command  of  the  army ;  and  Catharine,  feeling  herself  placed  by 
this  appointment  of  her  new  ally  in  a  safe  position,  began  to  nego- 
tiate with  both  parties  in  the  tone  of  a  mistress.  She  even,  with 
singular  blindness,  as  if  religion  had  been  the  first  consideration 
in  the  minds  of  either  Guise  or  Anthony  of  Navarre,  formed  a 
project  of  removing  all  grounds  of  future  differences  between  them, 
by  convening  a  synod  of  Catholic  and  Huguenot  doctors,  who 
might  agree  on  a  compromise  and  frame  a  creed  which  both  sects 
could  accept.  It  met  at  Poissy  in  I56I,  and  effected  nothing,  unless 
indeed  it  may  be  said  to  have  encouraged  the  Huguenots  to  raise 
their  pretensions,  and  to  have  exasperated  the  Catholics  to  check 
them  by  violence  and  outrage. 

The  Huguenots,  gaining  confidence  from  having  been  admitted 
to  defend  their  doctrines  in  the  presence  of  the  king  (for  Charles 
himself  had  sat  as  president  of  the  conference),  demanded  and 
obtained  a  revocation  of  the  edicts  which  had  hitherto  prohibited 
their  public  performance  of  worship,  and  took  possession  of  many 
of  the  churches ;  and  the  next  year.  Guise,  elated  at  having 
detached  the  King  of  Navarre  from  their  cause  (for  that  prince 
had  been  won  over,  by  the  promise  of  the  hand  of  the  beauteous 
Queen  of  Scotland,  to  desert  his  religion  and  become  a  Catholic), 
resolved  to  teach  them  that  no  law  should  protect  them  in  the 
exercise  of  a  religion  which  he  discountenanced,  and  which,  still 
keeping  in  view  his  designs  on  the  throne,  he  was  resolved  at  a 
future  day  completely  to  suppress.  He  even  entered  into  a  league 
with  I'hilip  of  Spain,  who  promised  him  the  aid  of  a  Spanish 
army  if  ho  should  find  himself  unable  to  crush  the  Huguenots 
without  foreign  assistance  ;  but,  being  too  impatient  to  wait  for  it, 
in  the  spring  of  1562,  as  he  was  passing  with  a  body  of  armed 
retainers  through  Pagsy,  a  small  town  in  Champagne,  he  fell, 
sword  in  hand,  on  a  congregfition  of  Huguenots  just  assembling  to 
hear  a  favorite  preacher,  sL-w  or  severely  wounded  between  two 
and  three  hundred  of  them,  and  then,  openly  defying  the  authority 
of  the  queen,  marched  on  Paris,  made  himself  master  of  the  city 


A.D.  1569.]     COIOIENCEMENT   OF  THE   CIVIL  WARS.     159 

and  of  Fontainebleau,  where  the  young  king  was  residing,  and 
prepared  to  overpower  all  resistance  by  open  war ;  for  an  outrage 
such  as  that  of  Passy  had  rendered  war  inevitable.  Nor  had  it 
been  the  only  injury  of  the  kind  to  which  the  Huguenots  had 
been  exposed.  In  many  districts  the  Roman  Catholic  bishops 
themselves  had  not  thought  it  inconsistent  with  their  sacred  pro- 
fession to  stir  up  the  populace  to  deeds  of  bloodshed :  other 
congregations  had  been  massacred  at  Cahors,  Toulouse,  and 
Limoux ;  and  it  had  become  evident  that  there  was  no  protection 
for  them,  unless  they  could  protect  themselves.  They  took  arms, 
with  Conde  for  their  leader  ,•  and  thus,  in  the  summer  of  1562,  >^ 
began  that  terrible  series  of  wars,^  or  rather  war,  which  lasted  till  Jam,  ^^ 
nearly  the  end  of  the  century.  It  would  be  tedious  and  profitless 
to  dwell  on  the  details  of  a  contest  made  doubly  horrible  by  a 
succession  of  treacheries  and  atrocities  alien  from  the  spirit  of 
honourable  warfare.  Of  the  original  leaders  on  each  side  every  one 
soon  perished.  Guise  was  assassinated  before  Orleans;  Conde, 
taken  prisoner  at  Jarnac,  was  basely  murdered  in  cold  blood  ;  St. 
Andr6  fell  in  one  battle,  the  King  of  NavarrS  in  another,  the  Con- 
stable in  a  third ;  while  more  than  once  Catharine,  who  probably 
was  sincerely  desirous  of  peace,  since  a  decisive  victory  of  either 
side  would  have  been  unfavorable  to  her  views,  procured  a 
respite  to  the  combatants  by  treaties  which  neither  party  intended 
to  observe.  During  the  early  part  of  the  war  the  Huguenots 
were  manifestly  inferior  to  their  enemies,  not  only  in  numbers, 
but  in  the  generalship  of  their  commanders.  Their  ablest  officer 
had  been  the  Admiral  Coligny,  but  his  talents  were  more  con- 
spicuous in  avoiding  the  worst  consequences  of  defeat  than  in 
gaining  victories ;  but,  after  the  death  of  Conde,  they  obtained  a 
leader  who,  though  not  possessed  of  any  great  military  skill,  was 
distinguished  by  a  brilliant  courage  and  energy  that  often  pro- 
duces as  beneficial  effects  as  a  strict  adherence  to  rules,  and  is 
eminently  serviceable  in  inspiring  armies  with  confidence.  Conde 
had  fallen  in  March  1569,  and  in  April  the  widowed  Queen  of 
Navarre  brought  her  young  son,  aftei'wards  Henry  IV.,  to  the 
head-quarters  of  the  Huguenot  army,  and,  though  he  was  only 
sixteen,  her  virtues  caused  him  to  be  unanimously  adopted  by  the 
party  as  their  leader. 

Yet  triumphant  as  he  eventually  beqame,  he  had  nearly  been  cut 
off  before  rendering  any  service  to  his  party.  During  the  three 
years  which  ensued  Catharine  was  more  active  than  ever  in  her 
intrigues.  She  was  afraid  of  the  chiefs  on  both  sides ;  most  espe- 
cially did  she  fear  the  Duke  of  Guise,  the  brother  and  successor  of 

I  The  French  historians,  counting  from  time  to  time  interrupted,  enume- 
thc  treaties  by  which  hostilities  were      rate  eight  wars. 


160  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1569. 

the  defender  of  Metz,  who,  if  inferior  to  that  prince  in  military 
talent,  was  fully  his  equal  in  political  sagacity  and  address ;  and, 
while  he  inherited  all  his  ambitious  views,  was  even  less  subject 
to  scruples  on  the  score  of  good  faith  or  humanity.  She  was 
apprehensive,  too,  of  the  influence  of  the  Protestant  chiefs,  whom 
she  suspected  of  regarding  her  with  distrust,  and  of  counselling 
the  king,  who  by  this  time  was  of  full  age,  to  emancipate  himself 
from  the  thraldom  in  which  she  held  him,  and  to  take  the  reins  of 
government  into  his  own  hands.  It  is  not  improbable  that  her 
fears  of  both  were  well  founded.  The  means  which  she  adopted 
to  extricate  herself  will  never  be  forgotten  while  the  world  lasts. 
Whether  she  herself  conceived  the  design,  or  whether,  as  Brantome 
affirms,  it  was  suggested  to  her  by  the  old  Marshal  Tavannes,  with 
"  whose  well-known  ferocity  of  temper  it  is  not  inconsistent,  or  whe- 
jj  l%%t^  ther,  again,  as  some  authors  have  with  less  probability  fancied,  the 
^  Duke  of  Alva  had  proposed  it  to  her  at  a  conference  which  she 

•Hi,  had  held  with  him  at  Bayonne  eight  years  before,  and  she  had  ever 

since  been  biding  her  time,  waiting  for  an  opportunity  to  carry  it 
'-^^^^^-y^ut  with  the  greatest  effect,  must  ever  be  uncertain.  But,  whether 
she  had  any  prompter  or  not,  or,  if  prompter  there  was,  whoever 
he  may  have  been,  about  her  actions  there  is  no  dispute.  She 
resolved  to  emancipate  herself  and  the  king  from  the  difficulties 
in  which  they  were  placed  through  the  rivalry  and  animosity  of 
the  two  parties  by  the  entire  destruction  of  one ;  and,  as  there  was 
no  doubt  that  the  Huguenots  were  by  far  the  less  numerous,  she 
selected  them  for  her  victims ;  and  set  herself  with  greater  dupli- 
city than  ever  to  cajole  their  chiefs,  and  to  draw  them  all  together 
into  the  net  which  she  had  woven  for  them.  The  more  effectually 
to  throw  them  off"  their  guard,  she  off'ered  her  own  daughter  Mar- 
garet in  marriage  to  the  young  King  of  Navarre,  with  a  magnificent 
dowry,  very  acceptable  to  a  prince  whose  dominions  and  revenues 
were  as  scanty  as  his ;  and  on  the  eighteenth  of  August  1572,  the 
wedding  was  celebrated  at  Notre  Dame.  Five  days  afterwards 
Catharine  presided  at  a  council,  where  the  principal  question  to  be 
decided  was  whether  Henry  should  be  murdered  the  next  morning ; 
for  at  midnight  on  the  twent3^-third  the  great  bell  of  the  palace  was 
to  toll,  and  its  deep  sound  was  to  be  the  knell  of  every  Huguenot  in 
Paris  and  in  every  province  which  the  royal  command  for  the  in- 
tended massacre  could  reach  in  time.  Guise  was  urgent  for  his  de- 
struction, partly  from  his  natural  ferocity  of  temper,  partly  because 
he  appreciated  his  abilities,  and  still  more,  if  we  may  believe  the 
chroniclers  of  the  day,  because  he  was  in  love  with  his  young 
queen.  But  Catharine  and  Charles  (even  their  callous  hearts  being 
accessible  to  some  touch  of  mercy  or  of  shame)  pronounced  it  too 
horrible  to  make  their  nearest  relative  a  widow  in  the  same  week 


A.D.  1572]     THE  MASSACRE   OF  ST.  BARTHOLOMEW.     161 

in  which  she  had  become  a  bride;  and  it  was  determined  to  spare 
him  and  his  cousin,  the  young  Prince  of  Cond^,  who  had  also  been 
married  but  a  few  weeks  before :  but  there  was  no  mercy  for  any- 
one else.  The  fute  of  the  Admiral  Coligny  Guise  had  endeavoured 
to  anticipate  by  private  assassination  two  days  before,  but  the 
ruffian  whom  he  employed  had  missed  his  aim,  and  had  only 
wounded  the  brave  old  man  in  the  hand  and  arm.  However,  his 
death  was  deferred  by  but  a  few  hours.  On  the  evening  of  the 
twenty-third  the  gales  of  the  city  were  carefully  shut ;  bauds  of 
armed  men  were  posted  at  every  point  where  any  attempt  at  either 
resistance  or  escape  seemed  possible ;  other  gangs  were  provided 
with  weapons  for  slaughter ;  while  orders  were  hurriedly  trans- 
mitted through  the  different  quarters  of  the  city  that  at  the  tolling 
of  the  bell  every  window  should  be  lighted  up,  lest  any  destined 
victim  should  be  screened  by  the  darkness  of  the  night.  Before  dawn 
on  the  twenty-fourth,  St.  Bartholomew's  Bay,  the  signal  rang  out, 
and  the  butchery  began.  The  crippled  admiral  was  among  the  very 
first  to  perish.  The  moment  that  the  fatal  peal  was  heard,  Guise 
himself,  at  the  head  of  300  of  his  own  retainers,  rushed  to  his  house, 
around  which  guards  had  been  posted  some  hours  before.  Guise 
himself  had  just  so  much  shame  as  to  remain  in  the  courtyard, 
and  to  entrust  the  perpetration  of  the  deed  of  blood  to  his  servants : 
they,  headed  by  a  Lorrainer  in  his  especial  confidence,  named 
La  Besme,  forced  their  way  into  the  bedchamber  of  the  old  man, 
who,  having  already  heard  the  noise  of  pistol-shots  and  the  cries 
of  wounded  men  in  the  street,  had  at  once  divined  the  cause  of  the 
tumult,  and  had  thrown  himself  on  his  knees  to  pour  out  his  last 
prayer  to  his  God.  He  met  his  death  with  calm,  disdainful  dignity. 
'  Young  man,'  said  he,  *  you  ought  to  respect  these  my  gray  hairs. 
But  do  your  deed ;  you  will  have  shortened  my  life  by  but  little.* 
While  he  was  yet  speaking  the  base  assassin  plunged  his  sword 
into  his  heart.  Coligny  fell  dead  at  his  feet ;  but  the  rancour  of 
his  enemies  was  not  satisfied.  They  hacked  his  face  with  theii 
daggers ;  they  threw  the  corpse  out  of  the  window  into  the  yard, 
that  their  master  the  duke  might  feast  his  eyes  on  the  shameful 
spectacle ;  some  of  his  friends  even  insulted  it  with  kicks :  and 
then  the  head  was  cut  off*  and  carried  to  the  Louvre,  that  the 
king  himself  might  be  assured  of  the  death  of  the  most  virtuous 
of  his  subjects.  Meanwhile,  in  every  quarter,  in  every  street,  was 
heard  the  ill-omened  shout,  'Kill !  kill!';  the  pavement  ran  with 
blood ;  and  though  here  and  there  some  Huguenot,  better  armed 
or  more  dauntless  than  his  fellows,  made  stout  resistance,  all  that 
he  could  effect  was  to  sell  his  life  dearly ;  he  was  overpowered  by 
numbers,  and  perished  as  surely  as  those  who  made  no  struggle 
against  their  doom.     Presently  Charles  himself  was  added  to  the 


162  MODEEN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1572. 

number  of  the  murderers.  It  had  not  been  without  some  difficulty 
that  his  consent  to  the  massacre  had  been  wrung  from  him. 
Though  there  was  no  touch  of  humanity  in  his  disposition,  his 
soul  was  too  timid  not  to  recoil  from  a  deed  of  such  active,  resolute 
wickedness ;  but,  as  the  taste  of  blood  inflames  a  tiger,  so  did  the 
progress  of  the  slaughter  add  ferocity  to  his  cold  nature.  The 
sight  of  those  who  were  falling  beneath  the  poniards  of  the 
assassins,  as  he  gazed  on  them  out  of  his  palace  windows,  kindled 
in  him  a  desire  to  become  an  actor  in  the  bloodshed.  He  seized  a 
gun  and  fired  on  those  who  fled  ;  lending  his  shrill  scream,  *  Kill ! 
kill !'  the  most  unroyal  words  that  ever  proceeded  from  a  monarch's 
mouth>  to  swell  the  shouts  of  the  meaner  butchers.  And,  half 
repenting  of  the  mercy  that  had  been  shown  to  Henry  of  Navarre 
and  Cond6,  caused  them  to  be  brouglit  before  him,  and  threatened 
them  with  the  same  fate  if  they  did  not  at  once  renounce  their 
religion. 

We  may  spare  ourselves  a  minute  recital  of  the  horrors  of  this 
terrible  week;  for  so  long  was  the  massacre  continued,  till  the 
Seine  itself  was  discoloured  with  blood  and  blocked  up  with 
corpses.  The  number  of  those  who  perished  could  only  be  con- 
jectured ;  but  in  Paris  alone  at  least  10,000  ^  fell ;  and  that 
number  is  believed  to  have  been  tripled  in  the  provinces  ;  though 
some  governors,  and  even  one  or  two  bishops,  had  the  courage  to . 
disobey  the  royal  mandates :  a  boldness  which  some  expiated  by 
their  own  deaths.  The  answer  of  the  Viscount  of  Orthez,  governor 
of  Bayonne,  has  been  deservedly  preserved  by  most  historians : 
'  Sire,'  said  he,  ^  I  have  read  the  letter  to  the  inhabitants  of 
Bayonne,  enjoining  a  massacre  of  the  Huguenots.  Your  majesty 
has  many  faithful  subjects  in  this  city,  but  not  one  executioner.' 
But  in  spite  of  his  and  other  noble  instances  of  disobedience,  40,000 
Huguenots  are  believed  to  have  perished.  And  Charles,  when  his 
fury  had  once  been  kindled,  was  so  far  from  being  satisfied  with 
the  slaughter  which  had  been  committed,  that  he  brought  one  oi 
two  nobles,  who  were  discovered  to  have  been  only  wounded, 
before  the  judicial  tribunals,  procured  their  condemnation,  and, 
going  himself  to  witness  their  execution,  which  took  place  after 
nightfall,  caused  torches  to  be  held  to  their  faces,  that  he  might 
enjoy  the  fiendish  pleasure  of  witnessing  their  dying  agonies. 

The  intelligence  of  so  monstrous  a  crime  filled  all  Christendom 
with  horror.  And  even  before  the  feeling  with  which  it  was 
regarded  in  other  countries  could  be  known  in  Paris,  Charles 
spontaneously   felt   that  it  required   some   more   than   ordinary 

^  Tliis  is  Davila's  estimate  of  those  few  :  *  Per  la  citt^  il  primo  ed  il 
who  periylied  in  the  first  two  days,  sequente  giomo  ne  furono  uccisi  piii 
He  seems  to  think  the  number  too      di  died  mila.' 


A.D.  1573.]      THE  POPE  APPROVES  THE  MASSACRE.      163 

excuse ;  but,  bewildered  by  his  own  infamy,  he  could  not  adhere 
to  any  one  pretext.     At  first,  he  declared  that  he  had  had  no 
previous  knowledge  of  the  massacre,  but  that  Guise  alone  had^     , 
contrived  it ;  then  he  avowed  that  it  had  been  perpetrated  by  his^'^^MV-O-v 
orders,  because  a  plot  had  been  discovered  to  assassinate  himself  ,•*'     *• 
and  all  the  royal  family,  and  to  place  OoHgny  on  the  throne :  a 
charge  which,  as  no  attempt  was  ever  made  to  support  it  by  proof, 
the  Huguenots  themselves  did  not  condescend  to  refute.   The  only 
person  in  Europe  who  showed  himself  insensible  to  the  infamy  of 
the  deed  was  the  Pope;  who  was  ea^^^er.  on  the  contrary,  tojcktm  1 
a  share  of  it  for  liimself  and  his  religion.     At  tES  ihaS.  of  the  tfj\  j^ 
College  of  Cardinals,  he  went  in  procession  to  St.  Mark's  to  offer  ^^^**^  "*^ 
up  thanks  to  God  for  the  singular  favour  which,  in  permitting  the  T  ^ySji^ 
massacre,  he  had  shown  to  the  Holy  See  and  to  all  Christendom.  O 
He  decreed  a  jubilee;  fired  a  salute  from  St.  Angelo,  as  if  to 
celebrate  a  victory ;  ordered  a  general  illumination  of  every  street 
in  Kome,  and  sent  a  legate  extraordinary  to  Paris  to  thank  Charles 
for  his  heroic  exploit,  and  to  exhort  him  not  to  delay  reaping  the 
fruits  of  his  triumph  over  the  heretics,  but  at  once  to  publish 
throughout  France  the  decrees  and  canons  of  the  Council  of  Trent. 

But  whatever  may  have  been  the  Pope's  opinion  of  the  massacre,  ^ 
it  did  not  bring  Charles  either  security  or  peace.     He  did  not  live  ^hXa/ 
more  than  a  year  and  three  quarters  after  it,  and  no  king  ever   pi 
passed  a  more  miserable  time.     He  could  not  banish  the  scene   ^^^ 
from  his  mind ;  he  could  not  sleep ;  he  could  not  even  suppress 
his  remorse,  but  was  continually  uttering  reproaches  against  his 
mother  for  having  advised,  and  against  himself  for  having  con-  ^. 
eented  to,  the  horrid  deed.     He  even  began  to  fear  that  Catharine    ^  v»-»»^ 
had  designs  upon  his  own  life.     He  was  well  aware  that  his  next   fjL^  . 
brother  Henry,  duke  of  Anjou,  had  always  been  her  favorite  son ;  ^ 

the  position  which  he  had  held  as  commander-in-chief  at  Mon- 
contour  supplied  her  with  a  pretext  for  extolling  his  gallantry  and 
military  skill  above  his  own  ;  and,  when  in  the  summer  of  1573, 
the  duke  was  elected  King  of  Poland,  Charles  could  not  suppress 
a  suspicion,  which,  indeed,  was  shared  by  others,  though  probably 
without  sufficient  grounds,  that  she  contemplated  poisoning  him- 
self to  prevent  her  separation  from  her  favorite,  who,  as  there  was 
no  Dauphin,  was  still  the  next  heir  to  the  crown.  Nor  were  his 
domestic  disquietudes  confined  to  fears  of  his  mother  and  his 
brother  Henry.  His  third  brother  Francis,  duke  of  Alen9on,  was 
almost  equally  dreaded  by  him  :  for  the  massacre  had  rather 
exasperated  than  daunted  those  Huguenots  who  had  escaped. 
They  at  first  threw  themselves  into  Rochelle  and  other  towns  in 
the  eastern  provinces,  and  showed  a  resolution  to  defend  them 
against  the  royal  forces ;  while,  as  Anjou  took  the  command  of 


^® 


164  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1574 

the  army  whicli  was  sent  against  Rochelle,  Alen9on,  who  hated 
him,  entered  into  negotiations  with  the  Huguenot  captains,  offer- 
ing to  make  common  cause  with  them  against  both  his  brothers. 
Finally,  Charles  was  forced  to  make  terms  with  the  Rochellois, 
and,  instead  of  seeing  them  at  his  mercy,  to  admit  them  to  a 
treaty,  which  left  them  and  all  the  Huguenots  of  the  district 
liberty  to  retain  their  form  of  worship  under  certain  restrictions. 
Encouraged  by  this  success,  they  rapidly  recruited  their  numbers, 
renewed  their  organisation,  and  rose  in  their  demands;  till  it  became 
clear  that  either  it  would  be  necessary  to  concede  them,  or  that 
civil  war  would  again  break  out,  in  which  Charles  would  have  no 
general  but  Guise  in  whom  he  could  confide,  while  he  had  good 
reason  to  believe  that  to  place  that  noble  at  the  head  of  an  army 
would  be  far  less  dangerous  to  the  Huguenots  than  to  himself. 
His  constant  agitation  undermined  his  health,  which  had  never 
been  strong.  At  the  beginning  of  1574  he  was  attacked  by  a  slow 
fever,  which  defied  the  skill  of  his  physicians,  and,  as  it  did  so, 
was  attributed  by  many  to  poison.^  As  he  drew  near  to  his  end, 
his  agonies  of  conscience  increased,  the  shrieks  of  his  victims  on 
St.  Bartholomew's  Day  seemed  ever  to  resound  in  his  ears ;  his 
own  broken  exclamations,  speaking  only  of  bloodshed  and  murder, 
horrified  the  bystanders  ;  and  on  the  thirtieth  of  May,  worn  out  by 
bodily  and  mental  suffering,  he  died,  a  month  before  his  twenty- 
fourth  birthday. 

The  reign  of  his  brother,  who  instantly  abdicated  his  foreign 
throne,  and  returned  to  France  to  take  possession  of  his  inheritance, 
might  be  passed  over  without  notice,  if  regard  were  had  only  to 
his  own  character  and  conduct  ,•  for  the  former  was  stained  with 
the  blackest  vices,  and  his  actions,  whenever  he  could  be  roused 
to  sufficient  energy  to  act  at  all,  were  crimes.  Every  party  in  the 
State  soon  learnt  to  look  upon  such  a  sovereign  with  contempt; 
yet  the  conduct  of  the  leaders  of  each  was  not  much  more  deserving 
of  respect  than  that  of  Henry  himself.  The  chiefs  of  the  Huguenots 
were  again  the  King  of  Navarre  and  the  Prince  of  Conde,  who, 
having,  after  the  Massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew,  been  for  some  time 
carefully  watched  in  a  sort  of  honourable  custody,  had  at  length 
recovered  their  libert}'^,  and  renewed  their  profession  of  Protes- 
tantism, which  they  had  been  compelled  to  renounce ;  and,  under 
their  guidance,  the  Huguenots  again  had  recourse  to  arms  to  protect 

1  That  accusations  of  poison  should  is  somewhat  remarkable,  thoufj^b,  that 

have  been  as  general  as  they  were  in  LouisXIII.  attributed  Charles's  death 

those  days  is  a  melancholy  indication  to  poison,  and  did  not  scruple  to  ex- 

of  the  character  of  tlie  times,  though  press  his  belief  to  Marshal  Bassom- 

the  commonness  of  the  charge  neces-  pierre. — Memoires   de  Bassompierrcy 

garily  creates  a  distrust  of  the  grounds  p  154. 
for  it  in  each  particular  instance.     It 


AD.  1588.]  THE  BATTLE   OF  COUTRAS.  165 

themselves  against  a  renewal  of  persecution.     While  Guise,  pro-   ^ 
fessing  discontent  at  a  treaty  which  the  king,  or  rather  Catharine  ^J 
(for,  in  fact,  she  was  as  fully  the  ruler  in  this  as  she  had  been  in     ^'^^'^''*^ 
the  last  reign),  had  concluded  with  them,  revived  the  League,' ^^i       r 
nominally  with  the  object  of  maintaining  the  old  religion,  hatp^^;^^ 
really  and  notoriously  with  the  design  of  deposing  Henry  III. 
and  of  placing  himself  on  the  throne  to  which  he  pretended  an 
hereditary  right  as  the  representative  of  the  race  of  Charlemagne. 
Yet  when  he  had  taken  this  step,  and  was  aware  that  his  objects 
were  known  to  the  court,  none  of  his  military  operations  were 
either  conceived  with  ability  or  executed  with  the  energy  which 
treason  imperatively  requires ;  while  the  King  of  Navarre,  who 
did  indeed  gain  a  brilliant  victory  at  Coutras  in  1587,  rather 
damaged  than  enhanced  his  reputation  by  failing  to  derive  the 
slightest  advantage  from  his  triumph. 

By  this  time  anarchy  prevailed  in  every  part  of  France,  and 
most  in  Paris,  where  the  citizens  espoused  the  cause  of  the  League, 
till  the  king  was  forced  to  seek  safety,  first  in  flight,  then  in  pro- 
curing the  assassination  of  Guise,  and  finally  in  uniting  himself 
to  the  King  of  Navarre,  whom  the  recent  death  of  the  Duke  of 
Alen^on  had  left  heir  to  the  throne,  and  who  consequently  was 
as  deeply  interested  as  himself  in  subduing  the  rebellious  spirit  of 
the  capital. 

But  the  death  of  Guise  had  not  extinguished  his  family,  nor 
relieved  Henry  from  the  danger  to  which  he  had  been  exposed 
from  his  pretensions.  His  family  claims  and  his  military  com- 
mand devolved  on  his  brother,  the  Duke  of  Mayenne,  who  was 
perhaps  his  equal  in  ambition  and  military  talent,  though  more 
voluptuous  habits  and  a  singularly  unwieldly  person  rendered 
him  incapable  of  the  same  activity.  Mayenne  at  once  threw 
himself  into  the  city ;  and  the  two  Henries  advanced  to  besiegeat 
at  the  head  of  an  army  so  powerful  that  no  garrison  which  the 
citizens  could  provide  could  hope  long  to  resist  it.  But  in  those 
days  fair  fighting  was  not  the  only  nor  the  favorite  mode  of 
extricating  oneself  from  danger,  Mayenne  had  a  sister,  the 
Duchess  of  Montpensier,  as  profligate  and  unscrupulous  as  the 
worst  of  men ;  she  had  long  been  active  in  stimulating  all  whom 
she  could  influence  against  the  king,  holding  up  to  not  unnatural 
ridicule  the  strange  superstitions  to  which  he  had  latterly  yielded, 
when,  laying  aside  for  a  day  or  two  the  practice  of  his  vices,  he 
would  enrol  himself  in  the  number  of  the  Penitents,  Flagellants,  or 
some  other  sect  of  crazy  fanatics,  walk  with  them  in  procession 

1  It  was  concluded  in  May  1576,      of  Alengon,  was  still  the  nominal 
and  is  known  as  '  La  Paix  de  Mon-      leader  of  the  Huguenots. 
sieur,'  because  Monsieur,  or  the  Duke 


166 


MODERN  HISTORY. 


[a.d.  1589. 


througli  the  streets  with  bare  feet  and  shoulders  bleeding  from  the 
lash.  She  now  persuaded  herself  that  to  retaliate  upon  him  the 
murder  of  her  brother  Guise  was  a  duty;  and  by  unusual  caresses 
and  promises  of  still  greater  favours,  induced  a  fanatical  Dominican 
monk,  named  Jacques  Clement,  to  believe  that  he  should  be  doing 
a  service  to  God  by  destroying  a  king  who  was  in  alliance  with 
heretics,  if  not  a  heretic  himself.  The  wretched  youth,  he  was  only 
twenty-two,  quitted  the  city,  and  entering  the  besiegers'  camp, 
procured  access  to  the  king  on  pretence  of  being  the  bearer  of  a 
letter  ,*  and,  while  Henry  was  reading  it,  plunged  a  knife  into  his 
stomach,  inflicting  a  wound  which,  proving  fatal  in  a  few  hours, 
extinguished  the  race  of  Valois  which  had  reigned  over  France  for 
260  years,^  suffering  unparalleled  disgraces,*  perpetrating  enormous 
crimes,  and    atoning    for    them    by   singularly  few  virtues   or 


^  The  first  king  of  the  branch  of 
Valois  was  Philip  VI.,  who  succeeded 
to  the  throne  in  1328. 

2  Philip  VL  was  defeated  at  Sluys 
and  Crecy,  and  lost  Calais.  John 
was  defeated  at  Poictiers,  and  died  a 
prisoner  in  England.  Charles  VI., 
after  the  loss  of  the  battle  of  Agin- 
court,  was  compelled  by  the  Treaty  of 
Troyes  to  acknowledge  a  foreign  con- 
queror as  heir  to  the  kingdom.  Charles 
VII.  starved  himself,  from  a  fear  of 
being  poisoned  by  the  agents  of  his 
son,  afterwards  Louis  XI.  Louis  XL 
was  attacked  by  the  most  formidable 
rebellion  (with  the  exception  of  the 
League)  which  ever  menaced  the 
power  of  any  French  king.    At  a 


later  period,  he  was  kept  prisoner  by 
the  Duke  of  Burgundy  some  days, 
during  which  he  was  in  hourly  dread 
of  being  put  to  death :  and  passed 
all  the  latter  years  of  his  life  in 
misery  and  constant  terror,  knowing 
himself  to  be  the  object  of  universal 
hatred.  The  captivity  of  Francis  L, 
the  unfortunate  death  of  Henry  XL, 
and  the  infamy  of  his  sons  have  been 
related  in  this  volume. 

3  The  authorities  for  the  preceding 
chapter,  besides  the  regular  Histories 
of  France,  are  chiefly  Davila's  Guerra 
Civili  di  Franc  ia,  d'Anquetil's  Esprit 
de  la  Ligue,  Sully's  Memoires,  Pere- 
fixe's  Life  of  Henri/  I V. 


A.D.  1589.]  HENKY   OF   NAVARKE.  167 


CHAPTER  VIII. 
A.D.  1589— IGIO. 

HENRY  OF  NAVARRE,  who  succeeded  to  the  throne  as 
Henry  IV.,  has  received  the^^auraame  of  the  Great  from  the 
French  historians  and  poets ;  a  title  whicE'would  be  more  valuable 
if  they  had  been  less  liberal  in  bestowing  it,  and  which  can  hardly 
be  said  to  have  been  fully  deserved  by  either  his  talents  or  his 
virtues.  Not,  indeed,  that  he  was  destitute  of  either.  If,  as  a 
warrior,  he  was  not  so  much  a  skilful  commander  as  a  dashing 
leader  of  cavalry,  as  a  statesman  he  had  a  correct  perception  of 
the  feelings  of  his  countrymen,  and  of  the  interests  of  his  king- 
dom, united  with  large  and  comprehensive  views  of  foreign  policy; 
as  a  king  he  had  a  sincere  affection  for  his  people.  If  he  was  in- 
different to  religion,  and,  as  his  warmest  admirers  cannot  deny, 
dissolute  beyond  all  measure  in  his  private  life ;  on  the  other  hand, 
he  was  humane,  magnanimous,  and  forgiving  even  to  those  by 
whom  he  had  been  most  bitterly  opposed.  And  the  period  at 
which,  and  the  circumstances  under  which  the  sovereignty  of 
France  devolved  on  him  were  such  as  especially  to  demand  and  most 
advantageously  to  display  the  best  qualities  of  his  intellect  and 
disposition  :  for  the  difficulties  of  his  situation  were  enhanced 
rather  than  removed  by  his  succession  to  the  throne.  Henry  HI. 
had  been  so  far  from  being  a  favorite  at  Rome,  that  the  reigning 
Pope,  Sextus  V.,  lauded  his  assassination  as  much  as  his  pre- 
decessor Gregory  XIII.  had  extolled  the  Massacre  of  St.  Bartholo- 
mew ;  making  Clement's  crime  the  subject  of  an  elaborate  eulogy, 
in  which  he  compared  the  assassin  himself  to  Judith  and  Eleazar- 
Still  Henry  HI.  was  a  Catholic ;  and  therefore  Mayenne's  rebellion 
against  him,  whatever  plea  the  duke  might  advance  for  it,  was  a 
war  between  two  parties  of  the  same  religion.  But  Henry  IV. 
was  a  Huguenot,  so  that  resistance  to  him  could  be  represented  as 
a  war  in  defence  of  the  Catholic  religion,  and  therefore  as  the  duty 
of  all  sincere  Catholics  :  and  so  clearly  was  the  degree  seen  in 
which  this  consideration  would  strengthen  the  League,  that,  even 
on  the  day  of  his  accession,  the  principal  nobles  of  the  court  urged 
him  to  return  to  the  Catholic  Church,  as  the  sole  means  of  giving 


168  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1589. 

peace  to  tlie  kingdom.  Even  one  of  the  most  fearless  of  the  Hugue- 
not generals,  the  celebrated  La  None  of  the  Iron  Arm/  expressed 
the  same  opinion ;  and  he,  in  reply,  professed  a  willingness  to  be 
instructed  on  the  principal  points  of  difference  between  the  two 
religions,  that  he  might  adopt  the  best,  having  evidently  already 
made  up  his  mind  to  change  his  creed  as  soon  as  he  could  do  so 
with  any  appearance  of  decency.  But,  for  the  present,  he  continued 
his  adherence  to  the  principles  of  the  Reformation  ;  and  the  conse- 
quence was,  that  the  army  of  which  the  death  of  the  late  king  had 
left  him  the  sole  commander,  melted  away ;  20,000  soldiers  at  once 
quitting  his  standards,  of  whom  the  greater  part,  going  over  to 
Mayenne,  ranged  themselves  against  him. 

The  effect,  therefore,  of  his  accession  was  at  first  only  to  ex- 
asperate the  war,  and  also  to  a  certain  extent  to  change  its  cha- 
racter; since,  now  that  it  assumed  the  appearance  of  resistance  to 
a  heretic  king,  Mayenne  had  no  difficulty  in  procuring  the  alliance 
of  Philip  of  Spain,  which  the  unrivalled  talents  of  his  great  gene- 
ral, the  Duke  of  Parma,  rendered  of  incalculable  value  ;  and  since, 
by  Philip's  advice,  the  League  set  up  a  competitor  against  Henry 
in  the  person  of  his  uncle,  the  Cardinal  of  Bourbon,  whom  they 
caused  to  be  proclaimed  king  in  Paris,  under  the  title  of  Charles  X. 
So  that  from  being  a  manifest  rebellion  against  a  sovereign  of  un- 
disputed right,  it  became  partly  a  contest  between  rival  claimants 
of  the  throne,  and  partly  a  foreign  war  between  countries  of  long 
standing  enmity  to  one  another.  The  choice  of  the  cardinal  as 
Henry's  rival  was  singularly  injudicious;  for  he  was  not  only  in 
notoriously  failing  health,  but  he  was  in  Henry's  hands  at  the 
moment,  who  kept  him  in  close  custody  at  Fontenay,  where  in  the 
succeeding  spring  he  died.  Indeed,  so  manifestly  absurd  was  the 
choice,  that  the  Duchess  of  Montpensier  urged  her  brother  rather 
to  assume  the  crown  himself,  as  Guise  certainl}^  would  have  assumed 
it.  It  was  sagacious  advice,  since  rebellion  admits  of  no  halting 
or  of  half  measures ;  but  it  was  too  bold  for  the  man  to  whom  it 
was  given.  Mayenne  would  not  even  adopt  it  after  the  cardinal's 
death ;  when  it  afforded  the  only  possible  chance  of  making  the 
contest  any  longer  formidable.  Indeed,  it  may  be  said  that,  before 
that  event,  the  eventual  result  of  the  war  had  been  already  decided 
by  two  great  victories,  though  it  still  dragged  on  its  coarse  for 
eight  more  years. 

Henry  had  one  quality  of  a  great  general,  a  keen  sense  of  the 
value  of  time.  It  was  lay  the  rapidity  of  his  movements  that  he 
had  won  Coutras  ;  and  there  never  was  a  foe  against  whom  promp- 
titude and  celerity  were  likely  to  have  greater  effect  than  Mayenne, 

1  So  called  because  he  had  lost  an  arm  or  lianti,  and  had  it  replaced  by 
one  of  iron. 


A.D.  1590.]  THE  BATTLE  OF   ARQUES.  169 

whose  dilatoriness,  whether  in  deliberation  or  in  action,  waf?  in- 
curable. The  difference  between  the  two  commanders  was  seen  from 
the  first.  Henry  III.  had  died  on  the  second  of  August.  Henry  IV. 
almost  immediately  fell  back  on  Normandy,  in  the  hope  of  obtain- 
ing aid  from  the  Queen  of  England.  His  army  consisted  of  less 
than  8,000  men ;  Mayenne's  was  at  least  four  times  that  number : 
yet  the  duke  gave  him  above  six  weeks'  respite,  not  reaching 
Arques,  a  small  town  near  Dieppe,  till  after  the  middle  of  Septem- 
ber; by  which  time  the  king  had  strongly  fortified  his  position, 
and  had  also  equipped  a  battery  of  horse  artillery,  a  force  which 
had  not  previously  been  saw  in  war.  In  spite  of  the  vast  odds 
in  his  favour,  Mayenne  was  defeated.  But  the  loss  on  either  side 
was  trivial,  and  it  was  only  the  eftect  which  the  battle  had  in  increas- 
ing the  belief  in  Henry's  ultimate  success  that  made  it  important. 
As  an  omen  of  the  future,  it  made  an  impression  both  in  and  out  of 
France;  recruits  flocked  in  to  join*his  army ;  Elizabeth  sent  him 
some  English  regiments ;  the  Venetians  acknowledged  him  as  king 
of  France,  and  even  the  Pope  began  to  waver,  saying  that  Mayenne 
spent  more  time  over  his  dinner  than  Henry  spent  in  bed.  Before 
the  next  Easter  his  doubts  were  changed  into  conviction.  At  the 
beginning  of  March,  Henry,  now  at  the  head  of  something  more 
than  12,000  men,  marched  against  Dreux,  a  town  on  the  Eure,  at 
no  great  distance  from  Paris,  at  that  time  held  by  a  garrison  of  the 
League ;  and  Mayenne,  with  25,000  men,  including  a  fine  force  of 
Spanish  cavalry  under  the  young  Count  Egmont,  on  hearing  of  its 
danger,  at  once  hastened  to  relieve  it.  Henry  at  once  abandoned  his 
demonstration  against  Dreux,  which  indeed  had  only  been  a  feint  to 
disturb  the  duke's  operations ;  moving  a  few  miles  to  the  north-  , 
ward,  he  drew  up  his  little  army  on  a  plain  on  the  banks  of  the  river, 
close  to  the  village  of  Ivry  ;  and  there,  on  the  afternoon  of  the  thir- 
teenth of  March,  Mayenne  found  him  in  battle  array,  and  ready  for  in- 
stant conflict.  His  own  troops,  however,  were  too  much  disordered 
by  their  march  to  attack  at  once,  for  he  had  believed  Henry's  recent 
movement  to  be  the  commencement  of  a  retreat,  in  order  to  avoid 
a  battle  ;  and  had  pursued  him  with  little  attention  to  discipline 
or  regularity.  It  was,  however,  with  great  exultation  that  he  now 
found  him  in  his  front,  and  he  joyfully  spent  the  evening  in 
making  arrangements  which  he  doubted  not  would  secure  him 
victory  on  the  morrow.  Whatever  might  be  the  result  of  the 
coming  battle,  there  could  be  no  doubt  that  on  it  depended  the  fate 
of  France.  And,  in  the  belief  of  both  armies,  they  were  not  the 
only  warriors  whose  exertions  were  called  forth  on  that  eventful 
day.  The  weather  was  stormy,  with  heavy  rain,  lightning,  thunder, 
and  violent  gusts  of  wind,  and,  when  for  a  moment  the  clouds 
rolled  away,  the  strange  spectacle  was  presented  of  two  great 
9 


170  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.b.  1590. 

armies  fighting  in  the  air,  with  visible  bloodshed,  though  fresh 
clouds  withdrew  the  combatants  from  sight  before  the  issue  of  the 
combat  could  be  ascertained  by  the  anxious  eves  which  from  below 
were  gazing  on  it.^  Nothing  short  of  a  triumph  on  one  side  or  the 
other  absolutely  decisive  of  the  contest  could  be  portended  by 
such  manifest  agitation  in  heaven  itself. 

That  it  should  be  decisive,  Henry  at  least  was  resolved.  When 
one  of  his  staff  remarked,  that  he  had  made  no  provision  for  a 
retreat,  should  such  a  movement  become  necessary,  he  replied  that 
'  There  was  no  retreat  but  the  field  of  battle.'  And,  whoever  else 
might  fly,  that  field  he  would  never  quit  except  as  a  conqueror. 
He  had  at  all  times  eminently  the  art  of  diffusing  confidence  among 
his  followers;  and  the  brief  harangue  which  he  addressed  to  the 
squadron,  which  he  himself  was  preparing  to  lead,  could  not  fail  to 
inspire  the  faintest  heart  with  courage  to  share  the  danger  which 
his  king  so  gallantly  confronted.  '  My  comrades,'  said  he,  '  God 
is  on  our  side.  You  see  his  enemies  and  our  own ;  and  you  see 
your  king.  We  will  charge  them.  If  you  lose  sight  of  your 
standards,  rally  to  my  white  plume.  You  will  find  it  in  the  road 
to  victory  and  honour.'  For  Henry  wore  no  helmet,  such  as  gene- 
rally protected  warriors  in  that  age,  but  a  velvet  hat,  with  a  large 
white  plume,  that  he  might  be  throughout  visible  to  all  his  fol- 
lowers. Who  would  not  fight  for  such  a  chief  ?  He  had  chosen 
his  position  with  judgment;  two  villages,  St.  Andre  and  Turcan- 
ville  protected  his  flanks,  while  some  inequalities  in  the  ground 
protected  his  men  from  Mayenne's  artillery.  His  own  cannon 
were  far  less  numerous,  so  that  his  reliance  was  necessarily  placed 
on  the  personal  valour  and  prowess  of  his  men  ;  especially  he  trusted 
to  his  cavalry,  who  were  chiefly  men  of  gentle  birth,  and  from 
whom,  therefore,  in  his  opinion,  a  more  sustained  courage  might 
be  expected  than  any  other  division  ;  and  among  those  who  stood 
by  his  side  on  this  day  were  many  already  known  as  the  choicest 
warriors  of  France,  and  others  who  now  laid  the  foundations  of  a 
fame  which  at  a  later  period  was  celebrated  throughout  Europe. 
There  was  the  Marshal  d'Aumont,  whom  even  the  rebels  regarded 
with  esteem  for  his  unflinching  courage,  already  shown  in  more 
than  one  bloody  combat,  and  whose  skill  and  presence  of  mind 
had  no  trifling  influence  on  the  fortune  of  this  day ;  there  was  the 
elder  Biron,  a  veteran  who,  thirty  years  before,  had  won  no  slight 
honour  among  the  defenders  of  Metz  ;  the  younger  Biron,  to  whom 

1  Sully,  who  relates  his  own  sight  derived   his    account    from    soldiers 

of  this  strange  engagement,  hesitates  of  the  League,  and  who  also  records 

to  affirm  its  reality  :  '  Je  ne  sais  si  the  circumstance,  expresses  no  doubt 

c'est  realit<^  on  illusion.' — Book  iii.,  whatever.  —  Book  xi.,   p.    lliS,    Ed. 

p.  353.    But  Davila,  who  probably  London,  1755. 


A.D.  1590.]  THE  BATTLE  OF  J.VRY.  171 

Henry  himself  was  more  than  once  to  owe  his  personal  safety, 
though  his  sad  end  proved  that  his  loyalty  was  not  equal  to  hia 
courage  or  military  skill ;  there  was  de  Kosny,  commander  of  the 
artillery,  subsequently  to  add  to  great  renown  as  a  soldier  the  still 
higher  reputation  of  a  wise  and  patriotic  statesman  ;  and  Schom- 
bery,  the  grandsire  of  the  gallant  veteran,  who,  being  driven  from 
France  for  the  religion  which  his  ancestors  were  now  maintaining, 
poured  forth  his  blood  in  the  service  of  a  British  sovereign.  These, 
and  others  like  them,  led  on  their  men  gallantly ;  yet,  in  spite  of 
all  their  efforts,  it  seemed  at  first  that  their  courage  could  only 
lead  to  their  destruction.  Egmont,  the  Spanish  general,  was  a 
man  of  arrogant  temper.  Chafing  at  Mayenne's  general  slowness, 
he  had  declared  on  the  preceding  night  tliat,  if  the  duke  were  not 
quicker  than  usual,  he  and  his  Spaniards  would  win  the  battle  be- 
fore he  came  up.  And  now  he  would  not  wait  for  his  comrade, 
though  he  was  commander-in-chief,  but  with  his  own  battalions 
and  a  squadron  of  German  reitres  charged  the  Royalist  division  in 
his  front,  as  if  he  alone  could  decide  the  fate  of  the  day.  And  for 
a  moment  it  seemed  as  if  his  confidence  were  not  misplaced. 
Though  he  was  but  coldly  supported  by  the  Germans,  who,  being 
Protestants  themselves,  would  not  fire  on  their  brother  Reformers, 
so  irresistible  was  his  onset  that  he  broke  and  routed  the  light 
cavalry,  which  was  the  object  of  his  attack,  forced  his  way  through 
the  mass  till  he  reached  the  only  battery  which  Henry  possessed ; 
and,  had  he  pressed  on  at  once,  he  might  have  fulfilled  his  boast. 
But  as  he  came  up  to  the  guns  he  halted,  to  show  his  disdain  of  the 
heretics,  as  he  called  the  gunners,  with  unseemly  reproaches  and 
gestures  of  contempt ;  and  thus,  by  childish  bravado,  threw  away 
the  advantage  which  he  had  gained.  His  men  were  thrown  into 
disorder  by  the  suddenness  of  the  halt,  and  before  they  could  re- 
cover themselves,  Givri,  the  commander  of  the  broken  light  horse, 
had  rallied  his  squadrons,  and,  nobly  supported  by  d'Aumont  and 
the  younger  Biron,  fell  in  their  turn  upon  him,  and  cut  his  whole 
division  to  pieces,  he  himself  being  among  the  first  to  fall. 
Flushed  with  success,  the  conquerors  fell  upon  Mayenne's  lancers, 
who  were  coming  up  under  Tavannes,  son  of  the  veteran  marshal 
who  had  borne  so  bloody  a  part  in  the  Massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew, 
supported  by  some  fresh  squadrons  of  heavy  German  Catholics; 
and  between  these  battalions  the  contest  raged  fiercely  for  a  while, 
for  Tavannes,  like  his  father,  was  a  stout  and  skilful  soldier,  he 
had  a  great  advantage  of  numbers,  and  his  men  added  the  fierce- 
ness of  religious  hatred  to  the  tenacity  engendered  by  discipline 
and  the  experience  of  a  hundred  fights.  But  Henry,  though  at  a 
distance,  perceived  how  nearly  the  strife  in  that  part  of  the  field 
was  balanced,  and  how  critical  was  the  moment :  gathering  round 


172  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1590. 

him  a  few  squadrons,  he  hastened  to  the  spot,  and,  charging  both 
lancers  and  Germans  with  irresistible  fury,  drove  them  and 
Mayenne  himself,  who  was  in  their  rear,  off  the  field.  Their  rout 
uncovered  the  inftintry,  who,  finding  themselves  unsupported  and 
isolated  in  the  midst  of  the  field,  and  attacked  on  all  sides  by  the 
king's  victorious  cavalry,  made  but  little  resistance,  while  a  large 
body  of  Swiss  pikemen  laid  down  their  arms  without  striking  a 
blow.  Another  division  of  German  landsknechts  followed  their 
example,  and  in  less  than  two  hours  the  battle  was  over.  Great 
was  the  glory  won  by  the  conquerors,  Henry's  chief  officers  had 
fought  each  as  if  the  fortune  of  the  day  depended  on  his  single 
arm.  E-osny  had  had  two  horses  killed  under  him,  and  had  al- 
ready received  five  severe  wounds,  when  a  pistol  shot  and  a  sabre 
cut  on  the  head  laid  him  senseless  on  the  ground  :  Schomberg 
was  killed  while  performing  prodigies  of  valour :  d'Aumont's 
judgment  and  promptitude  of  decision,  in  the  judgment  of  Sully 
himself,  had  contributed  in  no  slight  degree  to  the  preservation  of 
the  light  cavalry  and  the  subsequent  gaining  of  the  victory.  But 
conspicuous  above  all,  was  the  king  himself,  plunging  everywhere 
into  the  thickest  of  the  fight,  and  more  than  once  selecting  some 
trooper  of  unusual  prowess  in  the  hostile  ranks  and  slaying  him 
with  his  own  hand.  So  reckless  was  his  exposure  of  himself  that 
the  Marshal  Biron,  who  had  been  posted  by  him  in  the  rear,  as 
commander  of  the  reserve,  expostulated  with  him  on  the  danger 
which  he  had  run,  when  an  injury  to  himself  would  have  involved 
the  loss  of  the  whole  cause.  Even  when  the  victory  was  won  he 
did  not  cease  from  his  exertions,  though  then  they  had  a  different 
object,  the  protection  of  those  who  were  vanquished  from  the  fury 
of  his  own  men.  '  Save  the  French,'  he  cried,  as  he  ranged  over 
the  field,  *  but  show  no  mercy  to  the  foreigners,'  for  he  looked  on 
the  landsknechts  as  deserters,  since  they  had  for  the  most  part 
been  enlisted  among  his  own  partisans  in  Germany,  in  Hesse,  in 
Ulm,  and  in  Nuremberg,  for  his  own  service,  but  had  been  seduced 
on  the  march,  by  the  bribes  and  promises  of  the  Duke  of  Lorraine, 
to  violate  their  engagements,  and  to  fight  against  him  on  the  side 
of  the  League.  His  own  loss  had  been  comparatively  trifling  ;  that 
of  Mayenne  was  reckoned  to  amount  to  a  fourth  of  his  army  :  but 
the  importance  of  the  victory  was  not  to  be  estimated  by  the  num- 
ber of  the  slain.  It  was  universally  looked  on  as  decisive  of  the 
entire  war.  That  Mayenne  himself  so  regarded  it  was  proved  by 
the  circumstance  that  when,  as  has  already  been  mentioned,  the 
titular  king,  the  Cardinal  Bourbon  died,  as  he  did  die  a  few  weeks 
afterwards,  no  one  was  set  up  in  his  place  as  Henry's  competitor 
for  the  throne  ;  so  that  from  henceforth  the  question  became,  not 
whether  Henry  or  some  other  rival  should  be  acknowledged  as 


A.D.  1593.]      HENRY  IS  CROWNED  AT  CHARTRES.  173 

king,  but  only  how  soon  the  resistance  to  Henry  should  be 
abandoned.  Even  when  Philip,  seeing  that  increased  exertions 
were  needed  to  restore  the  balance,  sent  Parma  himself  to  join 
Mayenne  with  an  army  almost  equal  in  number  to  that  which  had 
fought  at  Ivry,  that  great  commander  was  unable  to  effect  anything 
which  could  alter  the  complexion  of  the  war.  He  succeeded, 
indeed,  more  than  once  in  outgeneralling  Henry;  in  relieving 
Paris,  which  the  king  invested  immediately  after  his  victory,  and 
in  compelling  him  afterwards  to  raise  the  siege  of  Rouen :  but  his 
successes  of  this  kind  rather  weakened  the  reputation  of  Mayenne 
himself,  and  the  expectation  of  eventual  triumph  to  the  League, 
since  they  seemed  to  show  that  they  relied  wholly  on  foreign  aid, 
and  that  without  it  they  were  unable  to  maintain  the  contest. 
And  when,  in  the  spring  of  1592,  the  great  Spaniard  received  a 
wound  which  eventually  proved  mortal,  the  most  sanguine  of 
Mayenne's  partisans  began  to  despair,  and  to  direct  their  attention 
to  making  separate  terms  for  themselves. 

When  this  was  their  disposition,  Henry  thought  that  the  time 
was  come  for  him  to  give  them  an  excuse  for  joining  him,  by  con- 
forming to  the  religion  which  the  majority  professed.  In  the  .^ 
summer  of  1593  he  invited  some  divines  of  both  Churches  to  dis- 
cuss the  doctrines  on  which  they  differed  in  his  presence  ;  and, 
having  terminated  a  brief  conference  by  declaring  himself  satisfied 
of  the  Papal  theology,  he  was  formally  admitted  into  the  Catholic 
Church.  It  must  be  allowed  that  no  one  ever  changed  his  reli- 
gion with  such  plausible  reasons  to  j  ustify  the  step.  The  political 
necessity  of  it  was  so  palpable,  that  Sully,^  though  himself  a  Pro- 
testant, fully  approved  of  his  conduct,  and  even  affirms  that  the 
Protestant  doctors  who  appeared  before  the  king  as  champions  of 
their  religion  purposely  abstained  from  bringing  forward  their 
strongest  arguments,  and  allowed  the  victory  to  rest  with  their 
opponents,  so  convinced  were  they  that  it  was  for  the  interests  of 
the  Huguenot  body,  as  well  as  of  the  nation  at  large,  that  he 
should  be  fixed  on  the  throne,  and  that,  without  his  adoption  of 
the  Papal  faith,  that  result  could  not  be  attained. 

The  fruits  of  his  conversion  were  rapidly  gathered.  Cities 
came  over  to  him ;  provinces  came  over".  Before  the  end  of  the 
winter  he  was  solemnly  crowned  King  of  France  at  Chartres,  and 
in  less  than  a  month  afterwards  the  governor  of  the  metropolis 

^  Henr)''s  great  minister,  first  it  seems  most  convenient  to  speak  of 
known  as  the  Baron  de  Rosny.  him  by  it  throughout.  Heleft  behind 
Indeed,  he  was  not  raised  to  the  him  eight  volumes  of  Memoirs,  writ- 
dukedom  of  Sully  till  some  years  ten  with  admirable  candour,  which 
later  than  the  time  of  which  we  are  are  our  chief  authority  for  the  events 
speaking  ;  but  he  is  so  exclusively  of  Henry's  reign, 
known  to  posterity  by  that  title  that 


174  MODERN  HISTOEY.  [a.d.  1595. 

itself  tendered  his  allegiance  to  him,  and,  not  indeed  without 
receiving:  an  enormous  reward  for  his  submission,  admitted  him 
into  the  city  in  which  he  had  not  yet  set  foot  since  he  had  become 
its  sovereign.  It  was  a  proud  moment  for  Henry  when  the  pro- 
vost of  the  city  presented  him  with  the  keys  on  the  Pont  Neuf, 
the  vast  assemblage  of  citizens  that  had  collected  to  witness  his 
entiy  echoing  the  governor's  shout  of  *  Long  live  the  King  ! '  and 
when,  having  returned  thanks  to  God  in  the  great  cathedral,  he 
passed  on  to  take  up  his  residence  in  the  Louvre,  in  which,  as  he 
could  not  fail  to  recollect,  he  had  once  been  with  difficulty  saved 
from  slaughter. 

And  if  the  submission  of  the  capital  was  sufficient  to  prove  to  the 
cities  which  still  held  out  against  the  impossibility  of  long  main- 
taining their  resistance,  the  generosity  of  his  treatment  of  the 
citizens  equally  showed  the  impolicy  of  such  an  attempt.  It  was 
on  occasions  such  as  these  that  Henry's  true  magnanimity  dis- 
played itself,  in  the  frank  confidence  which  his  every  act  showed 
in  the  sincerity  of  their  revived  loyalty.  It  seemed  as  if  the 
moment  they  received  him  within  their  walls  had  wholly  banished 
from  his  mind  all  recollection  of  their  past  rebellion.  He  moved 
about  the  city  as  freely,  unattended  save  by  a  few  officers,  as 
Francis  or  Louis  XII.  had  done ;  and  when  the  populace  crowded 
round  him,  and  his  attendants  would  have  bid  them  keep  a  more 
respectful  distance,  '  Let  them  come  near,'  he  would  say,  ^  they 
are  famishing  for  the  sight  of  a  king.*  And,  as  if  he  desired  that 
they  themselves  might  not  remember  what  he  himself  thus  reso- 
lutely forgot,  he  effaced  from  the  public  records  and  monuments 
all  memorials  and  traces  of  the  recent  transactions,  and  by  this 
course  of  delicate  humanity  gave  those  who  had  been  most  promi- 
nent in  rebellion  the  same  confidence  in  him  which  he  exhibited 
towards  them,  and  prevented  them  from  fearing  that  their  past 
disloyalty  had  only  been  forgiven  in  appearance,  and  would  still 
be  secretly  remembered  to  their  prejudice.  He  extended  his 
courtesy  even  to  the  Duchess  of  Montpensier,  Mayenne's  sister, 
though  he  knew  her  to  have  been  the  chief  instigator  of  the 
assassination  of  the  last  king,  and  had  good  reason  to  believe  that 
she  had  endeavoured  to  compass  his  own  destruction  in  the  same 
manner. 

The  civil  war  was  in  effiict  over.  Mayenne  was  now  acting 
rather  as  an  ally  of  the  Spaniards  than  as  a  principal  in  the  con- 
test; and,  gradually  becoming  jealous  of  and  discontented  with  his 
confederate,  even  he,  in  the  following  year,  surrendered  Dijon,  the 
capital  of  Burgundy,  of  which  he  was  governor,  and  made  his 
peace  with  the  king,  and,  after  a  time,  accepted  the  command  of 
a  division  to  act  against  the  armies  which  he  himself  had  first 


A.D.  1598.]  THE  EDICT   OE  NANTES.  175 

introduced  into  the  country.  At  last  Philip  himself  grew  weary 
of  a  costly  warfare  in  which  he  was  reaping  no  honour,  and  from 
which  no  profit  could  be  expected.  In  the  first  month  of  1598 
negotiations  were  opened  at  Vervins,  in  Picardy,  and  there,  at  the  (V_^ 
beginning  of  May,  a  treaty  of  peace  was  concluded,  which  left  the 
two  countries  in  the  same  position  as  at  the  beginning  of  the  war. 
It  was,  perhaps,  to  show  how  thoroughly  unimportant  he  consi- 
dered either  the  friendship  or  the  enmity  of  Spain,  that,  three 
weeks  before  Henry  affixed  his  signature  to  that  treaty,  he 
signed  a  document  which  of  all  others  was  most  offensive  to 
Philip,  but  which  that  monarch  could  not  dare  to  resent.  He  issued 
a  statute  known  as  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  which  established 
throughout  the  kingdom  the  great  principle  of  religious  toleration,  ^J^^^ 
with  the  single  exception  of  some  restrictions  being  imposed  on 
the  practice  of  Huguenot  worship  in  Paris  itself  and  the  districts 
immediately  adjacent.  In  every  other  part  of  the  kingdom  its 
free  exercise  was  permitted.  Every  kind  of  civil  and  military 
employment  was  thrown  open  to  the  Protestants;  they  were 
allowed  to  raise  money  from  the  members  of  their  own  body,  and 
in  all  the  provincial  parliaments  ^  a  separate  tribunal  was  esta- 
blished, consisting  of  Catholics  and  Protestants  in  equal  number, 
which  was  to  have  exclusive  jurisdiction  in  all  cases  in  which 
Protestants,  as  such,  were  concerned.  There  might  well  be  a 
question  as  to  the  policy  of  this  last  concession  ;  but  there  could  be 
none  of  the  extent  to  which  the  whole  edict  proved  Henry's  con- 
viction of  the  completeness  and  absoluteness  of  his  authority,  since 
it  was  little  short  of  a  direct  challenge  to  Philip  to  break  off  the 
negotiations  for  peace,  and  since  it  was  so  offensive  to  the  bulk  of 
the  Roman  Catholic  priesthood  in  his  own  kingdom  that  they  had 
wrought  on  the  Parliament  of  Paris  to  threaten  to  refuse  registra- 
tioflL^o  the  edict.  But  such  refusals  on^^e  part  of  that  body 
were  mere  attempts  at  the  usurpation  of  powers  which  did  not 
belong  to  it ;  and,  with  all  his  affability  and  humanity,  no  king 
ever  sat  on  the  French  throne  who  was  less  disposed  to  submit 
to  any  unconstitutional  interference  with  his  prerogative.  His 
manner  of  meeting  their  menaced  disobedience  was  eminently 
characteristic.  He  admitted  a  deputation  to  discuss  the  measure 
with  him,  encouraging  them  to  freedom  of  speech  by  telling  them 
that  '  he  received  them,  not  in  his  royal  robes,  or  with  his  sword 

1  The  French  Parliaments  had  no  and  other  bodies,  bearing  the  same 

resemblance  to  the  British  bod}'  bear-  title,  and  having  the  same  general 

ing  the  same  name.     The  Parliament  powers,    had    gradually    been   esta- 

of  Paris  was  the  chief  court  of  justice  Wished  in  some  of  the  principal  pro- 

in  the  kingdom,  being  divided  into  vinces.    Thus  there  Avas  a  Parliament 

several  cliambers,  each  having  cog-  of  Toulouse,  a   Parliament   of  Pro- 

nisauce  of  causes  of  different  kinds  ;  vence,  &c.  &c. 


176  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1598. 

by  liis  side,  but  in  bis  gray  doublet  of  peace,  as  a  father  preferred 
to  converse  with  bis  children  ; '  but  he  ended  the  conference  by 
declaring  that  *  he  should  compel  the  observance  of  the  edict,  that 
it  did  not  belong  to  them  to  demand  reasons  for  his  conduct;  his 
will  was  reason  enough,  lie  was  their  king,  and  he  would  be 
obeyed.'  And  obeyed  he  was.  The  edict  was  duly  registered; 
and,  though  in  su-bsequent  years  the  Protestants  were  compelled 
to  submit  to  modifications  of  some  of  its  provisions,  it  secured 
them  substantial  toleration  for  nearly  a  century. 

The  peace  that  was  thus  concluded  lasted,  with  the  exception 
_.  of  a  trifling  dispute  with  Savoy,  till  the  end  of  Henry's  reign ; 

^\  and  no  country  had  ever  had  more  urgent  need  of  a  long  period 
f^MjtX^  of  tranquillity  to  enable  it  to  recover  from  the  effects  of  the 
t  dissensions  and  cruel  civil  wars  by  which  it  had  so  long  been 
torn  asunder.  No  country  had  ever  been  reduced  to  so  com- 
plete a  state  of  exhaustion;  the  very  sources  of  future  wealth 
seemed  to  be  dried  up  ;  commerce  and  trade  had  been  annihilated. 
Manufactures  had  fallen  into  disuse  :  agriculture  itself  had  become 
almost  a  forgotten  art ;  the  population,  too,  as  was  inevitable,  had 
greatly  diminished.  It  was  estimated,  that  in  the  forty  years 
which  had  elapsed  since  the  accession  of  Charles,  128,000  houses 
had  been  destroyed,  and  a  million  of  people  had  been  killed,  while 
of  those  who  survived,  numbers  were  reduced  to  beggary  and 
ruin.  The  destitution  indeed  was  universal :  it  had  penetrated  even 
into  the  king's  palace.  A  year  or  two  before  Henry  had  described 
his  poverty  and  the  personal  privations  to  which  he  was  himself 
reduced  in  terms  which  are  almost  ludicrous  when  the  natural 
resources  of  the  country  and  his  position  as  its  king  are  remem- 
bered. In  a  letter  to  Sully,  written  in  1596,  he  declared  to  him 
that,  '  though  the  enemy  were  close  at  hand,  he  might  almost  say 
that  he  had  neither  a  horse  to  ride  nor  harness  to  put  over  him ; 
his  shirts  were  in  rags ;  his  doublets  were  out  at  elbows  ;  his  larder 
was  empty,  and  he  was  often  obliged  to  beg  a  dinner  from  one  or 
other  of  his  nobles,  because  his  own  steward  was  unable  to  provide 
him  with  one.'  To  this  old  tried  servant  and  comrade,  who  had 
hitherto  been  known  only  as  a  valiant  and  skilful  officer  of 
artillery,  he  now  entrusted  the  retrieval  of  the  prosperity  of  the 
country,  the  regulation  of  the  finances,  in  short,  the  whole  internal 
government  of  the  kingdom.  Nor  could  the  task  possibly  have 
been  committed  to  more  energetic,  and,  what  in  those  days  was 
harder  fiir  to  find,  more  incorruptible  hands.  In  the  history  of 
France  three  great  finance  ministei-s  force  themselves  upon  our 
notice.  ^uUy^  Colbert,  and  Turgot.  Peculiar  difficulties  beset  the 
path  of  each ;  Turgot,  the  most  virtuous  and  most  enlightened  of 
the  three,   found   those  which  surrounded  him  insurmountable. 


h.D.  1698.]  LICENTIOUSNESS  OF  HENRY.  177 

Yet  even  in  the  melancholy  days  of  Louis  XVL,  the  extrication 
of  the  state  could  hardly  have  appeared  so  hopeless  as  it  did  when 
Sully  first  exchanged  his  sword  for  a  pen;  and  undertook  to 
give  battle,  no  longer  to  the  armed  enemies  of  his  sovereign,  but 
to  the  long  train  of  corrupt  and  insatiable  courtiers  and  olHcials, 
who,  in  the  garb  of  peace,  were  carrying  on  a  more  deadly  warfare 
against  the  country  through  the  abuses  which  were  preying  or 
its  vitals,  and  by  which  they  lived. 

lie  was  supported,  he  could  not  have  held  his  ground  for  a 
moment  had  he  not  been  supported,  by  the  unshaken  confidence 
and  protection  of  the  king.  Yet  the  chief  hindrance  to  his 
schemes  of  retrenchment  and  economy  came  Irom  llenry  himself; 
through  his  unrestrained  self-indulgence  and  prodigality.  Francis 
himself  had  not  set  a  more  shameless  example  of  licentiousness, 
in  the  gratification  of  which  he,  at  times,  condescended  to  acts  of 
unprecedented  tyranny,  even  compelling  one  of  the  most  zealous 
and  faithful  of  his  own  adherents,  the  Duke  of  Bellegarde,  to 
withdraw  his  suit  for  the  hand  of  the  fair  Gabriell  ed'Estr^es,  to 
whom  he  was  already  betrothed,  because  he  desired  to  make  her 
his  own  mistress.  lie  was  addicted  almost  equally  to  gambling, 
in  which  he  must  have  been  singularly  unskilful  or  unlucky,  as 
was  proved  by  the  enormous  demands  which  were  continually 
made  upon  his  minister  for  the  discharge  of  his  losses  at  play.  So 
that  Sully  reckoned  that  his  annual  expenditure  on  his  mistresses, 
the  gaming-table,  and  his  hounds,  with  other  objects  of  personal 
luxury,  reached  the  prodigious  amount  of  1,200,000  crowns,  a  sum 
which,  as  he  sorrowfully  remarks,  would  have  kept  on  foot  an 
army  of  15,000  men.  Without  bearing  these  habits  in  mind,  we 
cannot  form  a  just  estimate  of  Henry's  character,  to  the  under- 
standing of  which  it  is  equally  a  matter  of  justice  to  recollect  the 
good-humour  with  which  he  permitted  his  minister's  remon- 
strances on  the  subject.  For,  dangerous  as  it  generally  is  to 
interfere  with  the  private  amusements,  or  to  reprove  the  personal 
weaknesses  of  a  king,  Sully  was  too  faithful  to  his  master's  real 
interests  to  forbear  to  do  so.  Henry  admitted  the  truth  of  his 
reproaches,  the  wastefulness  of  his  expenditure,  the  unworthiness 
of  his  female  favorites ;  but  he  made  no  effort  to  shake  off  the 
empire  of  the  vices  which  he  confessed,  and  rather  took  credit  for 
rarely  suflfering  the  ladies  to  influence  him  in  affairs  of  state,  for 
shutting  his  ears  against  the  slanderous  detractions  with  which 
they  sought  to  retaliate  the  minister's  ill-will,  and  for  the  frank- 
ness with  which  he  often  assured  them  that  he  would  rather 
sacrifice  ten  mistresses  than  one  such  councillor  as  Sully. 

Yet,  in  spite  of  prodigality  on  one  side,  and  rapacity  and  cor- 
ruption on  the  other,  such  were  Sully's  energy  and   fertility  of 


178  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1598. 

resource,  that  before  Heniy's  death  he  had  raised  the  kingdom 
'tjvVl'  to  a  height  of  financial  prosperity  that  it  had  never  before  enjoyed  ; 

D  and  the  achievement  is  the  more  remarkable  if  we  consider  that 
^  ^  HM^^yPhe  had  had  no  previous  commercial  or  official  training,  and  that 
^  he   was    entirely  ignorant  of    political    economy:    but  he   had 

penetration  and  he  had  courage.  And,  as  the  chief  cause  of  the 
impoverished  state  of  the  royal  treasury  was  the  prevalence  of 
every  kind  of  abuse,  both  of  mismanagement  and  dishonesty, 
which  intercepted  five-sixths  of  the  revenue  before  it  ever  reached 
the  royal  treasury,  those  qualities  were  far  more  useful  to  the 
state  than  any  amount  of  commercial  or  economical  knowledge 
on  his  part  could  have  been.  In  the  discharge  of  his  duty  he 
cared  not  whom  he  off'ended.  He  revised  the  contracts  of  the 
farmers  of  the  revenues,  and  reduced  their  gains;  he  discharged 
superfluous  officers ;  he  recovered  estates  properly  belonging  to 
the  crown,  but  illegally  appropriated  by  private  individuals ;  he 
introduced  a  new  system  of  keeping  and  checking  the  public 
accounts ;  and  by  these  and  other  reforms,  conceived  in  a  similar 
spirit,  and  unflinchingly  carried  out,  he  was  enabled  largely  to 
reduce  the  taxation  which  pressed  unduly  upon  many  classes,  and 
especially  on  the  agiiculturists,  whom  he  looked  on  as  the  lifeblood 
of  the  state  ;  and  at  the  same  time  not  only  to  give  encouragement 
to  the  established  manufactures  of  the  country,  but,  by  a  judici- 
ous system  of  bounties,  to  attract  to  the  country  artisans  skilled  in 
the  production  of  fabrics  which  had  previously  been  imported  from 
other  lands,  thus  conferring  a  permanent  benefit  on  his  country- 
men ;  for  if,  in  our  day,  the  carpet-makers  of  Aubusson  and  the 
silk-weavers  of  Lyons  have  surpassed  all  competition  in  the  rich- 
ness and  delicacy  of  their  productions,  it  is  to  Sully  they  owe  it ; 
since  it  was  he  who  allured  workmen,  skilled  in  those  arts,  from 
Holland  and  from  Italy  to  settle  in  France,  and  teach  the  quick- 
witted natives,  whom  an  innate  taste  and  ingenuity  had  prepared 
beforehand  to  excel  in  such  employments,  to  equal  and  outshine 
their  masters. 

Only  twelve  years  elapsed  between  the  Peace  of  Vervins  and  the 
death  of  Henry,  which  terminated  his  glorious  and  beneficent 
administration  ;  but  the  results  which  he  had  accomplished  in  that 
brief  time  might  be  taken  for  the  work  of  generations.  He  had 
found  France  surrounded  with  apparently  inextricable  dangers,  if 
not  overwhelmed  in  irretrievable  ruin  ;  he  left  it  secure,  tranquil, 
and  prosperous.  He  had  found  the  national  exchequer  bankrupt ; 
he  left  it  not  only  solvent,  but  enriched  with  a  vast  accumulated 
treasure,  available  for  defence  or  for  conquest.  He  had  embellished 
the  capital  with  public  buildings;  with  churches,  hospitals, 
bridges,  and  quays  ;  he  had  strengthened  the  provincial  and  frontier 


A.T).  1600.]  POLICY  OF  HENRY.  179 

towns  with  well-planned  fortresses;  he  had  facilitated  communi- 
cation by  highways  and  canals ;  the  army  was  re-equipped ;  a 
navy,  a  force  which  had  scarcely  been  seen  in  France  since  the 
battle  of  Sluys,  was  rising  up  in  new  dockyards ;  what  was  most 
important  of  all,  as  being  the  foundation  of  all  other  prosperity, 
the  supremacy  of  the  law  was  re-established :  and  with  it  a  healthy 
hopeful  spirit  had  revived  in  the  people,  the  parent  of  energy  and 
future  improvement. 

The  re-establishment  of  the  authority  of  the  law  was  in  a  great 
degree  the  work  of  Henry  himself;  who,  while  he  left  all  matters 
affecting  the  finance  of  the  kingdom  to  his  minister,  laid  down  'i 
two  objects,  one  of  domestic  and  one  of  foreign  policy,  to  be  rUfx> 
carried  out  by  himself.  They  may  indeed  be  looked  on  as  two 
developments  of  the  same  policy  :  the  depression  of  all  rivals ;  the 
nobles  were  the  rivals  of  himself ;  the  House  oTTCustria  was  the 
rival  of  France;  and  he  resolved,  therefore,  to  put  down  the 
power  of  the  nobles,  as  being  incompatible  with  his  own  kingly 
authority,  and  to  diminish  the  weight  and  influence  of  the  House 
of  Austria,  that  he  might  make  France  the  arbitress  of  Europe  in 
her  stead.  The  two  schemes  differed  in  one  point :  that,  while  the 
one  was  an  aggressive,  the  other  was  a  purely  defensive  policy. 
If  the  overgrown  power  of  the  nobles  had  not  been  the  original 
cause  ot^he  ctvil  wars,  it  had  certainly  greatly  protracted  them, 
and  had  stamped  them  with  the  bitterness  and  ferocity  which  had 
characterised  them  in  so  unusual  a  degree,  so  that  he  might 
fairly  look  on  its  reduction  as  a  policy  of  self-deferice,  as  indis- 
pensable to  the  preservation  of  his  legitimate  authority.  And  he 
earned  out  his  design  with  great  address  and  prudence,  regulating 
his  distribution  of  the  governments  of  the  different  provinces  and 
cities  so  as  to  prevent  those  on  whom  he  conferred  them  from 
obtaining  any  local  influence ;  and  making  and  changing  all 
military  appointments  in  such  a  way  as  to  show  that  all  the 
honours  in  the  state,  both  in  their  first  acquisition  and  their  con- 
tinuance, depended  solely  on  his  own  will.  His  life  was  not 
sufficiently  protracted  to  enable  him  fully  to  complete  his  purpose ; 
but  his  views  were  adopted  by  his  successor,  and,  half  a  century 
after  his  death,  were  fully  consummated  by  his  grandson. 

They  were  not,  indeed,  accomplished  without  a  series  of 
struggles ;  the  nobles  were  as  keen-sighted  as  himself,  perceiving 
his  object  from  the  first,  and  resisting  it  by  combination,  by 
intrigue,  and  more  than  once  by  open  force ;  for  the  strange 
rebellion  of  the  Fronde,  of  which  we  shall  hereafter  speak,  was 
but  the  last  of  their  efforts  to  dictate  to  their  sovereign.  And  at 
the  very  outset  one  formidable  conspiracy  for  that  object  was  set 
on  foot  by  the  very  noble  whom,  next  to  Sully,  Henry  had  the 


180  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1600. 

greatest  reason  to  esteem,  and  to  wboni  he  had  the  strongest 
motives  to  feel  grateful,  for  the  Duke  de  Biron  was  pre-eminent 
above  all  his  generals  for  military  ability,  and  to  his  skill  and 
dauntless  promptitude  of  courage  Henry  had  more  than  once 
owed  his  escape  from  captivity,  if  not  his  life.  Unluckily,  the 
duke  added  to  his  great  qualities  a  full  share  of  that  arrogance 
and  rapacity  which  were  as  common  to  the  French  nobles  of  liis 
day  as  their  courage;  he  was  sensible  of  the  greatness  of  his 
services  to  the  crown  ;  he  was  discontented  at  the  inadequacy,  as 
he  considered  it,  of  the  rewards  which  they  had  obtained  for  him, 
and  he  conceived  the  idea  of  establishing  not  only  himself,  but 
the  other  great  nobles  throughout  the  kingdom,  in  a  position 
which  bhould  enable  him  and  them  to  dictate  to  their  sovereign 
the  terms  by  which  their  loyalty  should  be  recompensed.  In 
former  days  several  of  the  dukes  and  counts,  though  nominally 
subjects  of  the  crown,  had  been,  in  fact,  independent  princes; 
and  he  proposed  to  bring  back  that  state  of  affairs,  and  to  establish 
himself  and  others  in  the  position  which  the  Dukes  of  Burgundy 
and  Counts  of  Anjou  had  formerly  occupied,  reckoning  on  easily 
gaining  the  concurrence  of  the  nobles  who  were  to  be  aggrandised, 
on  rousing  a  strong  party  among  the  lower  orders  to  support  him 
by  the  promise  of  a  reduction  of  taxes,  and  on  obtaining  the  aid  of 
the  King  of  Spain,  with  whom  he  had  already  begun  to  negotiate 
by  an  engagement,  that  some  of  these  provinces  thus  to  be  erected 
into  principalities  should  be  held  of  him  as  their  sovereign  lord, 
and  not  of  the  King  of  France. 

Such  a  scheme  was,  in  fact,  a  plot  for  the  dismemberment  of  the 
kingdom  ;  it  was  treason  of  the  foulest  kind ;  and  it  was  well  laid 
in  every  point,  but  one.  While  planning  treachery  against  his 
king  and  country,  Biron  overlooked  the  necessity  of  guarding 
against  treachery  to  himself :  his  plot  was  betrayed  to  the  king, 
by  his  own  secretary,  from  the  first  moment ;  and  Henry's  con- 
duct in  dealing  with  it  was  equally  marked  by  humanity  and  by 
firmness.  As  a  man  and  a  comrade,  he  could  not  but  regard  the 
criminal  with  kindness,  for  he  was  far  from  undervaluing  his 
great  deeds,  though  the  necessities  of  his  own  peculiar  situation 
had  prevented  him  from  recompensing  them  as  the  duke  had 
expected,  and  as  he  himself  would  have  desired  ;  but  as  a  father 
and  a  king  he  was  bound  to  regard  the  tranquillity  and  welfare  of 
his  kingdom  and  the  safety  of  his  own  dynasty.  In  his  dealings 
with  the  chiefs  of  the  League  he  had  exercised  and  had  proved 
the  benefit  of  a  magnanimous  clemency ;  and  the  pardon  which  he 
had  granted  to  persevering  enemies  he  naturally  wished  to  extend 
to  one  who  had  so  long  been  a  friend.  In  many  a  conference 
with  the  duke  he  exerted  all  his  powers  of  persuasion  to  induce 


A.D.  1604.]  CONSPIRACY   OF  BIRON.  181 

him  to  confess  hia  treasons,  beingr  resolved  to  forgive  all  if  by 
confession  and  repentance  the  criminal  would  enable  him  to  show 
mercy.  But  Biron,  who  had  no  suspicion  of  his  secretary's  fidelity, 
and  who  consequently  looked  on  the  success  of  his  designs  as  in- 
evitable, was  obstinate  in  declaring  that  he  had  nothing  to  confess. 
Sully  who,  Henry  hoped,  as  a  fellow  subject  might  be  more  suc- 
cessful in  softening  him,  equally  failed ;  and,  it  was  not  till  every 
resource  of  kindness  had  been  tried  in  vain,  that  Henry  at  last 
arrested  him,  brought  him  to  trial,  and  sent  him  to  the  scaffold, 
truly  telling  the  queen,  whom  his  relations  had  induced  to  inter- 
cede for  his  life,  that  his  execution  had  become  indispensable  for 
the  safety  of  herself  and  her  son.  And  no  sterner  warning  could 
have  been  given  to  the  rest  of  the  nobles,  no  more  memorable 
proof  that  the  power  of  the  crown  had  again  become  superior 
to  theirs,  than  the  fate  of  that  one  of  their  body  who  was  secretly 
supported  by  the  connivance  and  good  wishes  of  many  among 
them,  who  was  pre-eminent  above  them  all  in  military  glory. 

The  queen,  however,  was  not  she  whom  Catharine  had  given 
Henry  as  his  bride,  and  marriage  with  whom  had  been  with  such 
difficulty  allowed  to  save  him  from  murder.  Even  in  that  age 
few  women  disgraced  their  sex  by  such  open  dissoluteness  of 
manners  as  Marguerite,  who  had  long  been  separated  from  her  hus- 
band, and  had  been  living  at  Usson,  in  the  south,  in  the  practice 
of  as  ceaseless  and  undisguised  licentiousness  as  Henry  himself.  He 
did  not  pretend  to  feel  the  least  uneasiness  at  her  conduct,  or  concern 
for  her  character;  but,  when  he  had  become  fixed  on  the  throne, 
he  began  to  desire  a  legitimate  son  to  succeed  him,  and,  by  the 
offer  of  a  large  annuity,  to  purchase  her  consent  to  a  divorce. 
While  she  understood  his  object  to  be,  as  indeed  it  was  at  first, 
to  marry  his  mistress  Gabrielle,  she  refused  to  acquiesce  in  a 
measure  which  was  to  replace  her  by  such  a  successor;  but, 
after  Gabrielle  died,  in  1599,  she  became  more  compliant,  joining 
Henry  in  an  application  to  the  Pope  for  a  sentence  of  divorce : 
and,  in  the  autumn  of  IGOO,  the  king  married  Marie  de  Medici,  a 
niece  of  the  Duke  of  Florence,  and  a  near  kinswoman  of  that  queen 
whose  influence  had,  within  his  own  memory,  been  so  disgraceful 
and  pernicious  to  France,  and  so  dangerous  to  himself. 

Another  branch  of  what  may  be  called  home  policy,  in  which 
Henry  took  especial  interest,  was  the  promotion  and  development 
of  the  foreign  trade  of  the  kingdom,  Sully's  trust  in  the  power  of 
agriculture  and  manufactures  to  raise  a  country  to  prosperity  was 
60  implicit,  that  he  undervalued,  if  he  did  not  wholly  neglect, 
foreign  commerce.  But  Henry,  on  this  subject,  was  wiser  than 
he :  he  had  formed  a  great  opinion  of  Queen  Elizabeth's  prac- 
tical wisdom ;  aod,  as  she  had  recently  granted  some  of  her  mer- 


182  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1601, 

chants  a  charter  to  trade  to  the  East  Indies,  he,  in  1604,  signed  a 
patent  for  the  establishment  of  a  similar  company :  and  in  another 
quarter  he  even  endeavoured  to  lay  the  foundation  of  what  should 
be  something  more  than  a  commercial  settlement,  by  sending  a 
colony  to  Canada,  where  it  flourished  for  above  a  century  and 
a  half,  in  spite  of  Sully's  prediction  that  no  kind  of  wealth  could 
be  looked  for  from  any  district  in  the  New  World  beyond  the  40th 
degree  of  north  latitude  (a  maxim  which  he  regarded  as  so  indis- 
putable that  he  records  it  with  approval  in  the  Memoirs  which  he 
compiled  after  the  king's  death).  The  more  highly  we  rate  his 
general  wisdom,  and  the  benefits  which  the  nation  derived  from 
his  administration,  the  greater  ought  to  be  our  appreciation  of  the 
sagacity  of  the  king  himself,  who,  in  these  points,  Avas  wiser  than 
his  minister,  and  whose  convictions  were  so  clear  that  he  carried 
them  out  against  all  remonstrances. 

But,  in  his  scheme  of  foreign  policy,  in  what  Sully  calls  '  the 
project  of  humbling  the  House  of  Austria,'  king  and  minister 
were  in  entire  agreement.  Sully  had  too  sincere  a  regard  for  the 
real  welfare  of  his  master  and  of  his  country,  and  was  too  fearless 
and  honest,  to  forbear  seizing  every  opportunity  of  restraining  the 
prodigal  facility  with  which  he  squandered  his  treasures ;  and 
the  argument  with  which  he  crowned  all  his  recommendations  of 
greater  economy  was,  that  it  was  indispensable  to  the  commence- 
ment of  hostilities  against  Spain  and  the  Empire.  For  though, 
since  the  death  of  Charles  V.,  the  Imperial  and  the  Spanish 
thrones  were  no  longer  united,  one  common  policy  still  influenced 
the  two  cabinets ;  while  the  Empire  itself  had,  since  Charles's 
death,  been  greatly  strengthened  by  the  addition  of  Bohemia  and 
Hungary,  of  which  Ferdinand,  who  succeeded  him,  had  become 
king  in  his  brother's  lifetime.  Against  two  such  powers,  however 
great  might  be  his  confidence  in  the  military  spirit  and  resources 
of  France,  Henry  did  not  think  her  able  to  contend  single-handed. 
But  he  knew  how  deep  was  the  hatred  which  England  enter- 
tained against  Spain,  and  he  conceived  a  hope  that  Elizabeth 
would  easily  be  brought  to  combine  with  him  in  an  enterprise 
which  would  at  once  avenge  the  insults  offered  to  her  and  to  her 
people  by  the  Armada,  and  would  secure  both  against  any  repeti- 
tion of  them.  Impressed  with  this  idea,  in  1601  he  sent  Sully  on 
a  secret  mission  to  England;  when  the  duke  was  both  delighted 
and  surprised  to  find  that  the  statesmanlike  queen  had  in  a  great 
measure  anticipated  his  designs.  She,  too,  had  formed  projects  for 
humbling  and  weakening  the  common  enemy;  which,  as  she 
sketched  them  out  rapidly  to  the  ambassador,  were  to  cripple 
Fpa:n  by  the  erection  of  one  republic  out  of  her  richest  provinces, 


A.D.  1604.J      NEGOTIATIONS  WITH  ELIZABETH.  183 

to  curb  the  Empire  by  the  creation  of  another/  and  to  parcel  out 
the  rest  of  Christendom  into  a  number  of  kingdoms  of  almost 
equal  power.  So  delighted  was  Henry  with  his  report  of  the 
great  queen's  largeness  of  -view  and  resolution,  that  the  next  year 
he  sent  Biron  over  on  a  formal  embassy ;  when,  if  that  misguided 
noble  had  been  capable  of  learning  a  lesson  for  his  own  conduct, 
the  language  which  Elizabeth  held  to  him  about  the  then  recent 
execution  of  her  once  favorite  Essex  might  have  saved  him  from 
the  conduct  which  involved  him  in  a  similar  doom  :  ^  and  Sully 
was  on  the  point  of  returning  to  England  to  discuss  the  design 
with  her  in  fuller  detail,  when  the  intelligence  of  the  queen's 
death  reached  France.  Henry  was  profoundly  grieved.  He  had 
looked  upon  her,  as  he  wrote  to  Sully,  as  'the  irreconcil- 
able enemy  of  his  irreconcilable  enemies,'  as  'a  second  self.' 
However,  he  did  not  lay  aside  the  idea  of  securing  the  co-opera- 
tion of  England,  but  sent  Sully  to  gain  over  the  new  king  to  the 
adoption  of  his  views  ,*  and  as  he  thought  James  less  likely  than 
his  more  energetic  predecessor  to  be  influenced  by  large  general 
views  of  policy,  he  appealed  more  directly  to  the  feelings  of  bitter 
enmity  to  Popery  which  he  conceived  him  to  have  imbibed  among 
the  Scotch  Reformers,  and  authorised  his  minister  to  bind  him  to 
unite  with  the  British  government  in  supporting  the  Protestants 
in  all  those  countries  on  the  Continent  in  which  their  religion  was 
established.  A  more  curious  proof  of  how  little  importance  he 
himself  attached  to  religious  as  compared  with  political  consi- 
derations could  hardly  be  imagined  than  that  which  is  supplied  by 
a  Catholic  king  promising  to  support  the  Protestants  in  Germany, 
in  order  to  induce  another  Protestant  to  aid  him  in  a  war  against 
the  principal  Catholic  powers.  But  Sully  found  that  James  was 
equally  inclined  to  place  temporal  considerations  above  those  of 
religion,  and  that  his  view  of  such  did  not  altogether  coincide 
with  those  of  his  own  master.  In  James's  opinion  nothing  was 
.  so  sacred  as  the  right  of  kings ;  and  he  was  far  more  inclined  to 
wish  success  to  Philip  in  subduing  the  Netherlands,  than  to  sup- 
port the  Dutch  in  what  he  regarded  as  rebellion.  However,  at 
last,  Sully's  address  prevailed  over  his  scruples  on  this  point ;  and 
finally  James  signed  a  treaty  which  bound  him  to  combine  his 
efforts  with  those  of  Henry  in  support  of  the  United  States  of 

1  The  whole  of  the  Netherlands,  which  had  persuaded  him  that  she 
both  the  Catholic  and  the  Protestant  could  not  do  without  him  ;  and  that, 
States,  were  to  form  one  common-  if  Henry  wished  to  remain  safe  on  his 
wealth  ;  Switzerland,  Alsace,  and  throne,  he  ought  to  follow  her  ex- 
Franche-Comte'  another.  ample,  and   to  show  no  mercy  to 

2  Elizabeth  told  Biron  that  Essex  traitors, 
had  been  mined  by  his  own  pride, 


184  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1604. 

Holland  against  Philip :  the  French  king  correctly  judging  that, 
to  render  his  meditated  attack  on  the  Empire  effectual,  it  was 
desirable  first  to  cripple  her  ally,  and  that  no  heavier  blow  could 
be  inflicted  on  Spain  than  the  loss  of  her  wealthiest  dependency  in 
Europe. 

So  far  the  arrangements  for  '  the  great  design  '  seemed  to  be 
prospering  according  to  Henry's  utmost  wish.  But  his  very 
success  led  to  his  death.  A  few  years  before,  when  a  wretched 
Jesuit,  named  Chastel,  had  endeavoured  to  assassinate  him,  he 
had  wisely  taken  advantage  of  the  opportunity  thus  afforded  him 
to  banish  the  whole  body  of  Jesuits  from  the  kingdom.  But,  in 
1609,  from  an  idea  that  policy  required  him  to  conciliate  the 
Catholics,  who  were  his  own  subjects,  before  commencing  the 
war  which  he  meditated  against  the  principal  Catholic  sovereigns, 
he  revoked  the  sentence  of  banishment,  and  even  ordered  the 
demolition  of  a  pillar  which,  in  recording  Chastel's  guilt,  imputed 
it  to  the  direct  instigation  of  the  chiefs  of  the  Jesuit  Order. 
But  there  were  many  among  his  Catholic  subjects  whom  such  a 
step,  however  important,  could  not  reconcile  to  his  design  of 
warring  upon  the  sovereigns  whom  they  looked  upon  as  the  chief 
pillars  of  the  Catholic  religion.  And,  as  we  may  learn  from  the 
history  of  our  own  country,  it  was  an  age  in  which  a  depth  of 
religious  feeling  had  especial  tendency  to  degenerate  into  that 
fanaticism  which  thinks  any  means  justifiable  that  lead  to  its 
object.  Queen  Marie,  herself,  had  been  led  by  her  bigotted 
attachment  to  her  Church  to  aid  in  betraying  her  husband's 
designs  to  the  Spanish  Court.  And  a  fanatical  schoolmaster  of 
Auvergne,  named  rran9ois  Ravaillac,  was  wrought  upon  to  fancy 
it  his  duty  to  prevent  the  accomplishment  of  his  plans,  even  by  his 
murder.  At  the  beginning  of  1610,  Henry  was  beginning  to  levy 
a  powerful  army,  nominally  in  order  to  settle  some  disputes  that 
had  arisen  with  respect  to  the  succession  to  the  Duchy  of  Cleves, 
really  intending,  as  was  generally  believed,  to  employ  it  in  carry- 
ing off  from  Brussels  the  Princess  of  Conde,  with  whom,  though 
her  husband  was  his  near  relation,  he  had  fallen  in  love  ;  and  to 
soothe  his  queen,  who  looked  with  little  favour  on  his  avowed 
object,  and  with  more  justifiable  jealousy  on  his  real  design,  he 
consented  to  appoint  her  regent  of  the  kingdom  during  his 
absence  in  the  field,  and  to  augment  the  dignity  of  the  appoint- 
ment by  her  coronation,  a  ceremony  which  had  not  yet  been 
performed.  It  was  not  without  the  greatest  reluctance,  indeed, 
that  he  had  been  brought  to  acquiesce  in  this  an-angement ;  for 
though,  in  other  matters,  as  far  removed  as  any  man  from  the 
weaknesses  of  superstition,  he  was  not  so  superior  to  the  pre- 
judices of  his  age  as  to  refuse  his  belief  to  astrology.     And  some 


A.D.  1610.]  MURDER  OF  HENRY.  185 

astrologers  had  warned  him  that  he  should  die  in  a  coach  on  the 
occasion  of  some  public  ceremony.  However,  the  importunities  of 
Marie  overruled  his  apprehensions ;  though  they  were  not  only 
deeply  impressed  in  his  own  mind,  but  were  so  shared  by  Sully 
that  that  minister  advised  him,  if  he  could  not  postpone  the 
coronation,  at  all  events  to  absent  himself  from  it,  and  on  no 
account  to  enter  a  carriage. 

But  Henry,  like  many  other  men,  while  unable  to  banish  his 
fears  from  his  mind,  was  ashamed  to  make  so  public  an  avowal  of 
them  as  would  have  been  implied  by  a  change  of  purpose.  The 
day  was  fixed  for  the  thirteenth  of  May  IGIO  j  on  that  day  it  wa»s 
solemnised  with  great  pomp  and  magnificence  in  tlie  Cathedral 
of  St.  Denis ;  and,  since  nothing  had  occurred  to  intercept  the 
ceremony,  his  apprehensions  seemed  to  have  been  groundless. 
Almost  convinced  that  the  danger  was  past,  the  next  day  he  drove 
down  to  the  arsenal  to  concert  with  Sully  the  final  arrangements 
for  the  approaching  campaign.  A  splendid  staff  of  nobles  accom- 
panied him  in  the  carriage ;  and,  as  the  day  was  fine,  the  curtains 
were  drawn  back,  that  he  might  see  the  preparations  which  were 
making  for  the  public  entry  into  the  capital  of  the  newly-crowned 
queen,  which  was  fixed  for  two  days  afterwards,  and  might,  in  his 
turn,  be  seen  by  the  citizens,  who  followed  him  with  shouts  and 
cheers.  The  carriage  was  surrounded  by  pages  and  running  foot- 
men, who  were  busily  engaged  in  clearing  one  of  the  narrow 
streets  of  some  carts  which  blocked  the  way,  when  Ravaillac, 
taking  advantage  of  the  stoppjige,  and  forcing  his  way  through  the 
crowd,  sprang  on  one  of  the  hind  wheels  of  the  carriage,  and, 
leaning  over  the  back,  stabbed  Henry  in  the  side :  before  the 
alarm  could  be  given,  he  repeated  the  blow,  the  knife  pierced  the 
king's  heart,  and,  without  a  word,  Henry  fell  dead. 

So  mixed  a  character  as  that  of  Henry  IV.  is  hardly  recorded  in 
history.  As  has  been  already  mentioned,  in  his  private  life  he 
was  dissolute  and  licentious,  even  beyond  the  example  of  the  most 
profligate  of  his  predecessors,  and  lawless  and  tyrannical  to  all 
who,  however  justified  by  considerations  of  family  ties  and  family 
honour,  threw  the  slightest  obstacle  in  the  way  of  his  gratifica- 
tion. Yet,  when  not  blmded  by  his  passions,  so  gracious  were  his 
manners,  so  frank  and  unassuming  his  affability,  so  genuine  his 
humanity  and  love  for  his  subjects,  that  the  aflfection  with  whicl 
the  populace  regarded  him  cannot  be  looked  on  as  entirely  mis- 
placed or  undeserved.  How  well  he  merited  the  devotion  of  those 
with  whom  his  intercourse  was  closer,  is  attested  by  his  firm 
friendship  for  Sully  :  a  minister  too  sincerely  attached  to  his  real 
.  interests  ever  to  forbear  expressing  his  real  opinion,  or  to  spare 
advice,  remonstrance,  or  even  reproof.     Many  of  those  by  whom 


186  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1610. 

Henry  was  surrounded  were  eager  enough  to  get  rid  of  one  whose 
unswerving  honesty  was  at  once  a  reproach  to  their  corruption 
and  a  hindrance  to  their  rapacity  ;  and  sought  to  excite  his  anger 
against  his  uncompromising  freedom  of  speech.  But,  though  him- 
self occasionally  provoked  with  it  for  a  moment,  Henry  himself 
was  too  honest  to  retain  displeasure  at  conduct  of  which  he  knew 
the  motive,  and  more  than  once,  after  a  momentary  quarrel,  spon- 
taneously sought  a  reconciliation,  bidding  his  faithful  servant 
continue  to  speak  to  him  with  candour  and  boldness,  since  if  ever 
he  ceased  to  do  so,  he  himself  should  then,  but  never  till  then, 
think  that  he  had  become  indifferent  to  his  true  interests. 

If  we  seek  to  measure  his  abilities,  we  shall  be  forced,  as  we 
have  already  intimated,  while  admitting  the  brilliancy  of  his  per- 
sonal courage,  to  deny  him  any  high  degree  of  skill  as  a  general. 
But  as  a  statesman  and  a  ruler  of  men,  we  cannot  refuse  him  our 
warm  admiration.  It  is  no  moderate  praise  of  his  general  views 
of  both  domestic  and  foreign  policy,  that  the  ambitious,  bold,  and 
sagacious  Ilichelieu  did  not  disdain  to  be  his  follower  in  them,  but 
placed  his  own  hope  of  renown  in  their  successful  prosecution. 
Nor,  in  the  formation  and  execution  of  his  designs,  was  his  a  one- 
sided ability  :  oil  the  contrary,  his  intellect  was  not  more  com- 
prehensive in  his  projects  than  his  judgment  was  shrewd  and 
correct  in  the  choice  of  the  measures  by  which  his  objects  were  to 
be  attained.  He  had  great  penetration  and  insight  into  the 
characters  of  men,  both  of  the  friends,  allies,  or  servants  on  whose 
assistance  he  relied,  and  of  those  whose  opposition  or  enmity  he 
expected  to  encounter.  Sully,  too,  speaks  of  him  as  eminently 
endowed  with  the  talent  for  organisation,  and  with  great  origi- 
nality of  mind  and  fertility  of  resource :  and  we  may  see  a  proof 
that  this  praise  is  not  dictated  by  an  unreasoning  partiality  in  the 
circumstance  that  he  was  the  first  sovereign  in  Europe  to  establish 
that  arrangement  of  a  ministry  which  now  prevails  universall}'^, 
and  by  which  a  distinct  department  of  work  is  assigned  to  each 
member  of  the  administration.  To  .praise  the  humanity  of  a 
monarch  on  his  toleration  of  religious  differences  among  his  sub- 
jects would,  at  the  present  day,  seem  superfluous,  if  not  imperti- 
nent ;  but  when  Henry  first  came  on  the  stage  conquerors  had  not 
yet  learned  to  consider  their  glory  as  augmented  by  mercy  to  van- 
quished foes,  while  monarchs  looked  on  religious  intolerance  as  a 
duty  rather  than  toleration.  Henry  was  the  first  in  any  country 
to  set  the  generous  example  of  clemency  to  those  who  had  stood 
against  him  in  battle,  and  of  indulgence  to  those  who  diflered 
from  his  faith.  As  Protestant  and  Catholic  he  equally  ab- 
horred persecution:  and  in  these  all-important  matters  he  is- 
clearly  entitled  to  the  high  praise  of  having  been  in  advance  of  his 


A.D.  1610.]  CnARACTER   OF  IIENEY.  187 

age.  His  weaknesses  as  a  man  (it  may  be  doubted  whether  that 
be  not  too  mild  an  expression)  may  forbid  us  to  acquiesce  in  the 
title  of  *  The  Great/  which  Sully's  affection  bestowed  on  him, 
even  though  sanctioned  by  the  unanimous  adoption  of  subsequent 
French  historians ;  but  still  we  must  not  deny  a  very  high  place 
to  the  statesman  and  the  king  who,  discerning  the  capabilities  of 
his  country,  taught  her  a  policy,  which,  before  the  end  of  the 
century,  rendered  her  the  leading  kingdom  of  Europe :  and  who 
was  not  more  solicitous  for  the  power  and  glory  of  the  nation 
than  he  was  for  the  material  prosperity  of  all  classes  of  his 
subjects.^ 

^  The  authorities  for  this  chapter  are  the  same  as  these  for  Chapter  TIL 


188  MODEEN  HISTOEY.  [a.d.  1618. 


CHAPTEE    IX. 

A.D.  1618  — 1648. 

IT  was  only  in  appearance  that  the  peace  of  Passau  had  restored 
religious  tranquillity  to  Germany.  Its  very  terms  had  to  some 
extent  heen  calculated  to  keep  alive  the  animosities  between  the 
two  sects,  and,  even  before  the  death  of  Charles  V.,  events  had 
occurred  in  which  lay  the  seeds  of  a  future  outbreak. 

The  Bohemians,  a  people  whose  attachment  to  the  memory  of 
John  Huss  naturally  disposed  them  to  look  on  Luther's  denuncia- 
tion of  the  doctrines  and  practices  of  Rome  with  favour,  were  also 
especially  jealous  of  their  national  privileges  as  citizens  of  an  inde- 
pendent kingdom.  In  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century,  though 
Bohemia  was  a  fief  of  the  Empire,  all  the  influence  of  the  Emperor 
could  not  induce  them  to  accept  him  as  their  king.  And  when,  in 
1526,  on  the  death  of  Louis  II.,  the  last  male  heir  of  the  former 
dynasty,  on  the  fatal  field  of  Mohacz,  they  ratified  a  former  ar- 
rangement by  which  Charles's  brother  Ferdinand,  whose  wife  was 
the  fallen  king's  sister,  succeeded  to  his  throne,  they  compelled 
him  to  sign  a  deed  by  which  he  acknowledged  that  he  owed  his 
accession  to  no  hereditary  right  of  his  own,  but  to  the  free  and 
voluntary  choice  of  the  people.  On  the  abdication  of  Charles, 
Ferdinand,  who  inherited  his  Austrian  dominions,  succeeded  him 
also  as  Emperor  :  Bohemia,  with  the  greater  kingdom  of  Hungary, 
thus  becoming  annexed  to  Austria,  and  to  the  Empire.  But  this 
union  only  rendered  the  Bohemians  more  careful  than  ever  to 
assert  their  national  independence ;  and  more  than  once,  before 
the  end  of  the  century,  they  extorted  from  Ferdinand's  successors 
a  recognition  and  confirmation  of  all  their  ancient  privileges,  and 
especially  of  their  absolute  and  inalienable  right  to  religious 
freedom. 

On  this  footing  for  some  time  affairs  went  on  peaceably,  and, 
as  tlie  subjects  were  content  with  the  toleration  which  they  en- 
joyed, so  with  prudence  and  humanity  on  the  part  of  their  rulers 
tranquillitv  might  easily  have  been  maintained ;  but,  in  1617,  the 
Emperor  Matthias,  who  had  himself  shown  a  fiercer  spirit,  and  one 


A.D.  1618.J    FERDINAND,   KING   OF   THE  ROMANS.  189. 

more  inclined  to  persecution,  than  any  of  liis  recent  predecessors, 
being  without  either  children  or  nephews  to  succeed  him,  pro- 
cured the  election  of  his  cousin  Ferdinand,  archduke  of  Styria,  as 
King  of  the  Romans.  And  those  wno  were  aware  of  the  temper 
which  that  prince  had  already  displayed  in  his  native  province  at 
once  foreboded  a  violent  interruptiorf  of  the  existing  peace  from 
his  elevation :  for  he  had  been  educated  by  the  Jesuits,  that 
fatal  Order  whose  narrow  principles  and  relentless  bigotry  had 
been  the  chief  source  of  the  evils  which  had  flowed  over  the 
French  and  Spanish  dominions,  and  from  the  moment  when  he 
succeeded  to  the  government  of  his  Duchy,  he  had  earned  out 
their  maxims  of  persecution  to  the  utmost  of  his  power.  He  had 
declared  that  he  *  would  rather  beg  his  bread  from  door  to  door 
than  suffer  heresy  to  exist  in  the  land ; '  and  he  had  shown  that 
this  was  no  empt)'^  threat,  by  the  demolition  of  all  the  Protestant 
churches,  and  the  expulsion  of  all  the  Protestant  inhabitants  in 
Styria,  though  they  amounted  to  two-thirds  of  his  subjects.  So 
general,  indeed,  were  the  dread  and  detestation  which  he  had  ex- 
cited, that  a  strong  party  both  in  the  Empire  and  in  Bohemia 
opposed  his  election,  and  it  was  not  without  the  greatest  personal 
exertions  of  Matthias  that  he  was  chosen  ;  nor  without  signing  a 
formal  and  most  stringent  confirmation  of  all  the  privileges  of  the 
Bohemians,  which,  in  express  terms,  absolved  them  from  their 
allegiance  in  the  event  of  his  infringing  any  of  their  ancient 
rights. 

But,  in  spite  of  his  signature,  and  in  spite  of  the  oath  which  he 
took  at  his  coronation  at  Prague,  and  which  bound  him  still  more 
strongly  to  the  observance  of  theJBohemiaQ^charters,  he  was  not 
long  before  he  justified  the  worst  forebodings  of  his  enemies.  He 
began  to  work  on  the  Emperor  to  revoke  the  different  edicts  and 
treaties  under  which  the  Protestants  had  hitherto  enjoyed  toleration. 
At  his  instigation,  the  Catholic  clergy  began  to  pull  down  the 
Protestant  churches,  and,  when  the  congregations  addressed  a  tem- 
perate remonstrance  to  the  Lords  of  the  Council,  as  the  Imperial 
commissioners  were  called  who  sat  at  Prague  to  administer  the 
affairs  of  the  kingdom,  the  deputies  who  presented  it  were  thrown 
into  prison,  and  threatened  with  instant  execution  as  traitors. 
Those  whose  spokesmen  they  had  been  were  not  of  a  temper  to 
submit  to  such  tyrannical  and  unconstitutional  menace.  That  very 
night  a  meeting  of  the  chief  nobles  of  the  kingdom  resolved  to 
obey  no  decree  which  was  inconsistent  with  their  charter,  and 
which  tended  to  endanger  the  Protestant  religion.  The  next 
morning,  clad  in  complete  armour,  and  attended  by  a  numerous 
assemblage  of  excited  followers,  they  presented  the  resolution  to 
the  Lords;  and  when  two  members  of  the  council,  the  Counts 


190  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1619. 

Slavata  and  Martinez,  insulted  them  -with  taunting  and  con- 
tumelious language,  they  seized  them  and  their  secretary,  who 
was  believed  to  share  their  sentiments,  and  to  have  prompted 
their  most  violent  actions,  and,  in  accordance  with  what  the 
crowd  behind  proclaimed  to  be  an  ancient  mode  of  dealing  with 
such  tyrants  in  Bohemia,  they  threw  them  out  of  the  window  of 
the  council  chamber.  To  this  day  the  window  is  shown,  and  the 
story  told  to  the  visitors  of  the  Hradshin  palace ;  but,  though  the 
window  is  eighty  feet  from  the  ground,  the  fall  was  not  fatal,  as  it 
was  intended  to  be  :  a  dunghill  or  some  other  heap  of  soft  rub- 
bish had  been  accumulated  beneath,  on  which  they  alighted  with 
comparatively  trifling  injury,  to  stimulate  by  a  complaint,  which 
could  hardly  be  pronounced  ill-founded,  the  adoption  of  more 
severe  measures  against  so  intractable  a  people. 

It  had  been  an  unpremeditated  act,  but  the  Bohemian  chiefs  did 
not  deceive  themselves  as  to  its  probable  consequences.  It  was, 
indeed,  easy  to  foresee  that  it  was  likely  to  be  regarded  at  Vienna 
as  the  commencement  of  a  deliberate  insurrection.  And  in  this 
belief,  while  sending  deputies  to  explain  rather  than  to  apologise 
for  their  deed,  as  one  justified  by  the  unconstitutional  conduct  of 
the  Lords  themselves,  they  at  the  same  time  stood  on  their  de- 
fence, raised  an  army,  and  began  to  negotiate  for  aid  with  all  the 
Protestant  States.  These  anticipations  were  soon  verified.  Ferdi- 
nand easily  persuaded  Matthias,  now  rapidly  sinking  into  the 
grave,  to  treat  the  outrage  on  his  commissioners  as  treason ; 
under  his  influence  the  ministers  at  Vienna  avowed  their  intention 
to  find  in  war  a  pretext  for  abrogating  all  the  Bohemian  charters ; 
an  army  was  sent  into  Bohemia,  and  once  more  the  flames  of  civil 
war  were  kindled  in  the  country.  Still,  had  Matthias  lived,  they 
might  have  been  extinguished  almost  as  soon  as  they  were 
lighted,  for  the  bulk  of  the  population  on  both  sides  was  eager  for 
peace ;  and,  after  one  or  two  operations  of  no  great  consequence, 
though  the  balance  of  success  was  in  favour  of  the  Bohemians,  a 
Congress  was  appointed  to  meet  at  Egra,  in  April  1G19,  where, 
under  the  arbitration  of  two  Catholic  ^  and  two  Protestant  electors, 
it  was  hoped  that  terms  of  permanent  accommodation  might  be 
aiTanged.  Unhappily,  a  month  before  the  day  fixed  for  the  meet- 
ing of  the  Congress  Matthias  died,  and  Ferdinand  succeeded 
to  all  his  dominions  and  dignities,  except  that  of  Emperor.  He  at 
once  broke  off"  the  arrangements  for  the  Congress ;  and,  though 
Count  Thurn,  the  fiercest  of  all  the  Bohemian  leaders,  was  close  to 
Vienna  with  one  army,  and  though  Bethlehem  Gabor,  the  warlike 

^  The  Catholic  electors  were  those  the  Protestant,  the  Duke  of  Saxony 
of  Mentz,  (Mayence),  and  Bavaria :      and  the  Count  Palatine. 


A.D.  1619.J     FREDEHIC  ELECTED  XING  OF  BOHEMIA.      191 

Prince  of  Transylvania,  in  alliance  with  him,  was  known  to  be  not 
far  distant  with  another,  Ferdinand  believed  that  he  had  received 
divine  assurance  of  such  support  in  all  his  undertakings  against 
the  heretics  as  would  carry  hiui  safely  through  the  contest ;  and 
he  had  scarcely  avowed  his  belief  before  a  squadron  of  horse  came 
to  his  aid,  entering  the  city  by  a  gate  which  Thurn's  unskilfulness 
had  left  unguarded.  A  day  or  two  afterwards  news  arrived  of  an 
advantage  gained  by  a  force  under  General  Bucquoi  over  a  Bohemian 
division  at  Teyne,  on  the  Moldau,  which  compelled  Thurn  to  draw 
off  to  defend  Prague,  and,  being  thus  delivered  from  immediate 
alarm,  Ferdinand  repaired  to  Frankfort,  where,  though  not  with- 
out encountering  strenuous  opposition,  he  at  last  succeeded  in 
securing  his  election  as  the  successor  of  Matthias  on  the  Imperial 
throne. 

But,  while  he  was  thus  absent  from  his  own  dominions,  the  con- 
viction that  he  would  obtain  this  dignity,  and  the  apprehensions  of 
the  increase  of  power  which  he  would  derive  from  it,  stimulated 
the  Bohemians  to  a  resolution  to  protect  themselves  by  depriving 
him  of  any  authority  over  them  :  a  step  that  the  terms  in  which  he 
had  confirmed  their  charter  appeared  to  justify,  since  it  was  clear, 
in  their  eyes,  that  Bucquoi's  attack  upon  the  Bohemian  troops  was 
a  violation  of  their  national  privileges.  And,  subsequently,  at  a 
Diet  held  at  Prague  on  the  nineteenth  of  August,  they  declared 
Ferdinand  to  have  forfeited  the  throne,  raised  Frederic,  the  Elector 
Palatine,  to  the  vacant  dignity,  and  formed  a  confederacy  with 
Moravia,  Silesia,  Lusatia,  and  the  Protestants  in  Upper  and  Lower 
Austria,  a  numerous  and  powerful  body,  who  willingly  pledged 
themselves  to  support  them  in  the  defence-  of  all  their  civil  and 
religious  privileges,  and  in  the  maintenance  of  their  young  king  on 
the  throne  on  which  they  had  placed  him. 

Ferdinand  was  not  slow  in  taking  up  the  gauntlet  thus  thrown 
down  to  him,  and  with  the  coronation  of  Frederic  as  King  of 
Bohemia,  which,  at  the  beginning  of  November,  was  performed  at 
Prague  with  unprecedented  magnificence,  the  Thirty  Years'  War, 
to  give  it  from  the  first  the  name  by  which  ever  since  its  conclusion 
it  has  been  known,  may  be  said  to  begin.^  It  was  a  war  fearful  in 
its  duration,  though  in  that  respect  not  unprecedented,  for  the  civil 
wars  in  France,  and  that  caused  by  the  tyranny  of  Philip  in  the 
Netherlands,  as  we  have  seen,  had  lasted  longer  ;  but  it  was  fearful 
too  in  the  extent  to  which  it  gradually  drew  every  nation  on  the 
Continent  into  its  vortex,  and  in  that  respect  it  was  without  example 
in  the  previous  history  of  Europe.     Yet  perhaps  the  most  extra- 

^  In  reality  it  lasted  not  thirt;y  nated  by  the  peace  which  was  signed 
years,  but  twenty-nine,  being  termi-      at  Minister  in  September  1648. 


192  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1620. 

ordinary  feature  whicli  it  presents  is  the  circumstance  that,  despe- 
rate as  the  condition  of  the  Protestants  seemed  at  its  commence- 
ment, at  its  conclusion  they  obtained  nearly  all  the  objects  for 
which  they  had  entered  upon  it.  That  they  did  so  was  owing  in 
no  slight  degree  to  the  great  prince  whose  achievements  will  form 
the  principal  subject  of  the  present  chapter. 

Never  did  a  prince  embark  in  a  contest  who  was  less  endowed 
with  the  qualities  requisite  to  enable  him  to  carry  it  to  a  successful 
end  than  Frederic ;  and,  in  spite  of  the  treaties  which  the  Bohemians 
had  concluded  with  other  States,  never  had  a  prince  less  foreign  aid 
on  which  to  rely.  He  himself  was  amiable,  and  not  destitute  of 
those  accomplishments  which  are  attractive  in  times  of  peace  ;  but 
he  was  weak,  vacillating,  fond  of  ease  and  luxury,  and  utterly 
devoid  of  energy  and  resolution  to  achieve  success,  and  of  fortitude 
to  bear  reverses,  or  even  perils ;  while  the  adversary  whom  he  de- 
fied, though  narrow-minded,  bigoted,  and  ferocious,  was  consistent 
in  his  objects,  clear-sighted  as  to  the  means  of  attaining  them, 
prompt  and  unscrupulous  in  council,  vigorous  in  action,  and  un- 
daunted amid  dangers.  The  support,  too,  on  which  Frederic 
might  reasonably  have  reckoned,  which,  indeed,  he  might  well 
have  fancied  he  had  a  right  to  claim,  in  each  more  important 
instance  failed  him.  He  was  married  to  the  only  daughter  of 
the  King  of  England ;  but  James  looked  on  the  conduct  of  the 
Bohemians  as  an  act  of  revolt  against  their  lawful  sovereign  the 
Emperor ;  he  was  anxious,  too,  to  gain  the  goodwill  of  the  Emperor's 
kinsman,  the  King  of  Spain,  in  order  to  procure  the  hand  of  the 
Infanta  for  the  Prince  of  Wales  ;  and  on  both  grounds  he  refused 
his  assistance  to  his  son-in-law,  though  the  British  Parliament  and 
the  whole  nation  were  enthusiastic  in  their  desire  to  fight  for 
their  Princess's  husband.  Frederic  had  a  still  greater  claim  on  the 
Protestant  Union,  as  a  confederacy  was  called  which  nearly  a 
century^  before  had  been  formed  among  several  of  the  minor 
German  States  for  mutual  defence  in  all  religious  contests ;  but 
there  he  was  baffled  by  the  unhappy  divisions  which,  as  has  been 
already  mentioned,  at  the  very  outset  of  the  Reformation,  had 
arisen  among  the  Reformers  themselves.  He  himself  was  a  Cal- 
vinist :  the  chief  members  of  the  Union  were  Lutherans  ;  and, 
availing  himself  of  their  antipathy  to  him  on  that  account,  the 
King  of  France,  Louis  XIII.,  whose  hatred  of  liberty  of  any  kind 
disposed  him  to  enter  heartily  into  the  cause  of  his  Imperial  brother, 
and  who  willingly  undertook  to  exert  his  influence  over  them, 

'  It  was    formed   at    Torgau,  in  Duke  of  Mecklenburgh,  the  Duke  of 

1526,   the   original    members    being  Brunswick,  the  Count  of  Mansfelt, 

the  Elector  Palatine,  the  Elector  of  and  the  free  city  of  Magdeburg. 
Saxony,  tlie  Landgrave  of  Hcsso,  the 


k.D.  1620.]      SPINOLA  OVERKUNS  THE  PALATINATE.       193 

easily  induced  them  to  conclude  a  treaty  with  the  Catholic  League,* 
which  practically  detached  them  from  Frederic's  side,  by  limiting 
the  assistance  which  they  should  give  him  to  the  protection  of  his 
hereditary  territory,  the  Palatinate,  in  the  event  of  its  being 
attacked  by  the  League,  and  left  him  defenceless  against  all  other 
enemies  ;  while  the  League  was  debarred  from  no  operation  but  the 
invasion  of  the  Palatinate. 

Even  had  the  two  antagonists  been  equally  without  allies,  the 
contest  between  the  Empire  and  Bohemia  would  have  been  too 
unequal  to  last  long.  But  Ferdinand  was  far  from  being  as  iso- 
lated as  Frederic.  The  Spaniards  joined  him,  and  sent  Spinola  to 
overrun  the  Palatinate.  The  Elector  of  Saxony,  though  a  Pro- 
testant, joined  him  :  the  Duke  of  Bavaria,  a  prince  of  great  ability 
both  as  a  soldier  and  statesman,  joined  him,  and  took  the  command 
of  his  army ;  which  on  the  eighth  of  November  1620,  exactly  a 
year  after  Frederic's  coronation  at  Prague,  terminated  the  war,  as 
far  as  he  was  concerned,  at  a  single  blow.  In  a  battle  on  an 
elevated  spot,  known  as  the  White  Mountain,  near  Prague,  the 
duke  routed  the  Bohemian  army,  commanded  by  Prince  Christian 
of  Anhalt,  who  was  severely  wounded  and  taken  prisoner.  Frederic, 
who  had  excused  himself  from  being  present,  though  his  crown 
was  at  stake,  on  the  discreditable  but  characteristic  pretence  of 
entertaining  the  English  ambassador  at  a  banquet,  passing  at  once 
from  confident  indifference  to  despair,  that  very  night  abandoned 
his  capital,  though  a  strongly  fortified  and  defensible  city ;  and 
fled  to  Berlin.  Deserted  by  the  king  whom  it  had  chosen,  Prague 
surrendered  ;  and  Ferdinand  showed  himself  unworthy  of  his 
victory  by  the  ferocious  and  indiscriminate  cruelty  of  the  revenge 
which  he  took  on  all  his  rival's  partisans.  On  one  single  morning 
twenty-seven  of  the  principal  nobles  of  the  kingdom  were  executed : 
by  one  single  decree  the  property  of  700  more  was  confiscated. 
The  old  charters  of  the  liberties  of  Bohemia  he  tore  with  his  own 
hands.  One  edict  of  persecution  followed  another  :  one  banished 
all  Protestant  ministers  and  schoolmasters;  another  prohibited 
any  Protestant  from  inheriting  or  bequeathing  property  :  finally, 
in  1620,  sentence  of  banishment  was  pronounced  against  all  who 
belonged  to  any  Protestant  sect,  and  30,000  families  were  driven 
from  the  kingdom. 

But   if  these   sweeping   severities  were   intended  to   produce 

^  The  Catholic  League  had  been  members.    It  is  sometimes  called  the 

formed   two   years   before   the  Pro-  League   of   Ratisbon,   from   having 

testant  Union,  which  was  indeed  a  been  arranged  in  that  city ;  and  its 

defensive  measure  to  counteract  it.  avowed  objects  Avere  the  suppression 

The  Archduke  Ferdinand,  the  duke  of  the  new  religion  by  any  and  every 

of  the  Havarias,  and  the  Episcopal  means. 
Electors  being   originally  the  chief 
10 


194  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1623. 

nniversal  submission,  and  to  crush  the  spirit  of  Protestantism  in 
other  States,  they  failed  in  their  effect ;  they  rather  animated 
resistance,  and  taught  those  who  resolved  to  resist  the  necessity  of 
combining  for  their  mutual  protection.  Unworthy  of  followers 
and  friends  as  Frederic  had  shown  himself  all  did  not  desert  his 
cause  when  he  himself  abandoned  it.  Count  Mansfeld,  a  general 
of  great  sldll  and  courage,  who,  at  the  head  of  a  small  but  well- 
trained  force,  had  been  hastening  to  unite  his  army  to  I'rince 
Christian's  just  before  the  fatal  battle  of  the  White  Mountain,  on 
hearing  of  that  defeat,  fell  back  on  the  Palatinate,  and  defending 
every  available  post  with  undaunted  resolution  and  brilliant  skill, 
held  the  province  so  long  and  so  stoutly  that  at  last  Frederic  him- 
self recovered  some  com  age:  and  joined  him  on  the  Rhine.  It 
was  but  a  transitory  effort  of  resolution  on  his  part,  for  he  soon 
quitted  the  army,  and  returned  to  Holland:  in  the  vain  hope  of 
pacifying  the  implacable  Ferdinand,  even  treating  his  gallant 
adherents  with  the  basest  ingratitude,  and  forbidding  them  any 
longer  to  carry  on  the  contest  in  his  name. 

Spinola  and  the  Bavarians  were  thus  left  to  complete  the  re- 
duction of  the  Palatinate  without  opposition.  But  Mansfeld's 
operations  had  gained  time  for  other  Protestant  leaders  to  arm : 
and  for  the  courts  of  England  and  France  to  change  their  policy. 
Pichelieu,  who  had  begun  to  acquire  that  authority  in  the  French 
government,  which  he  exercised  during  all  the  latter  years  of 
Louis's  reign,  had  from  the  first  adopted  in  its  fullest  extent  the 
policy  of  Plenry  IV.,  which  looked  to  the  depression  of  the  House 
of  Austria.  The  plan  of  a  marriage  between  the  Prince  of  Wales 
and  the  Spanish  Infanta  having  been  abandoned,  James,  who  was 
now  eager  to  obtain  the  hand  of  a  French  princess  for  his  son, 
sought  to  secure  the  friendship  of  the  great  cardinal  by  co-opera- 
tion with  him  in  his  measures  of  continental  policy  :  and  with 
this  object  sent  supplies  of  money  to  the  German  Protestants,  and 
encouraged  the  formation  of  volunteer  corps  among  his  subjects  to 
serve  in  the  armies :  while  Richelieu  aided  them  more  secretly, 
but  with  little  less  effect,  by  encouraging  all  those  States  which 
still  hesitated  to  adopt  a  decided  line  of  resistance  to  the  Emperor, 
whose  proceedings  showed  a  desire  to  make  himself  absolute 
master  of  all  Germany. 

Thus  animated  and  supplied  armies  rose  up  rapidly.  Afresh 
league  was  formed,  in  the  north  of  Germany,  of  which  King  Chris- 
tian of  Denmark,  brother  of  James's  queen,  was  the  head :  in  a 
short  time  he  found  himself  at  the  head  of  G0,000  men  :  a  force 
against  which  the  Imperial  general,  the  Bavarian  Count  Tilly, 
though  a  commander  of  the  greatest  capacity,  was  quite  unable 
to   make  head  :    while   Bethlehem    Gabor    was  once   more   be- 


A.B.  1626.]  RISE   OF   WALLESTEIN.  195 

coming  dangerous  in  tlie  south,  threatening  to  revive  the  contest 
in  some  of  the  districts  which  had  been  subdued,  or,  as  Ferdinand 
called  it,  pacified,  if  not  to  attack  Vienna  itself.  Ferdinand  was 
in  great  perplexity.  The  Austrian  treasury,  never  rich,  was  ex- 
hausted by  the  efforts  necessary  to  sustain  so  protracted  a  contest : 
nor  was  he  entirely  pleased  at  having  been  compelled  to  entrust 
all  his  military  operations  to  foreigners  :  for  neither  kspinola,  nor 
the  Duke  of  Bavaria,  nor  Tilly  owned  any  allegiance  to  him : 
and  he  was  disinclined,  if  not  afraid,  to  adopt  any  measures  which 
might  increase  his  dependence  on  them.  Others  were  aware  of 
his  embarrassment :  and  one  who  had  been  carefully  watching  the 
progress  of  affairs,  now  came  to  his  aid  with  a  proposal  which, 
though  for  a  moment  it  seemed  to  extricate  him  from  his  diffi- 
culties, eventually  may  be  almost  said  to  have  given  him  a  master 
from  among  his  own  subjects. 

Among  those  who  had  distinguished  themselves  in  the  first  opera- 
tions of  the  war  was  Albert,  baron  of  Wallestein ;  who,  even 
before  the  death  of  Matthias,  had  acquired  some  distinction  in  a 
campaign  against  the  Venetians ;  and  afterwards,  at  the  head  of 
a  body  of  Moravian  militia,  had  borne  an  important  share  in  the 
victory  of  Teyne,  which  in  reality  had  given  the .  Imperial  crown 
to  Ferdinand,  and  afterwards  in  that  of  the  White  Mountain.  So 
valuable  were  the  services  which,  in  the  subsequent  transactions 
he  was  able  to  render  to  the  Emperor  that,  in  1623,  he  was  raised 
to  the  Dukedom  of  Friedland ;  and  having  acquired  extensive 
popularity  among  all  classes  by  his  liberality  to  his  soldiers  when 
in  military  command,  and  by  the  freedom  and  administrative 
talent  which  he  had  displayed  in  the  management  of  the  affairs  of 
his  new  duch}^,  he  now  proposed  to  Ferdinand  to  levy  50,000  men 
for  his  service,  whom  he  himself  would  equip  and  pay,  on  condition 
of  being  allowed  to  appoint  all  the  officers,  and  to  have  uncon- 
trolled and  undivided  authority  over  the  whole  force.  His  offer 
was  accepted ;  though  a  less  jealous  and  suspicious  prince  than 
Ferdinand  might  well  have  hesitated  thus  to  make  a  subject  whose 
very  proposal  proved  the  aspiring  character  of  his  ambition,  inde- 
pendent of  him  in  so  important  a  matter  as  the  command  of  an 
army,  but  the  Emperor's  necessities  left  him  no  alternative  :  and 
Wallestein  acted  up  to  his  undertaking  with  promptitude  and 
good  faith.  By  the  beginning  of  1626  he  had  raised  a  force 
powerful  enough  to  defeat  Mansfeld  on  the  Elbe :  pursuing  him 
into  Hungary,  he  compelled  Betlilehem  Gabor,  who  was  once 
more  marching  through  that  country  against  Vienna,  to  abandon 
his  design.  The  next  year  he  turned  again  to  the  north  :  overran 
Jutland,  drove  the  King  of  Denmark  across  the  Baltic  to  Ms 


196  MODEKN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1628. 

islands :  and  began  to  form  plans  for  crossing  that  sea,  and  thus 
making  himself  master  of  Copenhagen  itself. 

But  the  measures  which  he  took  to  accomplish  that  part  of  his 
designs  brought  a  new  combatant  into  the  field,  in  whom  for  the 
first  time  he  was  to  find  a  superior.  He  laid  siege  to  Stralsund, 
an  important  seaport  on  tlie  coast  of  Pomerania,  with  a  force  that 
seemed  sufficient  to  defy  all  resistance ;  for  he  had  20,000  men 
beneath  its  walls,  and,  in  the  vehemence  of  his  resolution  to 
possess  himself  of  a  place  which  would  give  him  such  a  hold  on 
the  Baltic,  vowed  that  he  would  take  it  '  even  if  it  were  fastened 
to  heaven  by  chains  of  adamant.'  And  the  citizens,  confessing 
their  inability  to  cope  with  so  formidable  a  host,  implored  the  aid 
of  Gustavus  Adolphus,  king  of  Sweden.  Gustavus  was  younger 
than  Wallestein  by  more  than  ten  years  ;  but  his  whole  life  since 
his  arrival  at  man's  estate  had  been  spent  in  war,  in  the  art  of 
which  he  had  shown  himself  a  master,  equally  skilful  in  the  con- 
duct of  sieges  and  in  battles  in  the  open  field.  He  had  lost  no 
battle ;  he  had  failed  to  take  no  place  which  he  had  attacked : 
and  in  a  recent  war  with  Denmark  he  had  reduced  Riga,  the 
strongest  city  in  the  north  of  Europe  by  tactics  which  were  not 
only  so  skilful  but  so  novel,  that  Spinola  warned  the  Emperor  that, 
if  he  allowed  him  to  be  brought  into  the  war,  he  would  have  to 
deal  with  an  antagonist  of  a  wholly  difi*erent  stamp  from  those 
whom  his  generals  had  hitherto  encountered.  Gustavus  was  a 
zealous  Protestant;  it  was  not  without  anxiety  and  concern  that 
he  had  witnessed  the  progress  that  the  Emperor  was  making  in 
the  subjugation  of  his  brethren  in  religion  :  and  he  saw  with  joy 
the  opportunity  of  checking  that  progress  in  the  request  of  Stral- 
sund for  aid.  He  gladly  and  promptly  sent  them  a  reinforcement, 
under  the  command  of  a  Scotch  officer,  who  afterwards  rose  to 
eminence  in  his  own  country,  David  Leslie :  and  his  aid,  and  that 
of  a  Danish  fleet,  enabled  the  citizens  to  prolong  the  defence  till 
the  wet  weather  came  on,  and  "Wallestein,  greatly  to  his  indigna- 
tion, ~was  compelled  to  raise  the  siege. 

The  disappointment  only  exasperated  Ferdinand  ;  though  he 
comforted  himself  by  thinking  revenge  was  in  his  power.  In  spite 
of  the  failure  of  his  army  before  Stralsund,  the  year  1628  had  been 
very  fatal  to  his  enemies.  Illness  had  carried  off'  Bethlehem  Gabor, 
and  Mansfeld,  and  Christian  of  Brunswick;  all  the  leaders  on 
whom  the  German  Protestants  had  hitherto  relied  :  and  it  seemed 
to  him  that  if  he  could  deprive  them  of  their  Baltic  allies,  he 
should  have  them  at  his  mercy.  Accordingly,  he  made  peace  with 
Denmark  at  Lubeck.  He  reckoned  on  Sigismund  of  Poland,  with 
■whom  the  Swedes  had  long  been  at  war,  giving  Gustavus  too 
much  occupation  to  allow  him  to  interfere  in  the  domestic  affiiira 


A.©.  1630.]  THE  EDICT   OF  RESTITUTION.  197 

of  Germany  :  and  in  this  confidence  he  proceeded  to  acts  of 
greater  rigour  and  oppression  than  ever  against  both  Lutherans 
and  Calvinists.  Since  the  Diet  of  Augsburg  much  ecclesiastical 
property  had  been  secularised,  much  had  been  transferred  to  the 
Protestant  Church.  He  now  published  an  Edict  of  Restitution^ 
which  commanded  the  instant  restoration  oF  every  estate  to  the 
Catholic  hierarchy:  and  poured  his  troops  into  the  Protestant 
provinces  to  compel  instant  obedience  to  the  edict.  The  offioers 
in  command  took  a  wanton  pleasure  in  aggi-avating  the  execution 
of  their  orders  by  every  kind  of  insult.  Even  in  churches  which 
had  never  belonged  to  the  Catholics  the  bells  were  torn  down,  the 
altars  and  pulpits  were  destroyed,  the  Bibles  were  burned;  while 
gibbets  were  erected  to  terrify,  or,  in  case  of  need,  to  punish  all 
who  should  venture  to  resist.  In  Bohemia  the  Emperor's  zeal 
against  the  Protestants  to  some  extent  involved  even  the  Catholics 
in  their  punishment,  for  another  edict  banished  every  Protestant 
woman,  even  if  she  had  married  a  Catholic :  though  this  order 
awakened  such  a  spirit  of  indignation  among  the  Catholics,  that  it 
was  found  impossible  to  enforce  it.  Enough,  however,  was  done 
to  show  that  nothing  less  than  the  entire  extermination  of  the 
Protestant  religion  in  Germany  was  resolved  on.  And  the  German 
Protestants,  in  consequence,  turned  their  eyes  to  the  only  man  who 
seemed  able  to  cope  with  the  Imperial  generals.  Gustavus  had 
shown  at  Stralsund  that  he  was  able  to  baffle  even  Wallestein : 
and  to  him,  therefore,  as  the  citizens  of  Stralsund  had  done  before, 
the  whole  body  of  the  Protestants  of  the  Empire  now  appealed  for 
protection. 

But  they  had  no  longer  Wallestein  to  deal  with.  Richelieu, 
whose  promptitude  and  energy  in  carrying  out  his  designs  fully 
equalled  his  acuteness  and  vigour  in  forming  them,  in  his  resolu- 
tion to  prevent  the  further  aggrandisement  of  the  Emperor,  not 
only  detached  his  allies  from  him,  but  contrived  to  make  him 
disarm  himself.  He  employed  one  who,  though  by  profession  a 
Capuchin  friar,  was  unsurpassed  for  diplomatic  address  by  no 
statesman  of  the  age,  Father  Joseph,  to  negotiate  both  with  Sigis- 
mund  of  Poland  and  with  Ferdinand  himself.  To  both  he 
appeared  as  a  friend ;  and  in  that  character  he  mediated  between 
Sigismund  and  Gustavus,  and  induced  them  to  conclude  a  peace, 
which  necessarily  left  Gustavus,  as  it  was  intended  to  leave  him, 
at  leisure  to  direct  his  undivided  exertions  to  the  protection  of  his 
new  suppliants :  in  that  character  again,  with  subtler  artifice, 
he  instilled  into  Ferdinand's  jealous  mind  suspicions  of  his  great 
general  (whose  ambition  was  indeed  sufficiently  evident,  and  who, 
though  a  rigorous  disciplinarian,  was  known  to  have  so  endeared 
himself  to  his  troops  by  his  liberalitj'^,  that  it  was  probable  that 


198  MODEKN  HISTOEY.  [a.d.  1630. 

he  had  the  power,  provided  that  he  had  the  will,  to  become 
dangerous  to  his  master).  Under  the  influence  of  the  crafty 
Capuchin,  the  Emperor  sent  him  an  order  of  dismissal,  though  he 
was  not  without  some  uneasiness  at  the  reception  which  might  be 
given  to  his  message.  Wallestein,  however,  was  a  believer  in 
astrology.  When  Gustavus  first  opposed  him  at  Stralsund,  he 
had  been  careful  to  procure  the  king's  horoscope,  that  his  know- 
ledge of  the  planetary  warnings  might  guide  or  aid  his  military 
calculations.  He  had  now  again  consulted  the  stars,  which  had 
told  him  that  the  spirit  of  Ferdinand  was  at  that  moment  domi- 
nated by  hostile  influences ;  and  to  the  stars  he  felt  bound  to 
submit.  Though  he  had  100,000  men  under  his  command,  he 
at  once  obeyed,  and  submissively  returned  to  his  estates,  content- 
edly occupying  himself  with  their  management  and  improvement 
till  the  time  should  come  when  the  heavenly  bodies  should  permit 
the  Emperor  once  more  to  have  recourse  to  his  services. 

Ferdinand  himself  had  repented  of  the  act  almost  as  soon  as  he 
had  committed  it.  The  arguments  of  Father  Joseph  had  been 
aided  in  his  mind  by  the  belief  that  the  Electors  of  the  Empire, 
both  Catholics  and  Protestants,  equally  feared  and  hated  Walle- 
stein,  who  treated  them  all  with  contemptuous  arrogance,  and  who 
was  known  to  have  expressed  a  wish  for  the  abolition  of  the 
Electoral  College,  and  the  establishment  of  the  Emperor  in 
absolute  and  hereditary  authority.  And  he  had  hoped  that  his 
dismissal  would  so  conciliate  them  as  to  lead  them  to  confer  the 
dignity  of  King  of  the  Romans  on  his  son  ;  but  he  found  that  it  had 
only  emboldened  them  to  disregard  his  wishes  ;  and  he  complained 
bitterly  that  '  a  worthless  friar  had  disarmed  him  with  his  rosary, 
and  had  put  six  electoral  caps  under  his  own  cowl.' 

The  increasing  discontent  of  the  German  princes,  and  the  grow- 
ing confidence  in  their  power  of  resistance  to  their  tyrant,  did  not 
escape  Gustavus ;  and,  as  he  formerly  had  listened  to  the  prayers 
of  the  people  of  Stralsund,  he  now  prepared  to  give  assistance  on 
a  larger  scale  to  the  whole  of  the  Protestant  party.  Sweden, 
indeed,  was  neither  a  wealthy  nor  a  populous  country ;  and  the 
entire  force  which  he  could  employ  did  not  exceed  27,000  men  j 
but  he  was  something  more  than  a  general,  he  was  a  j^reat  military 
reformer,  and  he  liad  introduced  into  the  Swedish  army  a  new 
system  of  organisation  and  tactics.  He  w.as  the  first  of  modern 
soldiers  to  perceive  that  activity  and  rapidity  of  movement  are  in 
themselves  strength  alike  in  an  individual  and  in  an  army.  And, 
acting  on  this  principle,  he  had  broken  up  the  massive  immoveable 
phalanx  of  old  times  into  smaller  and  more  manageable  battalions ; 
he  had  reduced  the  weight  of  their  weapons,  and  had  taught  the  dif- 
ferent divisions,  the  pikemen,  the  musketeers,  the  cavalry,  and  the 


A.D.  1630.1    *      GUSTAVUS   INVADES   GERMANY.  199 

artillery,  the  duty  and  the  art  of  giving  each  other  mutual  support. 
And  his  Polish  campaigns  had  already  proved  to  him  that  men 
so  trained  were  a  match  for  far  greater  numbers  arrayed  in  the 
old  fashion.  It  was,  therefore,  with  almost  as  full  confidence  in 
his  eventual  success  as  in  the  righteousness  of  his  cause,  which, 
as  he  told  the  Swedish  Estates  ^  in  his  parting  speech  to  them, 
was  that  of  civil  and  religious  freedoui  throughout  the  world,  that 
he  crossed  the  Baltic.  It  was  looked  upon  as  a  happy  omen  that 
the  day  on  which  he  landed  in  the  little  peninsula  of  IJsedom  was  the 
twenty-fourth  of  June,  the  day  on  which,  100  years  before,  the  Con- 
fession of  Augsburg  had  been  presented  to  Charles  the  Fifth ;  and  it 
was  characteristic  of  the  spirit  in  which  he  had  undertaken  the  en- 
terprise that  his  first  act  on  German  ground  was  to  throw  himself 
on  his  knees,  thanking  God  for  the  protection  which  he  had  thus 
far  granted  to  his  expedition  ;  and  his  second,  to  admonish  some 
of  his  officers,  whom  he  observed  to  comment  somewhat  derisively 
on  his  devotion,  that  'a  good  Christian  could  not  be  a  bad  soldier,' 
and  that,  '  the  man  who  had  prayed  to  his  God  had  already  com- 
pleted the  most  important  half  of  his  day's  work.'  Nor  was 
his  religion  confined  to  words ;  it  showed  itself  in  the  discipline 
which  he  enforced  upon  his  men,  as  also  in  the  cheerfulness  with 
which  they  submitted  to  his  rules.  Wallestein  had  been  far  more 
merciful  and  humane  in  his  hours  of  victory  than  any  other  of  the 
Imperial  generals ;  but  even  he  had  felt  compelled  to  connive  at 
acts  of  rapacity  and  licentiousness  on  the  part  of  his  soldiers,  who 
looked  on  the  practice  of  such  crimes  as  a  legitimate  part  of  the 
recompense  due  to  them  for  the  toils  of  a  campaign.  But  in  the 
Swedish  camp  the  strictness  of  military  discipline  was  not  counter- 
balanced by  any  relaxation  of  the  laws  which  prevailed  in  times 
of  peace  ;  justice  did  not  for  a  moment  shut  her  eyes  to  crime  nor 
even  to  disorder ;  every  act  of  rapine  or  violence  was  inexorably 
punished  ;  and  the  natives  of  the  provinces  in  which  the  Swedish 
battalions  encamped  or  fought  could  hail  their  victories  without 
finding  them  almost  as  disastrous  to  themselves  as  tne  triumphs  of 
their  enemies. 

"When  Ferdinand  removed  Wallestein  from  his  command,  he  did 
not  leave  himself  without  generals  who  thought  themselves,  and 
whom  he  had  reason  to  think,  a  match  for  any  antagonist,  even 
Gustavus  himself,  if  he  should  venture  into  the  field.  His 
general  in  Pomerania  was  Torquato  Conti,  who  had  gained  con- 
siderable distinction  in  the  recent  campaigns  in  Piedmont ;  and 
who  openly  boasted  that  his  troops  were  such  as  Gustavus  had 
never  met,  and  that  they  would  soon  make  the  Swedish  laurels 

*  The  Estates  was  the  name  given  in  most  of  those  countries  to  the 
Senate  or  Parliament. 


200  MODEKN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1631. 

wither.  Ilis  commander-in-chief  was  the  Bavarian  Count  Tilly, 
a  veteran  from  whose  vigour  and  energy  seventy-two  years  had 
taken  but  little  :  he  had  won  six-and-thirty  battles  without  once 
sufFering  a  defeat,  and  he  was  not  the  less  formidable  because  he 
appreciated  the  character  and  talents  of  his  antagonist.  The 
Viennese  courtiers  made  themselves  merry  at  the  expense  of 
Gustavus's  ice-bound  country,  calling  him  '  a  King  of  Snow,  who 
would  melt  away  under  the  influence  of  a  southern  sun.'  But  Tilly 
was  too  experienced  a  warrior,  and  j  udge  of  warriors,  to  share  their 
presumption ;  he  warned  his  master  that  he  had  now  a  far  more 
formidable  enemy  to  deal  with  than  any  who  had  as  yet  been 
encountered;  that  Gustavus  ^was  a  gamester,  in  playing  with 
whom  not  to  lose  would  be  to  win  a  great  deal.'  Conti  was  the 
first  to  encounter  him ;  and  soon  learnt  that  Tilly's  estimate  of 
him  was  the  more  correct ;  Gustavus  baffled  him  in  an  attempt 
upon  Stettin;  took  Colbergcn,  a  place  of  great  importance,  as 
being  the  storehouse  of  all  the  plunder  which  the  Imperial  armies 
had  collected  during  the  last  two  years,  before  his  face  ;  and  re- 
j-ected  his  proposals  for  a  suspension  of  arms  during  the  winter, 
drove  him  from  place  to  place,  till  in,  disgust  and  despair,  he  re- 
signed his  command. 

Nor  did  Tilly,  though  far  more  cautious  and  skilful,  meet  with 
better  fortune.  Gustavus  opened  the  next  year  by  concluding  a 
formal  treaty  with  France,  which  supplied  him  with  what  he 
needed  most,  money ;  since,  as  in  the  league  between  France  and 
England  in  the  time  of  Henry  IV.  France  again  was  to  furnish 
subsidies,  while  Gustavus  was  to  supply  the  men.  He  engaged  to 
keep  on  foot  an  army  of  35,000  men ;  and  he  fulfilled  his  part  of  the 
compact  with  great  completeness.  In  the  course  of  the  winter  of 
1630  and  the  succeeding  spring  he  is  said  to  have  taken  no  fewer 
than  eighty  towns  and  fortresses  ;  crowning  his  successes  of  this 
kind  by  the  capture  of  the  important  city  of  Frankfort-on-the-Oder, 
though  Tilly  h|id  entrusted  its  defence  to  one  of  his  ablest  officers 
and  to  a  picked  garrison  of  8,000  soldiers ;  and,  twelve  days  after- 
wards, of  Landsperg,  a  fortress  whose  position  made  it  almost 
equally  valuable,  lying  as  it  did  on  the  borders  of  Poland  and 
Prussia,  and  threatening  his  communications  so  long  as  it  re- 
mained in  the  hands  of  the  enemy.  Tilly  himself  felt  that  the 
capture  of  New  Brandenburgh  was  no  compensation  for  this  series 
of  losses ;  for  Gustavus  had  never  designed  to  defend  that  town 
at  all ;  and  it  would  not  have  contained  a  single  trooper,  had  not 
the  fierce  old  Bavarian  intercepted  the  despatches  in  which  the 
king  had  ordered  the  governor  to  withdraw  his  garrison ;  Tilly 
stormed  the  place,  put  the  garrison  to  the  sword,  and  gave  up  the 
peaceful  citizens  to  the  mercy  of  his  soldiers.     But  to  efliice,  in 


A.B.  1631.]  THE  SACK   OF  ]VIAGDEBUIIG.  201 

some  degree,  the  impression  made  by  the  king's  uninterrupted 
triumphs,  Tilly  moved  down  the  Elbe,  and  taking  under  his  com- 
mand a  body  of  troops  commanded  by  Count  Pappenheira,  an 
oificer  second  in  reputation  to  none  but  himself,  laid  siege  to  the 
wealthy  city  of  Magdeburg.  The  name  means  the  Virgin  town, 
and  it  bore  for  its  arms  a  crowned  damsel,  who  in  the  times  of  the 
pagans  whe  had  founded  it,  represented  Venus  the  titular  deity  of 
the  place,  till  Charlemagne  converted  the  Saxons  to  Christianity, 
and  the  Goddess  of  Cyprus  into  the  Virgin  Mary.  It  was  cele- 
brated for  its  riches,  but  was  too  large  for  its  own  safety,  for  its  walls 
were  too  extensive  to  have  been  ever  thoroughly  fortified  ;  and  the 
garrison,  which  scarcely  exceeded  2,000  men,  was  quite  inadequate 
to  man  the  fortifications  which  existed.  Moreover,  the  citizens 
were  not  all  Protestants ;  and  the  Catholics  favoured  the  projects 
of  the  besiegers.  Gustavus,  on  heaving  of  its  danger  prepared  at  -yJ^^iJ. 
once  to  hasten  to  its  defence ;  but  his  road  lay  through  Branden-  *''^''>'** 
burgh  and  Saxony,  and  while  he  was  negotiating  with  the  electors>f/$2^^  ^^ 
of  those  provinces   for  leave   to   pass   through   their  territories,  / 

Pappenheim  stormed  the  city  sword  in  hand,  and  he  and  Tilly 
sullied  their  victory  by  a  savage  cruelt}^  to  which  no  other  incident 
of  these  wars,  fertile  in  atrocities  ps  they  had  been,  afforded  a 
parallel.  Schiller  has  spoken  of  the  occurrences  which  ensued  as 
^a  scene  of  horror,  for  which  history  has  no  language,  poetry  no 
pencil.'  Schiller  himself  was  a  poet,  not  unskilled  in  painting  deeds 
of  blackness  and  of  crime,  and  what  he  felt  unequal  to  describe, 
others  may  well  be  excused  from  dwelling  on,  even  if  to  detail  the 
deeds  of  that  day  were  not  needlessly  to  shock  every  feeling  of 
humanity.  City  and  citizens  were  given  up  to  the  fury  of  the 
soldiery,  stimulated  to  more  than  their  natural  ferocity  by  the 
knowledge  that  their  generals  were  applauding  them.  After  suf- 
fering insults  and  outrages  worse  than  death,  garrison  and  citizens 
were  all  butchered,  with  the  exception  of  about  400  of  the  wealthiest 
nobles  or  merchants,  who  were  able  to  promise  a  ransom  which  the 
monsters  in  whose  power  they  were  preferred  to  their  blood. 
Two  churches  and  a  few  houses  alone  remained  unconsumed  by 
the  fire  which  destroyed  the  rest  of  the  town.  The  conquerors 
could  boast  with  truth,  as  they  did  boast,  that  since  the  wrath  of 
God  had  descended  on  Jerusalem,  no  such  utter  destruction  had 
destroyed  both  citizens  and  city. 

Gustavus  had  been  unable  to  save  Magdeburg,  but  he  avenged 
it.  The  annalists  of  the  day  remarked  that  God  himself  avenged 
it ;  and  that  neither  Tilly  nor  Pappenheim,  who  had  previously 
enjoyed  careers  of  unbroken  success,  ever  gained  an  advantage  in 
the  field  from  that  day.  The  news  of  Magdeburg's  fall  had  hardly 
reached  him,  when  he  was  joined  by  a  splendid  division  of  British 


202  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1631. 

troops,  under  the  Marquis  of  Hamilton,  and  by  another  reinforce- 
ment which  bis  queen  brouj^ht  in  person  to  swell  his  ranks.  With 
numbers  now  fully  equal  to  Tilly's  he  pursued  that  general  into 
Saxony ;  and,  after  having  gained  repeated  advantages  over  him  in 
manoeuvres  and  petty  skirmishes,  on  the  seventh  of  September 
brought  him  to  action  under  the  walls  of  Leipzig,  of  which,  as  it 
was  defenceless,  he  had  made  himself  master  two  days  before. 

The  battle  of  Leipzig,  or  Breitenfeldt  as  it  is  also  called,  was  the 
turning  point  of  the  war.  Both  Gustavus  and  Tilly  felt  that  it  was 
not  only  to  decide  their  respective  pretensions  to  superiority  of  skill, 
but  that  it  was  also  to  determine  the  Protestant  States  in  the  course 
which  they  would  adopt  for  the  future.  If  Gustavus  were  beaten, 
nothing  would  remain  for  them  but  to  make  their  submission  on 
whatever  terms  the  Emperor  might  choose  to  dictate.  If  vic- 
tory should  declare  for  him,  not  only  those  who  took  part  with 
him  would  feel  good  hope  of  eventual  triumph,  but- many  who  as 
yet  were  standing  aloof,  watching  the  course  of  events,  would 
throw  in  their  lot  with  those  who,  in  fighting  for  their  own  re- 
ligious freedom,  were  at  the  same  time  champions  of  the  civil 
liberty  of  all.  The  opposing  armies  were  not  unworthy  of  so 
momentous  a  contest ;  they  were,  as  nearly  as  possible,  equal  in 
numbers,  each  consisting  of  about  35,000  men  ;  and,  as  Tilly  mar- 
shalled his  forces  according  to  the  old  method  or  want  of  method, 
and  Gustavus  his  on  the  plan  on  which  he  had  for  some  time  been 
training  them,  the  battle  was  a  fair  trial  of  the  two  systems,  and 
a  test  of  the  value  of  his  new  tactics.  Tilly's  main  body  consisted 
of  a  dense  mass  of  pikemen,  covered  in  front  by  liaes  of  musketeers, 
each  force  in  appearance  supporting,  but,  in  fact,  hindering  the 
other.  When  Gustavus  charged  the  whole  division  with  his 
cavalry,  the  pikemen  could  give  no  aid  to  the  musketeers,  who 
were  cut  down  helplessly  5  when  the  musketeers  had  been  dis- 
posed of,  the  attacking  cavalry  fell  back  and  a  body  of  Swedish 
musketeers  mowed  the  pikemen  down,  without  their  pikes  being 
of  the  slightest  service.  In  other  parts  of  the  field  the  conflict  was 
more  stubborn.  There  Pappenheim  charged  Hamilton's  infantry 
with  his  cuirassiers;  but  Gustavus  had  supported  them  with 
cavalry,  and  after  a  fierce  struggle  the  united  battalions  drove 
back  the  cuirassiers,  and  pursued  them  to  the  small  hamlet  of 
Podelwitz  which  was  near  the  centre  of  the  Imperial  line,  and  the 
key  of  Tilly's  position.  Pappenheim,  undaunted  and  fertile  in  ex- 
pedients, set  fire  to  the  hamlet,  and  having  thus  checked  the  ad- 
vance of  his  pursuers,  turned  upon  them  and  again  charged  them 
with  the  most  brilliant  vigour ;  but  their  commander  at  once 
deployed  them  into  line,  and  the  British  infantry,  giving  perhaps 
on  this  occasion  the  first  example  of  their  immovable  steadiness 


A.D.  1631.]  BATTLE  OF   BREITENFELDT.  203 

in  such  a  formation,  repelled  onset  after  onset,  till  at  last  the 
cuirassiers  retreated  in  disorder,  with  difficulty,  bearing  oil"  Pap- 
penheioi  himself  who  was  desperately,  though,  as  it  proved,  not 
mortally  wounded.  In  the  centre,  Tilly  in  person  led  on  his  men, 
with  such  impetuosity  that  he  broke  a  Saxon  brigade  in  his  front, 
the  Elector  himself  setting  the  example  of  fliglit.  Tilly  thouglit 
the  battle  won,  and  sent  off  couriers  to  Munich  and  Vienna  to 
announce  the  victory ;  at  the  same  time  exerting  himself  to  secure 
it  by  directing  a  vehement  attack  on  the  main  body  of  the  Swedish 
infantry,  whom  the  rout  of  the  Saxons  had  uncovered  ;  but  one  of 
Gustavus's  best  officers.  Marshal  Home,  promptly  brought  up  some 
battalions  from  the  reserve  to  support  their  comrades  ;  and  on  the 
infantry  thus  strengthened  no  efforts  of  the  Bavarians  could  make 
impression ;  still  at  that  point  the  struggle  was  obstinate,  and  for 
some  time  doubtful;  till  Gustavus,  seeing  what  was  taking  place, 
brought  up  some  squadrons  of  heavy  cavalry  to  turn  the  balance  ; 
charged  the  Bavarian  artillery  ;  took  several  guns  and  turned  them 
upon  Tilly's  brigades,  which,  being  equally  matched  before,  were 
now  overpowered  by  the  new  and  unexpected  attack  from  their 
own  batteries.  Tilly,  showing  himself  a  great  soldier  even  in  his 
misfortunes,  tried  to  make  one  last  stand  with  his  reserve,  but 
could  do  no  more  than  gain  time  for  his  broken  regiments  to  rally 
so  far  as  to  retreat  in  tolerable  order  to  a  wood  in  the  rear  of  his 
position,  where  night  protected  them  from  pursuit.  The  victory 
was  complete  ;  the  Imperialists  had  lost  7,000  killed  and  wounded  ; 
with  3,000  prisoners,  30  guns,100  standards,  and  all  their  baggage  ; 
while  in  Gustavus's  army,  the  Swedes  and  British,  on  whom  the 
brunt  of  the  day  had  fallen,  were  not  weakened  by  a  loss  of  more 
them  700  men  ;  the  chief  slaughter  having  fallen  on  the  Saxons, 
whose  misconduct  had  so  nearly  lost  the  battle ;  and  of  whom 
almost  2,000  were  cut  down  in  their  precipitate  flight.  . 

The  victory  was  soon  shown  by  its  fruits  to  have  been  as  im-  f>^j^^ 
portant  as  it  had  been  glorious.     Many  of  the  smaller  princes,  who  f^^^tJilJ^i^,,^^ 
had  hitherto  been  afraid  to  declare  themselves,  now  ranged  them-  ^      "  V^ 
selves  on  the  king's  side,  and  brought  him  reinforcements;  and,  as  l^'*-*'*^'^** 
he  marched  towards  the  upper  Khine,  many  a  town  and  fortress 
opened  its  gates  to  welcome  him ;  and  by  the  end  of  the  year  he 
had   reached   the   great  river   almost   unresisted..      Tilly   would 
willingly  have  fought  another  battle,  in  the  hope  of  retrieving  his 
credit,  and   saving   the   important   city  of  Wurzburg ;    but   the 
Emperor's   express   orders   forbad   an    attempt  in  which  failure 
might  have  imperilled  Vienna  itself;    and  the  only  commander 
who  endeavoured  to  arrest  the  conqueror's  triumphant  march  was 
the  Duke  of  Lorraine,  who,  though  with  numbers  very  inferior  to 
his,  did  indeed  venture  on  an  action ;  but  was  easily  routed,  being 


^^ 


204  MODERN  HISTOllY.  [a.d.  1632. 

indeed  himself  one  of  the  first  to  flee  from  the  field.  The  very 
peasantry  -who.  a  few  months  before  had  never  heard  of  Gustavus, 
now  hailed  his  approach  with  enthusiasm  ;  and  were  loud  in  his 
praise,  in  and  out  of  season.  '  Hide  faster,  sir,'  said  one  village 
clown  to  the  flying  duke,  and  as  he  spoke  he  gave  his  charger  a  blow 
to  quicken  his  speed,  *  You  must  make  more  haste  than  that,  if  you 
mean  to  escape  from  the  great  King  of  Sweden.' 

Again,  as  in  the  previous  year,  disregarding  the  severity  of 
winter,  in  the  first  weeks  of  the  year  Gustavus  forced  the  passage 
of  the  Rhine,  took  Mayence  and  several  other  cities ;  compelled 
^  .  ^  the  Elector  of  Treves  to  renounce  his  alliance  with  the  Emperor ; 
f  rH"*^***.  ►  then,  recrossing  the  Rhine  towards  the  Upper  Palatinate,  he  cap- 
tured Nuremburg  and  Donawerth ;  and  having  thus  reached  a 
district  which  Tilly  was  occupying  in  force,  pursued  him  up  the 
Lech  till  he  reached  a  spot  near  the  little  town  of  Raine,  where 
the  resolute  Bavarian  had  taken  up  a  strong  position  behind  the 
river,  the  bridges  of  which  he  had  broken  down ;  and  where  he 
had  fortified  a  camp  in  the  confidence  that  he  could  prevent  the 
king's  further  advance,  and  perhaps  detain  him  there  till  some 
other  army  might  come  up  and  cut  off"  his  retreat.  But  Gustavus, 
reconnoitring  his  position  in  person,  discovered  that  his  own  bank 
WL^  \A^  of  the  Lech  was  higher  than  the  other  ;  and  availed  himself  of 
^  I  V  this  circumstance  to  plant  a  heavy  battery  to  bear  on  the  camp, 
t^'tAcJ  under  the  fire  of  which  he  threw  a  bridge  across  the  stream,  over 
which  he  at  once  passed  his  infantry,  while  his  cavalry  crossed  by 
a  ford  which  his  scouts  had  discovered  at  no  great  distance.  A 
sharp  action  ensued,  but  Tilly  was  mortally  wounded  by  one  of 
the  first  shots  fired  ;  and  the  Bavarian  army  was  forced  to  retreat 
towards  the  Danube,  while  Gustavus,  passing  up  the  Lech,  reaped 
the  fruits  of  his  victor}^  by  the  capture  of  Augsburg;  and  a  few 
weeks  afterwards  by  that  of  Munich  itself. 

In  this  uninterrupted  success  of  his  enemy,  it  was  probably  not 

the  least  painful  circumstance  to  Ferdinand  that  it  compelled  him 

'-^  ^  ^^  to  humble  himself  before  the  great  general  whom  he  had  treated 

so  un worthily.     But  he  could  not  disguise  from  himself  that  no 

one  but  Wallestein  could  cope  with  the  King  of  Sweden;   and 

f^,^  ^      when  he  found  that  the  haughty  duke  would  not  discuss  the  state 

of  affairs  with  his  ministers,  he  wrote  to  him  with  his  own  hand, 

\  _j/^^     Ltnploring  him  to  forget  wliat  had  passed,  and  not  to  forsake  him  in 

/^^iiis  hour  of  adversity.   Wallestein  was  willing  to  treat,  or  rather  to 

dictate  the  terms  on  which  he  would  consent  to  return  to  what  it 

would  be  wrong  to   call  his  service.     The  conditions  which  he 

demanded  amounted  to  an  entire  transference  of  all  control  over 

the  army  from  the  Emperor  to  himself.     Ilis  command  was  to  be 

single,  and  unlimited.     The  Emperor  was  not  to  approach  the 


A.D.  1632.]  WALLESTEIN  RESUMES  THE  COMMAND.      205 

army,  with  which  he  was  to  have  nothing  to  do  but  to  pay  it ;  was 
to  have  no  power  to  grant  commissions,  to  confer  honours  or  re- 
wards ;  even  the  conquests  and  acquisitions  which  might  be  made 
were  to  be  at  the  disposal  of  the  general ;  for  whose  pay  an  Im- 
perial hereditary  estate  was  to  be  assigned ;  and  his  command  was 
not  to  be  abrogated  without  formal  and  timely  notice. 

Enormous   as   these   demands  were,   the  first  results  of  their 
concession  seemed  to  justify  it.     VVallestein's  name  was  indeed  a 
tower  of  strength.     The   moment  that  his  appointment  to  the 
chief  command  was  known,  men  of  all  ranks  hastened  to  join  his 
standard.     Tilly  had  fallen  on  the  ninth  of  April.     On  the  fourth 
of  May,  Wallestein,  at  the  head  of  40,000  men,  drove  a  Swedish 
garrison  out  of  Prague,  the  recapture  of  which  had  been  one  oiQ  x^   ' 
the  first-fruits  of  Breitenfeldt ;  in  a  few  weeks  he  recovered  the' •**'^'^^ 
whole  of  Bohemia,  effected  a  juncture  with  the  Duke  of  Bavaria, J  y^ 
who  had  taken  the  command  of  the  relics  of  Tilly's  army,  and,     Ma*(« 
now  at  the  head  of  60,000  men,  marched  upon  Nuremburg  which  ,1      ^  / 
were  the  head-quarters  of  Gustavus,  in  the  not  ill-founded  hope        ^A^ 
of  at  once  crushing  him  with  his  superior  numbers,  for  he  was^O   2l>*^ 
well  aware  that  the  king  had  left  detachments  in  Munich  and    y 
other  cities  and  provinces,  and  had  scarcely  20,000  men  around  his 
standard.     But  Gustavus,  who  was  not  ignorant  of  his  strength, 
had  anticipated  his  designs ;    he  had  fortified   not  a  camp,  but 
Nuremburg  itself  with  fosses,  bastions,  redoubts,  and  all   other 
means  of  resistance  known  to  the  engineers  of  that  age,  and  when 
Wallestein  came  in  sight  of  the  city,  though  he  was  scarcely  a 
fortnight  later  than   the  king  himself,   he   found    the  defences 
bristling  with  300  guns,  and,  as  he  was  compelled  to  confess,  in 
his  judgment,  impregnable. 

The  two  great  commanders  were  now  for  the  first  time  con- 
fronted together ;  and  for  nearly  three  months  the  campaign  was 
a  trial  of  skill  between  them  in  which  Wallesteiu's  superiority  in 
numbers  did  not  always  secure  him  the  advantage.  He  took  up  a 
position  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  city  calculated,  as  he  con- 
sidered, to  enable  him  to  cut  off  the  king's  supplies,  and  so  starve 
him  if  he  remained  in  it,  or  to  fall  upon  him  with  assurance  of 
success  if  he  endeavoured  to  quit  it.  But  Gustavus  supplied  him- 
self by  seizing  a  large  magazine  of  provisions  which  at  a  short 
distance  had  been  accumulated  for  the  supply  of  the  Imperialists 
themselves ;  and,  though  he  did  not  escape  some  retaliation,  on  the 
whole,  the  advantnge  in  these  operations  was  on  his  side.  Mean- 
while he  was  active  in  calling  in  his  detachments.  By  the  middle 
of  August  he  had  raised  his  force  to  40,000  men.  And  as  different 
causes  had  reduced  the  Imperial  army  to  the  same  strength,  he 
selected  St.   Bartholomew's  Day  as  one  which  the  atrocities  of 


206  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1632. 

Charles  IX.  had  made  of  evil  omen  for  all  adherents  of  the  Pope, 
and  on  that  morning  he  made  a  furious  attack  on  Wallestein's 
entrenchments.  But  it  requires  superiority  of  numbers  success- 
fully to  attack  a  well  fortified  position  ;  and  he  was  repulsed,  with 
heavy  loss  ;  and,  as  it  was  impossible  for  him  to  feed  his  army 
any  longer  in  a  now  exhausted  district,  he,  in  the  first  week  of 
September,  quitted  Nuremburg  ;  and,  marching  slowly,  as  if  in 
defiance,  along  the  front  of  the  Imperial  camp,  retreated  north- 
wards towards  Saxony. 

Had  the  question  of  peace  or  war,  as  well  as  the  conduct  of  the 
war  been  left  to  Wallestein,  it  is  probable  that  this  campaign 
might  have  terminated  the  quarrel.  For  Gustavus  was  at  all 
times  desirous  of  peace,  provided  it  could  be  made  compatible  with 
the  safety  and  religious  freedom  of  his  brother  Protestants  in 
Germany ;  and  Wallestein,  though  full  of  confidence  in  his 
military  genius,  was  at  all  times  cautious  and  prudent ;  moreover, 
though  in  some  points  superstitious,  he  was  far  from  bigoted,  and 
was  too  large  minded  not  to  appreciate  the  principles  of  toleration, 
and  to  be  willing  to  recommend  the  concessions  which  the  king  re- 
quired. Before  he  quitted  Nuremburg,  Gustavus  had  released  an 
officer  high  in  his  confidence  who  had  fallen  into  his  hands,  that 
he  might  be  the  bearer  of  formal  proposals  of  peace  ;  and  Walle- 
stein at  once  forwarded  them  to  Vienna  j  but,  while  the  Emperor 
and  his  ministers  were  discussing  them,  the  intelligence  of  the 
failure  of  the  attack  on  Wallestein's  camp  filled  them  with  such 
elation  that  they  looked  upon  the  king  as  hopelessly  entangled  in 
his  toils,  and,  in  this  belief,  returned  an  answer  so  arrogant  as  to 
destroy  all  hope  of  accommodation. 

Gustavus,  therefore,  retraced  his  steps  towards  Saxony;  whither 
Wallestein  followed  him,  hoping  by  ravaging  the  Saxon  plains  to 
detach  the  elector  from  his  alliance :  and,  in  the  first  week  in 
November,  the  two  armies  were  once  more  in  the  same  district. 
Wallestein  had  nearly  40,000  men :  Gustavus  little  more  than 
20,000,  but,  according  to  his  usual  practice,  he  had  fortified  his 
camp  with  a  skill  that  compensated  for  his  inferiority  in  numbers ; 
with  such  laborious  art  indeed,  that  his  antagonist  conceived  that 
he  designed  to  make  the  camp  his  winter  quarters,  and  under  that 
idea  detached  Pappenheim  and  some  of  his  other  officers  on  separ- 
ate enterprises.  On  the  fifth  of  November  an  intercepted  despatch 
revealed  to  the  king  this  division  of  his  enemy's  force ;  and  in- 
formed him  that  Wallestein  himself  was  moving  towards  Lutzen. 
He  took  instant  steps  to  surprise  and  crush  him  while  thus 
weakened :  directing  his  whole  army  also  upon  Lutzen,  but  the 
badness  of  the  roads  delayed  his  march :  a  river  too,  lay  in  his 
line  of  advance,  which  he  was  not  permitted  to  cross  without  a 


A.D.  1632.]  THE  BATTLE  OF  LUTZEN.  207 

smart  action  with  one  of  Wallestein's  outposts :  so  that  it  was 
evening  hefore  he  came  in  sight  of  his  main  body,  and  by  that  time 
Wallestein  had  had  warning  of  his  danger,  and  had  sent  couriers 
to  recall  Pappenheim,  and  other  generals,  if  possible,  to  his  support. 
All  night  the  divisions  came  pouring  in,  each,  as  it  arrived,  taking 
up  the  ground  which  he  had  already  assigned  it  for  the  morrow's 
combat.  His  heavy  infantry  he  arranged,  still  adhering  to  the  old 
tactics,  in  large  square  battalions,  interspersing  them,  however, 
with  bodies  of  light  troops.  The  cavalry  under  Pappenheim 
formed  his  left  wing ;  a  heavy  battery,  planted  on  a  slight  emi- 
nence crowned  by  a  windmill,  strengthened  his  right.  Gustavus 
marshalled  his  men,  as  at  Breitenfeldt,  the  infantry  in  two  lines, 
the  hindmost  of  which  was  kept  in  reserve  :  the  cavalry  on  the 
flanks  being  also  in  two  lines  ;  and  his  guns,  rather  more  numerous 
than  those  of  the  Imperialists,  were  distributed  all  along  his 
position.  sj 

When  the  morning  came  and  he  learned  what  reinforcements  had 
joined  Wallestein  during  the  night,  he  perceived  that  he  had  so 
far  missed  his  blow  that  he  was  inferior  in  numbers :  but  in  cavalry 
and  artillery  he  was  still  the  stronger,  and  confiding  in  the  advan- 
tage which  this  gave  him,  he  resolved  to  attack.  He  would  have 
wished  to  begin  the  battle  as  soon  as  it  was  daylight,  before  those 
of  the  Imperialist  troops,  who  had  marched  all  night,  had  fully 
rested  ;  but  a  heavy  fog  overspread  the  plain  ;  and  it  was  almost 
noon  before  it  cleared  away :  then,  mounting  a  white  charger  of 
conspicuous  beauty,  that  he  might  be  visible  to  all  his  army,  and 
uttering  aloud  a  brief  prayer,  *  Aid  us.  Lord  Jesus,  for  thy  Holy 
Name  are  we  about  to  fight,'  he,  in  person,  led  on  his  first  line 
to  the  charge.  The  tale  of  hard-foaght  battles  has  been  often  told, 
and  presents  but  little  variety.  The  Imperialists  set  fire  to  Lutzen, 
to  prevent  their  flank  being  turned  in  that  direction :  but  such 
manoeuvres  formed  no  part  of  Gustavus's  plan  on  this  occasion. 
He  pressed  straight  forward.  Animated  by  his  example,  the 
Swedes  followed  with  such  fiery  impetuosity  that  they  broke  the 
square  opposed  to  them  ;  but  Wallestein  was  as  energetic  as  him- 
self, though  he  was  suftering  under  a  severe  attack  of  gout,  he 
forgot  his  own  pains,  and  by  his  personal  exertions  rallied  his  men  ; 
and  continued  the  fight,  while  the  king,  hearing  that  Duke  Ber- 
nard of  Saxe-Weimar,  his  second  in  command,  had  been  less 
successful  on  the  other  wing,  hastened  to  his  support :  encouraged 
by  his  presence,  the  Weimar  division  rallied,  and  beat  back  the 
opposing  squadrons :  and  all  seemed  going  well,  when  an  Im- 
perialist trooper,  conjecturing,  from  the  manner  in  which  all  made 
way  for  Gustavus  as  he  galloped  along,  that  he  must  be  a  person 
of  consequence,  fired  at  him  with  fatal  aim.     Gustavus  wore  no 


208  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1632. 

armour ;  one  shot  broke  his  arm,  a  second  more  fatal  pierced  his 
breast ;  ^  he  fell  dying  to  the  ground  :  while  his  horse,  galloping 
along  the  line,  by  the  empty  saddle  proclaimed  his  loss  to  the 
army.  Duke  Bernard  at  once  took  the  command,  and  led  on  the 
whole  line  for  another  charge.  Fighting  to  avenge  their  king, 
the  Swedes,  formidable  before,  were  now  irresistible.  In  vain  did 
Pappenheim  collect  the  freshest  of  his  horsemen,  and  try  to  give 
the  broken  battalions  time  to  rally.  He  too  fell  mortally  wounded. 
In  vain  did  Wallestein  himself  fight  as  if  he  courted  death,  hasten- 
ing wherever  the  enemy's  ranks  were  thickest  and  fiercest,  and  the 
battle  hottest.  A  cannon  shot  tore  away  a  spur  from  his  heel,  a 
musket  ball  lodged  in  his  thickly  quilted  buff  coat :  he  seemed  to 
bear  a  charmed  life ;  but  his  utmost  exertions  could  do  no  more 
than  delay  his  defeat.  At  last  under  the  repeated  charges  of  the 
Swedes,  his  men  gave  way  in  every  direction :  his  artillery  was 
taken,  and  nothing  remained  for  him  bu^  to  retreat.  The  amount 
of  killed  in  either  army  is  not  known  ;  and  the  Swedes  were  too 
much  exhausted  by  their  conflict  with  a  superior  force  to  make 
any  prisoners  :  but  they  captured  all  Wallestein's  guns  and 
baggage  ;  and  the  Imperialist  army  was  so  completely  disorganised 
that,  when  the  next  day  it  fell  back  to  Leipsic,  Wallestein  could 
barely  collect  2,000  men  around  his  standards. 

Ferdinand  affected  to  look  on  Lutzen  as  a  victory  :  and  formally 
thanked  W.allestein  for  its  achievement.  But  his  real  feeling  was 
that  the  death  of  Gustavus  would  enab?e  him  once  more  to  do 
without  the  general  of  whom  he  was  ever  distrustful :  and  who, 
had  his  services  been  still  more  unquestionable,  would  probably 
have  cancelled  them  all  in  Ferdinand's  narrow  cruel  mind  by  the 
advice  which  he  now  urged  upon  him  to  avail  himself  of  the  con- 
sternation and  embarrassment  which  the  death  of  Gustavus  had 
caused  to  the  Protestants  to  conclude  peace  on  the  basis  of  a 
general  amnesty  and  religious  toleration.  In  the  end,  therefore, 
the  battle  of  Lutzen  was  as  fatal  to  Wallestein  as  to  Gustavus : 
and  he  soon  became  aware  what  machinations  for  his  digrace,  if 
not  for  his  destruction,  were  set  on  foot.  During  the  winter  he 
recruited  his  army  so  effectually  that  at  the  return  of  spring,  he 
had  again  40,000  men  at  his  disposal ;  but  he  soon  learnt  that 
among  them  were  some  spies,  employed  to  watch  all  his  movements 

^  Every  account  of  the  battle  that  But  the  buff  coat  -which  Gustavus 

I  have  seen,  except  that  of  Coxe,  -wore  in  the  battle  is  still  preserved 

affirms  that  the  fatal  shot  wounded  in  the  arsenal  at  Vienna,  where  Coxe 

Gustavus  in  the  back;  which  is  pro-  aftirms  that  he  examined  it  himself, 

bahly,  to  a  great  extent,  the  founda-  and  that  *it  is  only  perforated  in  the 

tion  for  the  statement  that  has  been  front.' — House,    of  Austria,  c.     64, 

frequently  made  that  he  was  treacher-  p.  145,  note.    8vo.  edit.  1820 
(tusly  killed  by  one  of  his  own  officers. 


k.i>.  JG33.]   FERDINAND'S  JEALOUSY  OF  WALLESTEIN.     209 

and  to  report  them  at  Vienna.  He  performed  one  considerable 
service  by  surprising  a  division  of  5,000  Swedes,  with  a  strong 
train  of  artillery,  under  the  command  of  Count  Thurn  at  Stenau : 
and  compelling  them  to  lay  down  their  arms ;  but,  as  the  capitu- 
lation which  he  granted  them  secured  the  liberty  of  the  officers, 
that  act  of  humanity  neutralised  the  merit  of  the  exploit  in  the 
eyes  of  the  Emperor,  who  had  promised  himself  the  gratification 
of  executing  Thurn  for  his  former  zeal  in  the  cause  of  the  Elector 
Palatine. 

Wallestein's  zeal  in  pressing  his  political  opinions  in  favour  of 
peace  began  to  be  quickened  by  a  feeling  of  what  was  best  for  his 
own  safety.  He  was  aware  that  he  had  enemies  at  court  who 
misrepresented  all  his  acts  and  motives.  And  he  wished,  if  he 
could  disencumber  himself  of  it  with  honour,  to  lay  down  a  com- 
mand which  only  exposed  him  to  envy  and  calumny.  The  best 
way  of  arriving  at  that  end  was  to  bring  about  a  general  pacifica- 
tion ;  and,  as  he  had  already  recommended  an  accommodation  on 
more  than  one  occasion,  he  seems  to  have  conceived  the  idea  that 
he  might  facilitate  such  a  measure  by  opening  the  negotiation 
himself. 

Such,  it  can  hardly  be  doubted,  was  the  original  purpose  of 
the  intercourse  which,  towards  the  end  of  the  year  1633,  he 
began  to  hold  with  some  of  the  Protestant  leaders ;  nor  did  he 
conceal  from  the  Emperor's  ministers  his  belief  that  peace  was 
inevitable,  and  his  own  desire  to  have  a  share  in  the  negotia- 
tion entrusted  to  him.  But  he  soon  perceived  that  not  only  was 
there  no  intention  of  confiding  a  new  commission  to  him,  but  that 
the  terms  of  that  which  he  did  hold  were  systematically  violated. 
Orders  were  sent  by  the  Emperor  to  his  officers  which  were  a  direct 
infringement  of  the  absolute  command  which  had  been  conferred 
upon  himself  J  and  he  could  not  doubt  that  a  resolution  had  been 
taken  at  Vienna  to  irritate  him  into  the  resignation  of  his  com- 
mand, or,  if  that  plan  failed,  to  deprive  him  of  it,  if  not  to  destroy 
hira.  He  determined  to  protect  himself.  The  communications 
w^hich  he  had  opened  with  the  leaders  of  the  enemy  with  one 
object,  the  peace  of  Europe,  he  now  continued  for  another.  He 
determined  to  fly,  and  he  sent  the  Duke  of  Saxe-Lauenburg  (who 
since  the  battle  of  Lutzen,  when  he  fought  on  the  side  of  the 
Swedes,  had  quitted  that  party  and  attached  himself  to  Wallestein 
and  his  fortunes)  to  Duke  Bernard  to  request  his  protection.  But  ho 
was  too  late.  Ferdinand  had  not  only  resolved  on  his  destruction, 
but  had  already  taken  steps  to  render  it  immediate.  He  sought  to 
blind  his  victim  by  a  show  of  increased  confidence  in  him,  writing 
to  him,  on  the  thirteenth  of  February,  that '  he  confided  the  king- 
dom of  Bohemia  to  his  approved  care  and  protection  should  the 


210  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  163-t. 

Swedes  advance  against  the  frontier ; '  *  but  nearly  three  weeks 
before  he  had  signed  a  secret  edict,  not  only  depriving  Wallestein 
of  his  command,  and  conferring  it  on  two  Italians,  Generals 
Gallasso  and  Piccolomini,  but  declaring  him  an  outlaw,  and  com- 
manding those  officers  to  secure  his  person,  dead  or  alive.  They 
took  these  measures  with  as  much  secresy  and  treachery  as  their 
Imperial  master ;  but  an  English  writer  cannot  record  without 
shame  that  the  agents  of  this  infamous  plot  were  his  own  country- 
men :  one.  Colonel  Butler,  was  an  Irish  Catholic ;  two.  Colonel 
Gordon  and  Alajor  Leslie,  were  Scotch  Presbyterians ;  a  fourth, 
Captain  Devereux,  was  an  Englishman  ;  all  officers  of  General 
Tersky's  regiment,  bound  to  their  great  commander  by  numberless 
acts  of  liberality,  and  enjoying  his  entire  confidence.  On  the 
twenty-fifth  of  February  he  was  passing  through  Egra,  in  Bohemia, 
where  he  had  a  small  palace,  escorted  by  Tersky's  regiment,  and 
attended  by  a  small  staff,  of  whom  General  Tersky,  Count  Illo, 
and  Count  Kinsky,  were  the  chief  members.  Nobles  and  officers 
supped  together  in  the  castle,  all  but  Wallestein  himself,  whose 
health  confined  him  to  a  rigid  regimen,  and  who  remained  at  the 
mayor's  house  in  the  market-place,  where  he  was  lodged.  But, 
while  the  meal  was  proceeding,  the  conspirators  introduced  some 
private  troopers  whose  aid  they  had  secured,  into  the  adjacent 
hall,  and  as  soon  as  the  servants  had  retired  the  deed  of  blood  was 
commenced.  A.s  Butler  had  not  dared  to  tamper  with  Tersky  and 
the  nobles,  they  were  to  share  Wallestein's  fate.  At  a  given 
signal,  Devereux  exclaimed  '  Who  is  for  the  Emperor  ?  '  admitted 
the  troopers  into  the  supper-room,  and,  at  their  head,  he,  Butler, 
Gordon,  and  Leslie  fell  on  the  unsuspecting  victims.  Kinsky  and 
Illo  were  struck  down  in  a  moment.  Tersky  sprang  to  his  sword, 
which  he  had  hung  upon  the  wall,  and  throwing  himself  into  a 
comer,  sold  his  life  dearly.  Two  of  his  assailants  fell  dead,  and  a 
third  mortally  wounded,  before  his  sweeping  blows.  Devereux  he 
disarmed,  but  at  last  he  was  overpowered  by  numbers  ;  and  then, 
when  all  the  rest  had  been  despatched,  Butler  and  Devereux  crossed 
to  Wallestein's  quarters,  where,  though  he  had  by  this  time  re- 
tired to  bed,  the  guard,  knowing  their  rank,  and  supposing  they 
had  business  with  him,  admitted  them  without  scruple.     They 

1  Quoted  by  Colonel  Mitchell,  the  Colonel  relies  as  his  principal 
Life  of  V/'aUcstein,  ]).o2l.  Mitchell's  authority,  and  which  was  compiled 
account  of  these  transactions  is  not  from  the  archives  of  the  War  de- 
very  perspicuous,  but  I  have  had  no  partment  at  Vienna,  was  not  pub- 
hesitation  in  preferring:  his  narrative  lislied  till  1834.  It  may  be  remarked 
to  Schiller's,  because  he  supports  it  thatCoxe,whoseaccount  on  the  whole 
by  quotations  from  existing  docu-  is  very  favorable  to  Wallestein,  was 
ments,  of  which  Schiller  takes  no  ignorant  of  the  edict  of  outlawry 
notice,  perhaps  from  ignorance ;  since  of  the  twenty-fourth  of  January. 
Fbrster's  Life  of  Wallestein,  on  which 


A.D.  1634.]  MUEDEK  OF  WALLESTEIN.  211 

rushed  up  the  stairs ;  Wallestein's  valet  desired  them  to  make  less 
noise,  as  his  master  was  going  to  sleep.  ^  It  is  a  time  for  noise,' 
shouted  Devereux,  and  thrust  open  the  bedroom  door.  Walle- 
stein  had  risen  from  his  bed,  and  had  gone  to  the  window  to  learn 
the  cause  of  the  uproar;  he  turned  round  and  confronted  the 
assassin.  '  Thou  must  die ! '  once  more  shouted  Devereux,  and 
plunged  a  pike  into  his  general's  heart,  who  fell  dead  without  a 
word. 

Ferdinand,  who  a  day  or  two  before  had  caused  prayers  to  be 
offered  up  in  all  the  churches  of  Vienna  for  the  success  of  his 
design,  disgraced  himself  further  by  conferring  munificent  rewards 
on  all  concerned  in  the  assassination.  He  published  an  official 
account  of  the  transaction,  and  of  his  own  motives,  too  full  of 
inconsistencies  and  notorious  falsehoods  to  obtain  credit  for  a 
moment.  And  the  real  truth  was  long  concealed  under  his  pom- 
pous but  apparently  authentic  statenaents.  Recently  it  has  been 
revealed  by  an  examination  of  the  archives  of  the  different  de- 
partments preserved  at  Vienna  and  Prague,  which  the  Emperor 
Francis  II.  permitted  a  modern  Prussian  writer  to  make ;  which 
has  vindicated  the  great  warrior's  innocence  of  the  charges 
of  treason  that  had  been  brought  against  him  and  has  shown 
that  he  fell  a  victim  to  the  jealousy  of  a  timid,  ungrateful,  and 
cruel  prince;  who,  having  granted  him  powers  which,  it  must 
be  confessed,  were  immoderate  and  incompatible  with  the  due 
exercise  of  his  own  authority,  was  rendered  jealous  by  his  own 
fears,  and  was  not  ashamed  to  extricate  himself  by  a  base  treachery 
to  which  not  even  the  assassination  of  Guise  by  Henry  HI.  can 
supply  a  parallel. 

Gustavus  and  Wallestein  are  the  two  prominent  heroes  of  the  Cv^  J 
Thirty  Years'  War.  The  German  duke  was  not  a  military  reformer,  jj^"*^^^ 
nor  an  inventor  of  new  tactics,  like  his  royal  antagonist ;  but,  as  a  jZ^iu*  Z 
commander  in  the  field,  he  was  but  little  inferior  to  him,  and  con-  ^^. 

fessedly  superior  to  every  soldier  in  the  Emperor's  service.  With  ^***  7^ 
the  deaths  of  these  two  great  men  the  war  loses  its  most  striking 
and  interesting  features.  It  was  still  waged  for  many  years  with 
undiminished  animosity,  with  no  ordinary  skill,  and  with  strangely 
varying  fortunes ;  the  Emperor's  son,  afterwards  Ferdinand  III., 
with  the  Bavarians  Mercy  and  John  de  Wert,  being  successively 
the  Imperial  leaders,  and  Duke  Bernhard,  Banner,  and  Torstenson, 
the  two  latter  countrymen  and  worthy  pupils  of  Gustavus,  con- 
ducting the  Protestant  armies.  At  one  time  Ferdinand  routed  the 
Swedes  at  Nordlingen,  and,  skilfully  supported  by  John  de  Wert, 
had  nearly  reduced  the  Protestants  to  a  peace  which,  in  fact, 
would  have  been  submission  to  the  Emperor  on  his  own  terms. 
At  another  Torstenson  illustrated  the  old  battle-field  of  Leipsic  with 


212  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1634. 

a  second  and  still  more  decisive  victory.  Meanwhile,  France,  her 
inveterate  hatred  of  Spain  combining  with  the  larger  views  of 
policy  which  had  been  bequeathed  to  her  by  Henry  IV.,  was 
gradually  throwing  her  sword  more  and  more  heavily  into  the 
scale  ;  and  the  final  termination  of  the  war  was  accelerated,  if  not 
directly  brought  about,  by  the  effective  support  which  the  armies 
of  that  Catholic  country,  while  a  cardinal  of  the  Catholic  church 
was  its  prime  minister,  afforded  to  the  champions  of  German 
Protestantism,  as  will  be  related  in  the  ensuing  chapter.  ^ 

*  The  authorities  for  the  preceding  War,  Haute's  Life  of  Gustavna 
chapter  are  chiefly  Coxe's  House  of  Adolphus,  Mitchell's  Life  of  Walle- 
Aiutriuy    Schiller's    Thirty    Yean*     stein. 


A.D.  1610.]  DISMISSAL  OF  SULLY.  213 


CHAPTER     X.  I^^^^K^;  ;ej^4/^ 

A.D.  1610— 1G48.  -^.>/^**^^*-jVA 

ri"^HE  immediate  coDseq[uences  of  the  murder  of  Henry  IV.  were 
X  a  return  to  the  old  system  of  corruption  and  intrigue  which 
Sully  had  done  so  much  to  discourage ;  and  for  a  moment  it  seemed 
not  unlikely  that  with  it  the  internal  disorders  and  even  civil 
wars  which  had  made  the  preceding  reigns  so  miserable  and  so  in- 
famous would  return  likewise.  Queen  Marie,  following  the  example 
set  her  by  her  kinswoman  Catharine  de  Medici  on  the  accession  of 
Charles  IX.,  had  secured  the  regency  to  herself,  for  the  young  king 
Louis  XIII.  was  only  nine  j'ears  old,  and  she  surrendered  herself 
wholly  to  the  guidance  of  a  couple  of  Italian  favorites  of  the  lowest 
extraction  and  of  the  vilest  character,  whom  she  had  brought  with 
her  on  her  first  arrival  in  France,  and  on  whom  she  now  lavished 
honours  of  all  kinds  with  a  most  indiscriminate  profusion.  Con- 
cini  had  been  one  of  her  household  servants.  Leonora  Galigai 
whom,  on  her  arrival  in  France,  she  had  'made  chief  lady  of  her 
bedchamber,  was  the  daughter  of  a  Florentine  carpenter.  They 
had  married  with  her  sanction  soon  after  their  settlement  in 
France;  and  one  of  her  first  acts  of  power  was  to  make  the  husband 
Marquis  d'Ancre,  governor  of  Amiens,  and  Marshal  of  France, 
though  it  could  not  be  pretended  that  he  had  the  slightest  military 
knowledge,  or  had  ever  served  in  any  army.  The-  nobles  soon 
learnt  that  he  was  not  contented  with  his  military  rank,  but  that 
he  aspired  also  to  direct  the  councils  of  the  nation  ;  and  that,  who- 
ever might  be  the  ostensible  minister,  it  was  by  his  advice  and 
that  of  his  wife  that  the  queen  regulated  her  policy.  The  first  fruits 
of  their  councils  were  seen  in  the  removal  of  the  late  king's  chief 
minister.  Sully,  the  great  financier,  to  whose  ability  and  integrity 
was  due  the  wonderful  revival  of  the  kingdom's  prosperity,  but 
whose  continued  exercise  of  the  same  qualities  seemed  an  insur-  ^  /  ^ 
mountable  bar  to  the  projects  of  these  foreign  favorites.  He  was  'r^"^*"*^'''**'^'**/' 
dismissed  at  once.  His  colleagues,  and  all  those  who  had  enjoyed  ^i^^^jX^ 
most  of  the  late  king's  confidence,  were  gradually  got  rid  of;  and,  7 

with  the  removal  of  all  the  ablest  administrators  of  the  govern- 


214  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1614. 

ment,  all  respect  for  the  laws  began  to  disappear.  The  nobles 
began  to  quarrel  with  one  another,  a  brother  of  the  Due  de  Guise 
even  murdering  the  Baron  de  Luy  in  open  day  in  the  streets  of 
Paris  ;  while  Conde,  the  first  prince  of  the  blood  royal,  adopting 
the  family  policy  of  enmity  to  the  Guises,  whom  Marie  seemed 
to  regard  with  favour,  at  last,  at  the  beginning  of  1614,  quitted  the 
'  court,  and,  supported  by  a  formidable  body  of  princes  and  nobles,  one 
of  Henry's  natural  sons,  the  Due  de  Vendome,  being  among  them, 
openly  raised  the  standard  of  revolt,  and  made  himself  master  of 
some  of  the  chief  foi  tresses  on  the  north-eastern  frontier.  His 
professed  object  was  to  prevent  a  marriage  which  Marie  was  under- 
stood to  be  negotiating  for  the  young  king  with  the  Spanish  Infanta 
Anne;  and  on  which  he  contended  that  the  States-General  had  a 
right  to  be  consulted.  And,  though  the  whole  army  which  he  had 
been  able  to  raise  to  support  his  demands  did  not  amount  to  5,000 
men,  it  so  far  exceeded  any  at  the  queen's  disposal,  that  she  was 
compelled  to  pretend  acquiescence  in  his  terms,  and  in  May  1614 
signed  a  treaty  with  the  insurgents,  known  as  that  of  St.  Mene- 
hould,  in  which  she  promised  to  summon  the  States-General,  and 
to  reserve  the  question  of  the  king's  marriage  for  the  decision  of 
that  body. 

On  the  latter  point  she  had  not  the  least  intention  of  keeping  her 
promise ;  for,  by  the  French  law,  the  king  came  of  age  on  his  thir- 
teenth birthday,  which  was  close  at  hand;  and  after  that  his  marriage 
would  depend  on  his  own  will.  But  she  convoked  the  States-General, 
Avhich  Louis  opened  in  state  a  few  days  after  his  majority:  and, 
powerless  as  that  body  was,  its  meeting  on  this  occasion  is  ren- 
dered memorable  by  two  circumstances.  It  was  the  last  time  on 
which  it  was  assembled  for  nearly  two  centuries.  Defective  in 
its  original  constitution,  it  had  long  ceased  to  exercise  any  in- 
fluence on  the  affairs  of  the  kingdom ;  and  from  this  time  forth  it 
fell  into  complete  disuse,  and  was  never  heard  of  again  till  its 
fatal  revival  in  1789,  when  its  rash  and  misguided  vehemence 
dverthrew  church,  monarchy,  and  aristocracy  in  one  common  ruin. 
Though  as  ineffective  and  unimportant  as  ever  in  its  own  transac- 
tions, its  present  convocation  had  an  influence  on  all  the  subse- 
quent history  of  the  reign,  if  not  of  the  kingdom,  by  introducing 
to  notice  a  young  prelate,  Richelieu,  bishop  of  Lupon,  who,  being 
chosen  by  the  clergy  as  their  spokesman  to  present  their  final 
memorial  of  grievances  to  the  king  at  the  close  of  the  session,  thus 
obtained  an  opportunity  of  displaying  his  talents,  which  gradually 
opened  him  the  way  to  the  highest  offices  of  the  state,  and  a  weight 
in  its  councils  which  has  never  been  enjoyed  by  any  other  subject. 

He  was  now  twenty-nine  years  of  age,  being  the  youngest  son 
of  a  gentleman   of  ancient   lineage   in    Poitou.      He  had   been 


A.D.  1616.]  RISE   OF  EICHELIEU.  215 

originally  intended  for  the  army  ;  but  on  a  vacancy  occurring  in  the 
see  of  Lufon,  which  the  influence  of  his  family  seems  to  have 
almost  appropriated  to  themselves,  since  it  had  been  previously 
held  by  one  of  his  elder  brothers,  he  willingly  exchanged  the 
military  career  for  a  profession  in  which  he  perhaps  perceived  that 
his  peculiar  talents  were  better  calculated  to  lead  him  to  eminence, 
though  he  always  retained  a  fondness  for  the  details  of  military 
operations,  and  more  than  once  showed  no  inconsiderable  capacity 
for  directing  them.  It  is  characteristic  of  the  unscrupulous 
audacity  of  his  character  that,  as  he  had  but  just  completed  his 
twenty-second  year  when  he  was  nominated  for  this  preferment, 
he  could  only  obtain  his  investiture  by  deceiving  the  Pope  as  to 
his  age,  which  he  represented  as  more  advanced  than  it  really 
was ;  and  that  he  unblusliingly  confessed  the  deceit  as  soon  it  had 
answered  his  purpose ;  and  equally  characteristic  of  the  laxity  of 
all  the  Papal  arrangements,  and  of  the  Papal  conscience,  that 
Paul  V.  expressing  not  indignation  at  his  fraud,  but  admiration  of 
his  ingenuity^  saying  to  those  around  him  that  the  new  bishop  was 
a  youth  of  rare  genius,  but  astute  and  crafty.  He  speedily  became 
celebrated  as  a  preacher ;  but  a  reputation  for  theological  learn- 
ing could  not  gain  him  the  political  power  which  was  his  object ; 
and  he  exerted  himself  more  to  ingratiate  himself  with  the  queen  as 
a  courtier,  not  disdaining,  even  after  Henry's  death,  to  conciliate 
the  ftivour  of  Concini  by  constant  and  well-directed  attentions.         ^^ 

Henry  IV.,  as  has  been  mentioned,  had  given  a  regular  organisation  »/   /? 
to  bis  council,  allotting  a  separate  department  to  each  minister,         i-^'-«-»-*^ 
establishing  a  controllership  of  finance,  and  secretaryships  of  state  A^jU-^-t^*— 
for  the  conduct  of  foreign  affiiirs,  of  war,  of  diplomacy,  and  of  the  ^ 
internal  concerns  of  the  kingdom,  as  we  see  in  modern  ministries  ; 
and  one  of  these  offices  Richelieu  from  the  first  coveted  for  him- 
self, confident  that,  whichever  might  be  allotted  to  him,  he  should 
be  able  to  render  the  leading  post  in  the  government.     With  this 
view,  in  his  speech  to  the  young  sovereign  in  the  States-General, 
he  had  introduced  a  complaint  that  the  royal  council  contained 
no  member  of  .his  own  profession,  though  such  an  exclusion  of  the 
ecclesiastical  element  was,  as  he  contended,  not  only  an  insult  to 
the  Church,  but  a  cause  of  weakness  to  the   government.     And 
having  thus  indicated  the  direction  of  his  own  ambition,  for  his 
meaning  could  not  well  be  mistaken,  he  waited  patiently  for  hia 
hint  to  take  elFect. 

He  had  soon  the  gratification  of  seeing  ufiairs  take  a  course 
which  furthered  his  views.  Once  more  Conde  raised  the  standard 
of  civil  war ;  and  Marie,  who,  though  her  son  was  nominally  of 
age,  still  retained  the  chief  direction  of  the  government,  had  no 
resource  but  to  makepeace  with  him,  granting  nearly  all  his  demands, 


216  MODERN  HISTOEY.  [a.b.  1616. 

though  one  of  them  was  the  removal  of  lier  favorite  the  Marshal 
d'Ancre  from  his  government  of  Amiens,   and  the  dismissal  of 
nearly  all  her  ministers.     And  among  the  changes  which  ensued, 
the  Bishop  of  Lu^on  received  the  appointment  of  almoner;  a  post 
which  gave  him  constant  access  to  her  person,  and  opportunities 
of  tendering  advice,  though,  while  d'Ancre  lived,  the  influence  or 
authority  possessed  by  anyone   else  was  but  nominal.      But  it 
requires  great  abilities  and  great  virtues  to  save  a  man  raised  to 
such  an  elevation  as  the  marshal  from  becoming  an  object  of  general 
hatred,  which  sooner  or  later  brings  about  his  ruin ;  and  d'Ancre  had 
neither  virtues  nor  abilities.     Accordingly,  some  of  the  highest 
nobles  of  the  land  began  to  plot  his  destruction :  and  they  were 
aided  by   one  whose  enmity  was  more  formidable  than  theirs. 
Louis,  though  only  fifteen,  possessed  full  authority,  if  he  chose  to 
exercise  it ;  and  he  was  already  giving  signs  of  the  weakness 
which  beset  him  all  his  life  of  surrendering  himself  wholly  to  some 
favorite  or  other,  (though,  while  he  continued  a  boy  he  had  more 
excuse  than  afterwards  for  always  seeking  some  one  on  whom  to 
_^       lean)  and  for  choosing  his  friends  badly.     His  first  favorite  was  a 
^L^^.^2,    gentleman  named  de  Luynes,  who  had  been  recommeuded  to  him 
T^^^       Ijy  his  skill  in  hawking  and  other  sports  of  the  field.     De  Luynes 
^^  yOf     was   not  ambitious  in  the  better  sense  of  the  word,  but  he  was 
covetous  and  cunning.     He  envied  the  Concini  their  wealth  which 
was  truly  reported  to  be  enormous,  and  he  desired,  by  supplanting 
O/O^^       them,  to  become  as  rich  as  they.     He  began  to  fill  the  king's  ear 
()  with   stories  of   the  detestation  in  which   the  marshal  and  his 

fM.^  wife  were  held  by  all  classes,  of  their  rapacity  and  their  presump- 

tion :  and  likewise  to  suggest  that  it  was  only  their  influence  with 
Queen  Marie  that  prevented  Louis  himself  from  having  the  autho- 
rity in  the  state  to  which  he  was  entitled.  D'Ancre  was  not 
ig-norant  of  the  machinations  of  his  enemies  ;  he  believed  Conde  to 
be  the  chief  mover  in  them,  and  as  there  was  really  reason  to 
suspect  that  the  prince  was  again  plotting  against  the  govern- 
ment, though  none  at  all  to  think  that  any  scheme  which  so  giddy 
a  plotter  could  contrive  likely  to  be  formidable,  he  persuaded  Marie 
to  order  his  arrest,  and  Louis  himself  was  easily  brought  to  sanc- 
tion it.  He  was  seized  and  thrown  into  prison  ;  but  he  was  more 
dangerous  to  the  marshal  as  a  captive  than  when  at  liberty.  On 
hearing  of  his  arrest  his  mother,  the  old  Princess  of  Conde  ran  in 
frenzied  fear  through  the  streets,  exclaiming  that  the  Concini  were 
murdering  her  son ;  the  mob,  who  hated  them,  rose  in  a  fury  and 
sacked  their  palace,  .and  would  have  killed  them  could  they  have 
found  them. 

The  queen  dowager  was  greatly  alarmed  ;  both  for  the  safety  of 
her  favorite,  and  for  the  preservation  of  her  authority :  to  secure 


A.D    1617.]  CONSPmACY  AGAINST  D'ANCRE.  217 

both,  lier  chief  dependence  was  on  her  almoner,  whose  advice, 
though  always  decided  in  its  character,  and  generally  j  ustified  by 
results,  had  always  been  given  in  too  courtier-like  a  tone  to  offend. 
And  in  November  161(5,  she  introduced  him  into  the  council  as 
secretary  of  state  ;  giving  him  at  the  same  time  precedence  over  all 
the  other  members  of  the  council,  except  the  president,  the  Cardinal 
de  Rochefoucault.  But  she  soon  learnt  that,  if  she  had  not  under- 
rated his  talents,  she  had  mistaken  his  objects.  He  was  not 
anxious  for,  nor  content  with  the  name  of  power  without  the 
reality:  on  the  contrary,  he  had  a  definite  policy,  which  he  was 
resolved  to  carry  out.  And  he  at  once  began  to  disconnect  him- 
self and  to  endeavour  to  detach  his  royal  mistress  from  the  Concini, 
whose  ruin  he  was  too  shrewd  not  to  foresee.  It  was  nearer  at 
hand  than  he  probably  anticipated.  The  nobles  who  hated  him 
easily  persuaded  de  Luynes  to  renew  his  machinations  against 
him.  His  destruction,  in  fact,  was  indispensable  to  the  success  of 
de  Luynes'  own  views.  And  at  the  beginning  of  1617  he  willingly 
undertook  the  task  of  persuading  Louis,  not  only  to  consent  to  the 
destruction  of  the  Concini,  but  to  undertake  the  chief  manage- 
ment of  the  affair  himself.  Young  as  Louis  was,  a  mean,  cunning, 
malignity  was  already  the  chief  characteristic  of  his  disposition  : 
it  was  visible  in  his  conduct  to  the  last,  but  it  never  was  more 
curiously  or  more  shamefully  displayed  than  in  the  way  in  which 
he  himself  planned  and  carried  out  the  assassination  of  the  mar- 
shal :  for  d'Ancre's  enemies  saw  no  safety  for  themselves,  save  in 
insisting  on  his  death.  The  Baron  de  Vitry,  an  officer  of  the 
guard,  who  conceived  himself  to  have  been  injured  or  insulted  by 
the  marshal,  was  easily  induced,  by  the  promise  of  succeeding  to 
his  baton,  to  take  upon  himself  the  execution  of  the  intended 
murder ;  such  was  the  almost  universal  wickedness  and  cruelty  of 
the  age,  that  he  had  no  difficulty  in  collecting  a  band  of  gentlemen 
of  fair  title  and  fortune  to  join  him  in  the  atrocious  deed.  And, 
when  all  the  preliminaries  were  settled,  Louis  took  the  final 
arrangement  of  the  details  upon  himself.  Timid  by  nature,  he 
was  afraid  not  only  of  failure,  but  of  the  consequences  of  failure  to 
himself,  and  to  secure  the  means  of  his  own  escape  he  osten- 
tatiously fixed  a  hunting  party  for  the  appointed  day,  the  twenty- 
fourth  of  April,  as  a  plea  for  having  his  carriage  in  readiness  to 
fly.  When  the  morning  came,  he  ranged  the  assassins  in  the 
courtyard  of  the  palace,  and  carefully  selected  a  sentry,  and  placed 
him  at  the  entrance,  to  give  them  notice  of  the  approach  of  the 
marshal  who  came  every  morning  to  attend  the  queen.  At  the 
expected  hour  the  doomed  victim  entered  the  courtyard :  a  pistol 
shot  brought  him  to  the  ground,  and  de  Vitry  and  his  brothers 
finished  the  bloodv  deed  with  their  swords  :  gentlemen  by  birth, 
11 


218  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1619. 

though  they  were,  they  robbed  the  dead  man  of  his  purse  and 
jewels  before  they  left  him  :  and  the  transaction  was  crowned  by 
Louis  appearing  at  one  of  tlie  windows  of  the  palace  with  his 
fowling-piece,  thanking  the  butchers  for  their  act,  and  crying  out 
that  '  Now  at  last  he  was  a  king.' 

Queen  Marie  showed  herself  almost  as  base  as  her  son.  Sus- 
pecting that  those  who  had  wrought  the  destruction  of  the  mar- 
shal bore  no  good  will  to  herself,  she  tried  to  save  herself  by 
refusing  shelter  to  the  murdered  man's  widow,  who,  before  the 
end  of  the  week,  was  arrested,  impeached  and  executed  on  the 
charge  of  having  obtained  her  influence  over  her  by  magical  arts. 
But  such  pusillanimity,  far  from  appeasing  her  enemies,  en- 
couraged them.  Those  who  had  persuaded  Louis  to  consent  to 
d'Ancre's  murder  had  found  it  equally  easy  to  alienate  him  from  his 
mother,  who  herself  had  often  worried  him  by  frivolous  and  captioui 
complaints,  and  to  convince  him  that  he  would  never'  be  his  own 
master,  nor  enjoy  his  legitimate  authority,  till  she  were  removed 
from  the  court.  She  was  now  ordered  to  retire  to  Blois,  where 
she  remained  a  prisoner  at  large  for  nearly  two  years :  her  exile 
being  even  accompanied  by  cruel  and  needless  insult,  de  Vitry 
searching  her  rooms,  and  with  studied  insolence  examining  the 
space  under  the  bed,  her  chests  and  hei  wardrobes,  on  the  pretence 
of  taking  care  that  they  contained  no  gunpowder  for  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  king,  whose  sleeping  apartments  were  over  those 
allotted  to  his  mother.  For  a  time  it  seemed  as  if  her  disgrace 
would  be  fatal  to  Richelieu's  prospects.  He  was  deprived  of  his 
cffi.ce  of  secretary :  and  though  de  Luynes,  who  had  now  become 
the  sole  dispenser  of  honours  in  the  state,  permitted  him  to  retain 
his  place  at  the  council  board,  he  soon  found  that  he  was  not  in- 
tended to  have  the  slightest  influence,  and  began  to  suspect  that 
it  would  be  more  for  his  interest  to  continue  his  adherence  to  the 
queen  mother ;  he  obtained  permission  to  retire  to  Blois,  where 
for  a  while  he  discharged  the  duties  of  superintendent  of  her  house- 
hold ;  and  though  he  was  afterwards  removed  by  an  express  order 
from  the  court,  he  never  broke  ofi^  his  connection  with  her  till,  as 
he  foresaw  that  it  would  do,  it  had  procured  his  reinstatement  in 
ofiice. 

For,  by  the  beginning  of  1619,  de  liUynes  himself  began  to  con- 
ceive the  idea  of  bringing  Marie  back  to  Paris  tliat  he  might  use 
her  authority  with  her  son  to  counteract  the  influence  of  Condt^, 
who  was  always  intriguing  against  whoever  from  time  to  time 
might  be  in  authority  or  in  favour.  But  while  he  was  hesitating, 
the  Due  d'Epernon,  whose  objects  were  wholly  opposed  to  his, 
contrived  her  escape  from  Blois  ;  and,  as  she  showed  an  inclination 
to  make  her  reconciliation  with  the  king  depend  on  his  dismissal 


A.D.1620.]    EECONCILATION   OF  MAEIE  AND  LOUIS.      219 

of  de  Luynes^  the  favorite  was  in  great  perplexity ;  his  first  ex- 
pedient was  to  persuade  Louis  to  raise  an  army  to  attack  the  duke 
with  whom  Marie  remained,  on  the  pretence  that  he  had  carried 
her  off  against  her  will,  and  was  keeping  her  under  restraint.  But" 
after  he  had  collected  the  troops,  he  was  ashamed  to  advise  their 
employment ;  he  preferred  persuasion,  and  induced  Louis  to  write 
a  letter  to  Richelieu  with  his  own  hand  empowering  him  to  treat 
with  her  for  a  complete  reconciliation. 

The  bishop  gladly  undertook  a  commission  which,  he  flattered 
himself,  would  lay  both  mother  and  son  under  obligations  to  him. 

But  he  did  not  find  his  task  so  easy  as  he  had  expected.     Marie  k       '*^— r 

was  petulant  and  capricious  ;  and,  flattered  by  flnding  how  muchJ^*""'*^**^* 
importance  was  attached  to  her  movements,  thought  to  increase  it 
by  an  apparent  reluctance  to  a  reunion.     After  a  long  negotiation, 
and  with  great  difficulty,  he  did  indeed  persuade  her  to  pay  Louis 
a  visit  at  Tours,  but  she  refused  to  return  to  Paris,  and  sullenly  • 

kept  aloof  from  the  court,  so  far  disappointing  the  hopes  which 
Richelieu  had  founded  on  his  performance  of  the  part  of  mediator 
between  the  king  and  herself.  She  even,  with  the  aid  of  some  of 
the  nobles  who  were  jealous  of  the  favorite,  raised  an  army  and 
prepared  for  war:  but  again  de  Luynes  levied  another,  and  in- 
duced the  king  to  accompany  it  j  and,  as  according  to  the  prevail- 
ing notion,  his  presence  with  an  army  greatly  increased  the  treason 
of  resisting  it,  the  confederates  were  reduced  to  complete  inaction ; 
till  at  last,  at  the  end  of  the  summer,  Richelieu,  who  saw  clearly 
how  ruinous  to  his  own  interests  a  protracted  warfare  between 
mother  and  son  must  be,  took  skilful  advantage  of  the  change  of 
feeling  and  the  irritation  amorg  the  malcontent  nobles  which  was 
produced  by  their  inability  to  effect  anything,  persuaded  Marie  to  /p  ^ 

allow  him    to    arrange  a  perfect  reconciliation;    and    a   formal /^^-I'-'vi-Cv 
treaty  of  peace  between  the  mother  and  son  was  at  last  signed  at 
Angers  in  August  1G20. 

That  event,  though  it  did  not  at  once  procure  his  restoration  to 
office,  paved  the  way  for  it.     De  Luynes,  thinking  that  the  cir- 
cumstances under  which  peace  in  the  royal  family  had  been  re-Afc.j^_^,^^^  ^ 
established,  (the  queen  having  been  at  last  reduced  to  the  attitude  / 

of  a  suppliant  for  the  reconciliation  which  she  had  previously^^^  oCv,^i 
disdained)   relieved  him  from   all   danger  of  future  opposition,  / 

became  more  exacting  and  overbearing  than  ever.  He  had  pre- 
viously been  contented  with  amassing  wealth  ;  he  now  grasped  at 
honours  also,  coveting  even  such  as  he  wa^  notoriously  and  ridi- 
culously unfit  for.  He  compelled  Louis  to  break  his  promise  to 
Marshal  Lesdiguieres,  the  most  distinguished  soldier  in  France,  in 
order  to  give  the  constable's  sword  to  himself,  though  he  had 
never  seen  a  battle.     He  thought  himself  f»s  fit  to  be  at  the  head 


220  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1624. 

of  tlie  law  as  at  the  head  of  an  army,  aud  persuaded  his  royal 
master  to  add  the  chancellorship  to  his  military  dignity :  adding" 
petition  to  petition  till  the  king  himself  became  weaiy  of  his 
covetousness  and  importunity,  and  the  courtiers  hegan  to  speculate 
on  his  weariness  leading  to  the  disgrace  of  him  who  caused  it : 
when,  at  the  end  of  1621,  he  died  after  a  short  illness. 

Unless  the  king  should  get  another  favorite  of  the  same  stamp, 
his  death  made  E.ichelieu's  return  to  power  inevitable  :  but  it  was 
■  not  yet  to  be  immediate.  It  was  probably  a  hindrance  to  it  that 
the  next  year  Marie,  whose  hereditary  influence  with  the  court  of 
Rome  was  great,  procured  him  a  cardinal's  hat :  for  Louis  had 
been  jealous  enough  of  his  influence  with  his  mother  to  endeavour 
by  secret  intrigues  to  prevent  his  promotion  :  and  this  feeling  still 
showed  itself  when  two  years  later,  while  yielding  to  her  so  far  as 
to  readmit  him  to  his  council,  he  refused  to  replace  him  in  his  old 
office  of  secretary  of  state,  though  it  was  vacant.  But  Louis  was 
unable  to  estimate  the  ascendency  of  a  genius  such  as  that  of  the 
cardinal.  It  was  easy  to  keep  him  out  of  the  council :  it  was 
impossible,  when  he  had  once  been  admitted  to  it,  to  prevent  him 
from  becoming,  with  or  without  office,  the  most  important  member 
of  it ;  when,  a  few  weeks  afterwards,  it  became  necessary  to  ap- 
point a  commission  to  treat  with  the  ambassadors  who  arrived 
from  England  to  arrange  the  marriage  of  the  Princess  Henrietta 
^laria  with  the  Prince  of  Wales,  he  was  named  as  one  of  the  com- 
missioners,  and  as  a  cardinal,  assumed  precedence  over  all  his 
colleagues :  and  gradually  effected  a  complete  rearrangement  of 
the  administration,  desiring  at  first  to  disguise  his  own  influence  by 
giving^  the  king  public  advice  to  allow  no  single  minister  or  favorite 
to  monopolise  his  confidence :  though,  in  subsequent  years,  when  he 
had  fully  established  himself,  he  threw  off  all  such  concealment,  and 
seeking  rather  to  parade  his  authority  before  the  whole  world,  in 
1629  extorted  from  Louis  an  edict  appointing  him  Prime  Minister, 
an  office  previously  unknown  in  Europe.  Still,  this  title  added 
nothing  to  his  real  power  :  if  that  had  been  capable  of  augmenta- 
tion, he  would  have  been  unable  to  extort  it :  and  from  August 
1624,  when  he  remodelled  the  ministry,  he  may  be  looked  on  as 
the  sole  and  uncontrolled  ruler  of  the  kingdom  ;  and,  as  such,  he 
began  to  carry  out  with  unflinching  steadiness  the  policy  which  he 
had  marked  out  for  himself,  and  which  was  in  fact  a  revival  of  the 
system  of  Henry  IV.  It  may  be  described  in  a  few  words  as 
having  for  its  object  the  establishment  of  the  king  as  absolute 
master  of  France,  and  the  establishment  of  France  as  the  para- 
w  J^^tfc^  mount  mistress  of  Europe.  The  first  object  was  not  a  new  one, 
even  in  Henry's  time.  It  had  been  the  aim  of  the  best  and 
greatest  of  all  French  monarchs,  ^t. -Louis,  whose  celebrated  code, 


i 


A.D.  1624.]  POLICY   OF  EICIIELIEU.  221 

known  as  *  Les  Etablissemens  de  St.-Louis,'  had  been  carefully 
framed  with  the  design,  among  others,  of  breaking  down  the  over- 
grown feudal  power  of  the  barons,  and  of  establishing  in  its  stead 
the  absolute  supremacy  of  the  sovereign.  It  had  been  equally  the 
object  of  that  one  of  his  successors  who  least  of  all  resembled  him, 
the  detestable  Louis  XI,  He  had  accomplished  it,  though  by  the 
vilest  means,  with  the  most  entire  success :  but,  as  the  anarchy  of 
the  latter  part  of  the  sixteenth  century  had  bequeathed  to  Henry 
the  necessity  of  renewing  the  contest ;  so  the  weakness  of  the 
government  during  the  early  part  of  the  present  reign  had  undone 
his  work  ;  and,  if  order  and  tranquillity  were  ever  to  be  re-estab- 
lished on  a  solid  and  permanent  foundation,  it  was  as  necessary  a 
preliminary  to  break  down  the  power  of  the  nobles  now  as  it  had 
been  in  the  thirteenth  or  the  fifteenth  century.  It  might  be  said  that 
in  Trance  nothing  had  survived  of  the  feudal  system  but  its  worst 
parts.  The  nobles  had  preserved  the  traditions  of  the  time  when 
Normandy,  Burgundy,  Aquitaine,  and  the  great  provinces  were 
in  all  but  name  independent  principalities,  and  when  the  king  was 
in  reality  only  one  of  a  body  of  princes,  and  if  the  highest  in  rank, 
hardly  the  first  in  power :  and  they  seemed  to  be  gradually  and 
rapidly  bringing  the  nation  back  to  that  condition.  To  employ 
Richelieu's  own  description  of  the  state  of  atlairs  when  he  first 
took  his  seat  in  the  council,  '  the  great  lords  were  acting  not  as 
the  king's  subjects,  but  as  independent  chieftains.  The  governors 
of  his  provinces  were  conducting  themselves  like  so  many  sovereign 
princes ;  the  interest  of  the  public  was  postponed  to  that  of  in- 
dividuals ;  in  a  word,  the  king's  authority  was  torn  to  shreds,  and 
was  so  unlike  what  it  ought  to  have  been,  that,  in  the  confusion, 
it  was  impossible  to  recognise  the  genuine  features  of  his  royal 
power.'  ^ 

The  power  which  they  had  thus  regained,  and  which,  was  in 
truth  only  a  power  of  disorder,  Richelieu  resolved  to  crush  for 
ever  beyond  all  possibility  of  revival.     But,  before  he  entered  on  -o 
that  contest,  he  desired  to  weaken  another  body  whose  pretensions!^ ^"^  ^  ^ 
were  the  more  formidable  that  they  were  founded  in  clear  and  iT-^ 
recent  law.    Some  of  the  concessions  which  Henry  IV.,  perhaps  > ' 

from  some  unconscious  sympathy  with  those  whom  he  had  de- 
serted, had  made  to  the  Huguenots,  certainly  went  further  than  a 
judicious  policy  could  warrant,  and  were,  to  say  the  least,  calcu- 
lated to  give  uneasiness  to  a  statesman  charged  with  the  govern- 
ment,  and  as  such  responsible  for  the  tranquillity  of  the  kingdom./*        . 
And  the  conduct  of  the  Huguenots  themselves  had  not  been  so^*"^*^*^ 
uniformly  prudent  as   to   remove  that  impression.      They  had,  \^  Jb 
very    unwisely,    supported    Conde    in  his  various  intrigues    to  ^^^ 

1  Testament  Politique^  quoted  by  Stephen,  c.  ii.  p.  316. 


222  MODERN  HISTOIIY.  [a.d.  1620. 

elevate  the  authority  of  the  Parliament,  and  to  tliwart  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  queen  mother  during  the  king's  minority.  On 
one  occasion,  when  he  tried  to  renew  civil  war  and  raised  a  force 
which  reduced  a  few  unimportant  towns,  tlie  Huguenot  assembly, 
in  its  triennial  meeting  at  Grenoble,  formally  declared  in  bis 
favour;  thus  making  it  evident  that  some  of  the  privileges  which 
had  been  granted  to  them  were  not  only  impolitic,  but  practically 
dangerous  to  the  state:  and  as  such,  a  patriotic  minister  might 
well  think  it  his  duty  to  curtail  them.  Queen  Marie's  bigotry 
would  have  inclined  her  to  make  the  attempt  during  the  regency, 
but  the  government  was  too  weak  and  unpopular.  When  deLuynes 
became  the  king's  chief  adviser,  as  his  principal  object  was  the 
maintenance  of  peace  which  could  alone  eiiable  him  to  amass  the 
honour  and  riches  which  he  coveted,  he  gave  his  voice  for  tolera- 
tion and,  though  be  did  so  far  gratify  the  Catholic  bishops  as  to 
advise  the  king  to  issue  a  mandate  confirming  one  of  his  father's 
edicts  which  had  established  Catholicism  in  his  native  province  of 
Beam,  he  abstained  from  enforcing  it,  and  the  Bearnais  were 
permitted,  in  spite  of  it,  to  enjoy  their  old  independence,  and  to 
preserve  the  religion  of  their  venerated  queen,  Jeanne  d'Albret. 
But,  as  Louis  grew  up  to  manhood,  he  learnt  to  look  on  any  kind 
of  liberty,  and  especially  on  freedom  of  opinion,  as  incompatible 
with  the  despotic  authority  which  he  conceived  to  belong  to  him- 
^•^*^  ^  self  and,  with  this  feeling,  he  conceived  a  bitter  enmity  against  the 
kI.*!,,^^.,*^ '.Reformation  as  founded  on  principles  of  freedom.  The  influence 
'  which  he  exerted  against  the  Elector  Palatine  in  Germany  has 

been  mentioned,  and  he  followed  up  the  blow  which  he  thus  dealt 
to  the  Protestants  beyond  the  Rhine  by  leading  an  army  into 
B^arn  to  compel  obedience  to  the  edicts  of  which  d'Luynes  had 
hitherto  connived  at  the  violation.  The  Bearnais  were  too  few  in 
number  to  resist,  but  the  Huguenots  throughout  the  kingdom  at 
once  stood  on  their  defence.  Rochelle  was  their  principal  strong- 
hold ;  and  there,  at  Christmas  1620,  they  held  a  meeting  to  frame 
a  remonstrance  to  the  king  on  the  insults  which,  in  spite  of  the 
edict  of  Nantes,  the  Catholic  priests  in  the  diflerent  provinces  had 
Btimulated  the  populace  to  heap  upon  them.  And  as  their  address, 
though  dutifully  and  loyally  worded,  received  a  fierce  and  threat- 
suing  answer,  they  at  once  took  arms  and  prepared  for  war.  It 
was  a  hopeless  struggle.  Louis  marched  into  Poitou  vcdth  an  army 
of  nearly  50,000  men,  whose  real  commander  was  the  Marshal 
General  Lesdiguieres ;  and  though  Montauban  and  Montpelier, 
where  the  Huguenots  had  their  strongest  garrisons,  successfully 
repulsed  their  besiegers,  most  of  their  other  fortresses  were  taken, 
and  were  treated  with  extraordinary  cruelty  by  the  king's  express 
orders,  not  only  their  garrisons  but  their  peaceful  inhabitants  being 


/^ 


^ 


A.D.  1626.]       INSURRECTION  OF  THE  HUGUENOTS.        223 

massacred.  Luckily,  for  those  who  remained,  Louis,  though  ty- 
rannical and  ferocious,  had  but  little  perseverance ;  and  in  less 
than  two  years  he  admitted  them  to  the  treaty  of  Montpelier, 
which,  though  abrogating  most  of  the  privileges  which  had  ren- 
dered them  almost  independent  of  the  crown,  still  l6ft  them  entire 
freedom  to  exercise  their  religion. 

But  the  Huguenots  were  slow  at  learning  lessons  of  prudence. 
If,  in  the  most  important  points,  their  position  had  not  been  made 
worse  by  the  recent  treaty,  it  had  been  greatly  damaged  by  the 
proofs  which  the  previous  campaign  had  given  of  their  weakness ; 
and,  encouraged  by  their  evident  inability  to  cope  with  the  royal 
forces,  the  enemies  of  their  religion  violated  the  provisions  of  the 
treaty  at  pleasure ;  the  governors  of  the  towns  in  which  they  were 
strongest  introduced  garrisons  and  built  forts  in  open  violation  of 
its  stipulations ;  the  populace  attacked  their  churches  during  the 
celebration  of  public  worship  ;  they  could  obtain  no  redress  from 
the  courts  of  law,  where  the  judges  were  not  ashamed  to  declare 
that  the  king  could  not  be  bound  by  any  agreement  with  any  of 
his  own  subjects,  much  less  with  heretics  and  rebels.  And,  exas- 
perated by  these  provocations,  at  the  beginning  of  1625  they  took 
advantage  of  Lesdiguieres  and  his  army  being  engaged  in  Piedmont, 
assisting  the  Duke  of  Savoy  against  the  Spaniards,  and  once  more 
had  recourse  to  arms;  seizing  the  Isles  of  Oleron  and  Khe,  and 
capturing  a  squadron  of  men  of  war,  which  they  believed,  no 
doubt  with  truth,  had  been  stationed  there  in  preparation  for  an 
attack  upon  the  great  town  of  Rochelle  itself,  the  only  stronghold, 
except  Montauban,  which  the  last  treaty  had  left  them.  But  a 
firmer  hand  than  that  of  de  Luynes  was  now  at  the  helm,  Richelieu 
resolved  to  subdue  them  so  completely  that  they  should  have  no 
power  ever  again  to  become  formidable ;  but  the  blow  which  he 
destined  for  them  was  suspended  for  a  while.  lie  knew  his  ovni 
strength,  and  that  they  could  not  escape  him,  but  he  was  no  bigot ; 
he  cared  indeed  so  little  about  religion  that,  as  has  been  mentioned 
in  a  former  chapter,  he  had  begun  to  aid  the  German  Protestants 
whom  Louis  had  formerly  discountenanced ;  and,  thinking  it  of 
fiir  greater  importance  to  weaken  the  Spaniards  in  the  north  of 
Italy,  he  still  kept  Lesdiguieres  in  that  country,  and  permitted 
the  king  of  England  to  mediate  between  him  and  the  Ilochellois, 
who  were  once  more  admitted  to  treat,  and  even  to  obtain  a  miti- 
gation of  some  of  the  articles  agreed  to  at  Montpelier. 

The  peace  of  Rochelle,  however,  was  but  a  respite  for  them.  A 
month  afterwards  peace  was  concluded  between  France  and  Spain, 
and  Richelieu,  relieved  from  all  foreign  foes,  had  leisure  to  mature 
his  preparations  against  those  of  his  own  countrymen  whom  he 
regarded  as  enemies.     In  any  case,  he  would  not  have  left  the 


224  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1628. 

Huguenots  long  at  peace,  "but  they  were  so  ill-advised  as  once 
more  wantonly  to  provoke  him  to  war.  The  policy  of  the  British 
cabinet  was  at  this  time  wholly  regulated  by  the  caprices  of  the 
Duke  of  Buckin^ham,^  the  most  incompetent  and  the  most  arrogant 
of  royal  favorites.  His  vanity  had  led  him  to  believe  that  the 
French  queen  had  fallen  in  love  with  him ;  and  because  Louis,  justly 
oifended  at  some  liberties  which  he  had  permitted  himself,  refused 
to  receive  him  as  an  ambassador  from  England,  he  instigated  the 
Due  de  Soubise,  chief  leader  of  the  Huguenots,  to  rouse  that  party 
to  a  fresh  rebellion;  and,  in  July,  1627,  without  any  previous 
notice  or  declaration  of  war,  he  arrived  of  Rochelle  as  commander- 
in-chief  of  a  powerful  fleet  and  army :  and  commenced  an  attack 
on  the  Isle  of  Rhe.  He  conducted  it  so  badly  that  he  lost  the 
greater  part  of  his  force,  and  returned  to  England  greatly  dis- 
credited ;  while  the  cardinal  gladly  seized  the  fair  pretext  afforded 
him  by  this  utterly  unprovoked  rebellion  to  carry  out  the  measures 
against  the  Huguenots  which  he  had  long  meditated:  and  fortune 
BO  favoured  him  that  the  success  which  he  obtained  greatly  aug- 
mented his  personal  credit,  being  very  mainly  due  to  his  own 
talents  displayed  in  an  entirely  new  field. 

Lesdiguieres  had  died  at  a  great  age  in  the  preceding  winter : 
and,  as  there  was  at  this  time  scarcely  any  commander  in  the 
French  army  of  pre-eminent  reputation,  Richelieu  determined  to 
conduct  the  operations  himself,  and  accompanied  the  king  to  the 
scene  of  action.  The  discomfiture  of  Buckingham  was  greatly 
owing  to  his  energy;  but," not  content  with  defeating  one  attack, 
he  resolved  to  render  a  repetition  of  it  impossible.  He  saw  that, 
so  long  as  the  sea  was  open,  England  would  always  be  able  to 
encourage  and  succour  the  Rochellois :  and  he  determined  to  cut 
them  off  from  the  sea.  Buckingham  had  hardly  retired,  when  he 
began  to  construct  a  vast  wall,  a  mile  long,  along  the  whole  front 
of  the  port ;  resting,  at  both  its  ends,  on  the  mainland,  and  having 
only  one  small  opening  in  the  centre,  which  was  commanded  by 
heavy  batteries.  It  was  a  grand  engineering  conception,  and  the 
difficulties  of  its  execution  severely  tested  the  engineer's  practical 
skill ;  but  Richelieu  was  a  taskmaster  under  whom  no  workman 
dared  to  make  difficulties :  and,  in  spite  of  a  severe  winter,  the 
work  was  so  nearly  completed  before  the  return  of  spring,  that 
when,  in  May  1628,  a  British  fleet,  commanded  by  Lord  Denbigh, 
returned,  as  Richelieu  had  foreseen  that  it  would  return,  it  found 
the  wall  unassailable,  and  could  do  nothing  but  sail  back  to  Ply- 
mouth, while  the  citizens  of  Rochelle,  now  blockaded  by  sea  and 
land,  began  to  sufter  all  the  miseries  of  famine.  Buckingham 
himself  was  assassinated  while  equipping  another  fleet  to  retrieve 
the  disgrace  which,  as  he  conceived,  Denbigh's  retreat  had  in- 


A.D.  1629.]  CAPTUKE  OF  EOCHELLE.  225 

fleeted  on  tlie  Britisli  arms :  but  Charles,  carrying  out  his  mur- 
dered favorite's  policy,  gave  Lord  Lindsey  the  command  of  the 
force  which  he  had  been  preparing,  and  in  the  autumn  despatched 
it  with  stringent  orders  to  do  all  that  could  be  done  to  relieve  the 
beleaguered  city,  on  which  all  the  hopes  of  the  French  Protestants 
rested,  but  which  was  now  reduced  to  the  extremity  of  distress. 
Lindsey  was  a  man  of  skill  and  resolution :  at  a  later  day  he  laid 
down  his  life  in  his  sovereign's  own  cause  at  Edgehill :  and  now 
he  endeavoured  to  encounter  Richelieu's  novel  expedient  for  main- 
taining the  blockade  with   a  contrivance  equally  novel,  and  so 
ingenious  that  one  of  the  greatest  sailors  of  modern  times  did 
not  disdain  to  imitate  it.     Richelieu  had  defended  the  wall  on  its 
outer  face  with  a  large  boom  moored  in  front  of  it,  such  as  nearly 
two  centuries  later  protected  the  roads  of  Aix :  and  Lord  Lindsey 
constructed  a  huge  fireship,  not  unlike  those  which  Lord  Cochrane 
afterwards  termed  explosion  vessels,  to  destroy  it ;  it  was  charged 
with  12,000  pounds  of  powder,  and  was  quite  sufficient  to  destroy 
both  boom  and  wall.    But  in  those  days  the  art  of  correctly  timing 
so  prodigious  an  explosion  had  not  been  attained :  the  vessel  ex- 
ploded too  soon,  and  at  too  great  a  distance  from  the  boom  to 
have  any  effect.     It  was  in  vain  that  Lindsey  charged  the  barrier 
with  his  fleet  in  full  sail :  it  resisted  his  utmost  efforts  :  and,  as  a 
distant  cannonade  could  produce  no  eff'ect  on  the  wall,  he  too  was 
at  last  compelled  to  draw  off^,  and  to  leave  the  citizens  to  Richelieu's 
mercy.     Even  when  all  hope  was  gone,  they  held  out  resolutely  ; 
their  mayor,  M.  Guiton,  on  entering  his  office,  which  he  was  only 
prevailed  on  to  accept  by  the  importunities  of  those  who  knew 
his  worth,  had  laid  a  dagger  on  the  council  table,  to  be  used 
against  the  first  citizen  who  should  propose  to  surrender,  and 
against  himself  if  he  should  prove  craven :  and  his  language  had 
not  overstated  his  resolution.     Soon  all  ordinary  provisions  were 
exhausted;  and  the  citizens  were  rerluced  to  feed  on  leather,  on 
seaweed,  and  on  other  food  still  more  loathsome.    But  even  when 
16,000  people,  nearly  half  the  population,  had  died  of  starvation, 
Guiton's  spirit  was  unsubdued.    '  There  still  were  men  enough,'  he 
said,  *  to  shut  the  gates,'  and  he  boxed  the  ears  of  one  of  the 
judges  who  proposed  to  capitulate.     But  at  last  the  courage  of  all 
ijut  himself  was  worn  out.     Even  of  the  miserable  food  on  which 
they  had  hitherto  sustained  life  their  store  would  only  last  three 
days  longer:  they  surrendered;   and  Richelieu,  who  had  more 
than  once  during  the  siege  promised  them  moderate  conditions, 
did  not  depart  from  his  promise  of  clemency.     He  could  honour 
such  valour  and  constancy,  and  could  see  how  available  it  might    ^ 
prove  for  his  own  objects  when  enlisted  in  the  king's  service.    He  ^^f^     *] 
lid  indeed  raze  the  fortifications  of  the  city,  and  prohibited  the/^  cL^^t^ 


226  MODERN  HISTOEY.  [a.d.  1630. 

citizens  from  possessing  arms  or  ammunition  ;  but  the  Huguenots 
were  still  allowed  to  exercise  their  religion  without  hindrance, 
and,  on  taking  an  oath  never  again  to  bear  arms  against  the  king, 
received  an  amnest}'^  for  the  past. 

His  success  at  Rochelle  begat  in  Hichelieu  a  desire  to  shine 
again  as  a  commander  of  military  operations. .  The  next  year  he 
again  took  the  field  in  a  campaign  to  establish  a  French  noble, 
the  Due  de  Nevers,  in  the  Duchy  of  Mantua,  which  had  devolved 
on  him  as  heir  to  his  cousin,  the  preceding  duke ;  and  the  parade 
of  his  military  equipment  amused  those  who  thought  it  inconsis- 
tent with  his  ecclesiastical  profession,  and  those  also  who  were 
pleased  to  see  so  great  a  man  not  insensible  to  the  weakness  of 
personal  vanity.  He  went  as  if  in  attendance  on  the  king,  who, 
accompanied  by  a  brilliant  staff,  was  the  ostensible  commander-in- 
chief  :  but  before  setting  out,  he  extorted  from  the  -  monarch  the 
titles  of  'Lieutenant-General,  representing  the  person  of  the  king,' 
and  'Generalissimo,'  a  title  like  that  of  Prime  Minister,  previously 
unheard  of:  and,  on  joining  the  army  at  the  foot  of  the  Alps,  he 
laid  aside  his  priestly  vestments,  and  led  on  his  men  in  military 
panoply,  with  cuirass  of  burnished  steel,  sword  by  his  side,  pistols 
at  his  saddlebow;  in  imitation  of  Henry  IV.  he  wore  on  his  head 
not  a  helmet,  but  a  conspicuous  white  plume  :  and  from  time  to 
time  he  would  cause  his  warhorse  to  curvet  and  caracole,  boasting 
loudly  that  he  was  not  unskilled  in  military  exercises.,  With 
vigour  and  promptitude,  very  important  qualities  in  a  military  com- 
mander, he  again  showed  himself  to  be  richly  endowed.  Though  it 
*  was  midwinter,  he  allowed  no  delay  in  his  operations  :  he  crossed 
Mount  Genevre,  took  Pignerol,  though  one  of  the  strongest  places 
in  Piedmont;  while  Louis,  attended  by  Marshal  Bassompierre, 
the  ablest  general  in  France  since  the  death  of  Lesdiguieres,  over- 
ran Savoy:  and  before  the  end  of  the  year,  all  the  enemies  of 
France  were  reduced  to  make  peace  on  terms  which  secured  her 
nearly  all  that  Richelieu  had  aimed  at. 

Having  thus  subdued  the  Huguenots,  and  terminated  the  foreign 
war  in  which  he  had  engaged  with  honour,  he  had  leisure  to 
devote  to  his  next  object,  the  depression  of  the  nobles:  but,  while 
he  was  meditating  on  the  measures  to  be  taken  against  them,  his 
career  as  a  minister  was  nearly  cut  short  by  enemies  whose  ma- 
chinations he  had  neither  guarded  against  nor  suspected,  but  whom 
it  certainly  could  not  be  denied  that  he  had  abundantly  provoked. 
Even  those  who  contend  that  he  used  his  power  for  patriotic 
objects  cannot  deny  that  he  was  unscrupulous  in  the  means  he 
employed  to  obtain  and  preserve  that  power,  and  among  them  was 
a  system  of  unwearied  intrigue  by  which  he  sowed  jealousies 
among  the  different  members  of  the  royal  family,  with  the  object 
apparently  of  reducing  them  all  to  a  state  of  dependence  on  him- 


A.D.  1630.]  THE  Dx\Y   OF  DUPES.  227 

self.  But,  crafty  as  he  was,  he  never  took  into  his  calculations 
the  chance  of  their  all  uniting  against  him.  He  looked  on  Queen 
Marie  as  his  firm  friend ;  and  though  he  had  good  reason  to  suspect 
that  Queen  Anne's  disposition  towards  him  was  different,  he  con- 
ceived that  he  had  cut  off  all  chance  of  her  ever  obtaining  any 
influence.  Ho  had  entirely  alienated  her  husband  from  her, 
though  at  one  time  Louis  had  been  inclined  to  love  her  as  much 
as  bis  cold  nature  allowed  him  to  love  anyone.  And  at  la,8t  he 
had  ventured  to  plan  her  entire  ruin,  endeavouring  to  implicate 
her  in  a  plot  which  the  king's  brother,  Gaston,  duke  of  Orleans, 
one  of  the  most  contemptible  of  mankind,  had  formed  for  his 
assassination,  and  not  scrupling  to  use  the  very  basest  means,  but 
offering  to  spare  the  life  of  one  of  the  conspirators  on  whom  sen- 
tence had  already  been  pronounced,  on  condition  of  his  giving 
false  evidence  against  her.  Anno  believed  that  he  designed  to 
compel  Louis  to  divorce  her  ;  and  in  the  extremity  of  her  fear,  she 
sought  an  ally  and  found  one  where  the  cardinal  least  apprehended 
such  a  danger.  While  he  had  been  engaged  with  the  army  in 
Piedmont,  Queen  Marie  had  regained  her  old  ascendency  over 
her  son,  which  she  had  no  doubt  tliat  Ilichelieu  would  again  enr 
deavour  to  undermine.  Fear  of  future  injury  acted  on  her  as 
resentment  for  past  wrongs  influenced  Anne ;  laying  aside  their  old 
mutual  jealousies,  the  two  queens  combined  against  their  common 
enemy,  and  took  advantage  of  a  dangerous  illness  with  which 
Louis  was  attacked  at  Lyons  in  the  autumn,  and  which  gave  them 
both  constant  and  uncontrolled  access  to  him,  to  exact  from  him  a 
promise  to  dismiss  his  minister  on  the  conclusum  of  the  peace  with 
Spain,  which  was  known  to  be  on  the  point  of  being  signed.  It 
was  not  hard  to  obtain  the  promise;  for,  in  truth,  Louis  was  as 
much  afraid  of  the  cardinal  as  they,  and  liked  him  as  little  ;  but 
it  was  very  diflicult  to  be  sure  of  his  performing  it ;  though  from 
the  moment  that  the  cardinal  was  suspected  to  be  in  disgrace,  all 
the  courtiers,  male  and  female,  laboured  to  strengthen  his  resolu- 
tion by  tales  of  lliclielieu's  arrogance,  cruelty,  and  general  un- 
popularity. Y 

The  result  of  the  struggle  afl'orded  a  curious  instance  of  Louis's 
weakness  and  submission  to  any  one  who  chose  to  domineer  over 
him.  At  the  beginning  of  winter  the  court  returned  to  Paris, 
where  Kichelieu  rejoined  it ;  and  there,  at  the  beginning  of  Novem- 
ber, after  a  violent  scene  in  the  Luxembourg  palace,  in  which,  in 
the  king's  presence.  Queen  Marie  heaped  reproaches  on  the  minister, 
Louis  consented  to  his  retirement ;  and  the  cardinal  retired,  to 
make  instant  preparations  for  quitting  the  country,  where  he 
feared  personal  danger  from  the  many  enmities  which  he  had  pro- 
voked.    But  finding  that  the  king  had  afterwards  gone  to  Versailles 


228  MODERN  HISTORY.  Ta.d.  1631. 

by  himself,  at  the  instigation  of  one  of  his  friends,  he  followed  him 
thither,  obtained  admittance  to  his  presence  under  pretence  of 
taking  a  formal  leave  of  his  majesty  and  of  completing  the  formal 
resignation  of  his  offices,  and,  in  a  brief  interview,  undid  all  the 
work  of  the  morning.  Louis  retained  him  in  his  post  of  Prime 
Minister ;  and,  while  the  Parisians,  who  detested  him,  comforted 
themselves  for  their  disappointment  by  a  joke,  and  nicknamed  the 
day,  *  the  Day  of  Dupes,'  left  him  at  liberty  with  greater  power 
than  ever  to  wreak  his  revenge  on  those  who  had  plotted  his  ftill. 
And  he  was  not  a  man  to  make  a  generous  use  of  such  power. 
He  imprisoned  Marillac,  the  chancellor,  for  life,  merely  because 
Marie  had  designed  him  for  his  successor  in  his  office  of  minister. 
He  threw  Marshal  Bassompierre  into  the  Bastile,  and  left  him 
therefor  twelve  years;  Louis  himself,  when  he  signed  the  warrant 
for  his  arrest,  being  so  much  ashamed  of  it,  that  he  sent  the  marshal 
at  the  same  a  message  to  say  that  he  had  committed  no  crime ; 
his  real  offence  being  that  he  had  refused  to  exert  his  influence 
with  the  king  in  the  cardinal's  favour ;  and  that,  a  week  after  the 
Day  of  Dupes,  he  had  pleaded  a  prior  engagement  when  Richelieu 
invited  him  to  dinner.  He  prosecuted  Marshal  Marillac,  the 
chancellor's  brother,  and  commander  of  the  army  in  Piedmont,  on 
a  false  charge  before  a  packed  tribunal  created  for  the  purpose, 
and  sent  him  to  the  scaffold,  because  he  was  understood  to  have 
answered  for  the  adhesion  of  the  troops  under  his  command  to  the 
projected  change  in  the  ministerial  arrangements.  Some  nobles, 
even  of  the  first  rank,  he  banished ;  of  others  he  confiscated  the 
estates;  and  finally,  at  the  beginning  of  the  next  year,  having 
crushed  all  his  minor  foes,  he  proceeded  to  take  vengeance  on  the 
queen  mother  herself;  prevailing  on  her  worthless  son  to  banish 
her  from  his  presence.  Not  unreasonably  fearing  for  the  safety 
even  of  her  life,  she  fled  the  kingdom,  at  first  taking  refuge  in  the 
Netherlands,  and  afterwards  wandering  through  different  coun- 
tries, and  suffering  great  distress;  for  Richelieu  stopped  all  the 
revenue  which  had  been  settled  on  her,  but  which  her  son,  who 
ftdded  avarice  to  his  other  vices,  was  easily  persuaded  to  appro- 
priate. And  finally,  having  had  all  her  petitions  for  leave  to  return 
to  France  refused,  though  more  than  once  Louis  would  willingly 
have  granted  them  had  not  the  cardinal  interposed  to  prevent  him, 
she  died  at  Cologne  in  1642,  of  a  fever  brought  on  by  chagrin  and 
privation,  a  few  months  before  the  deaths  of  theminister  who  had 
defeated,  and  of  tlie  son  who  had  deserted,  her. 

Richelieu  had  thus  contrived  to  unite  his  object  of  depressing 
the  nobles  with  the  gratification  of  his  personal  resentment ;  and 
the  ever-restless  spirit  of  intrigue  in  the  only  enemy  whom  he 
spared  gave  him  throughout  the  rost  of  the  reiga  abundant  oppor- 


A.D.  1632.]    TREACHEKY  OF  THE  BUKE  OF  ORLEANS.     220 

tunity  of  repeating  the  lesson  he  had  thus  given  them.  The  Duke 
of  Orleans  was  the  enemy ;  and  he  spared  him,  not  because  of  his 
proximity  to  the  throne,  of  wliich  he  was  as  yet  the  heir,  nor  out 
of  mercy,  nor  even  out  of  contempt,  but  because  he  looked  on 
him  as  the  surest  tool  through  whom  to  detect  and  chastise  the 
rest.  He  knew  that  he  would  be  ever  plotting  against  him ;  he 
also  knew  that  he  would  be  too  cowardly  to  conduct  his  plots  to 
their  execution,  and  that  he  would  be  treacherous  enough  always 
to  seek  his  own  safety  in  the  betrayal  of  his  accomplices.  Once 
he  had  nearly  miscalculated,  for  on  one  occasion  Gaston  was  so 
irritated  at  his  neglect  of  some  of  his  friends,  whom  the  cardinal 
had  promised  to  promote,  that  he  forced  his  way  into  his  house  at 
the  head  of  a  body  of  armed  followers  and  threatened  to  murder 
him  on  the  spot.  But  he  had  not  hardihood  to  carry  out  his 
threat,  even  when  he  had  his  enemy  in  his  power ;  but  contenting 
himself  with  heaping  the  lowest  abuse  on  him,  withdrew  without 
striking  a  blow,  and  retired  to  Orleans  to  weave  more  plots,  and 
to  betray  them  as  soon  as  he  had  entangled  in  them  a  sufficient 
number  of  high-born  accomplices  to  ensure  his  being  able  to  make 
his  peace  by  their  sacrifice.  The  Due  de  Montmorenci,  the  last 
representative  of  the  most  noble  family  in  the  whole  peerage,  was 
one  of  his  victims.  The  Duke  of  Puy  Laurens,  though  married 
to  one  of  the  cardinal's  cousins,  was  another.  The  Duke  de  la 
Valette,  whom  Richelieu  designed  to  pursue  with  particular 
hatred,  but  who  v/as  fortunate  enough  to  escape  from  the  country, 
he  condescended  to  execute  in  effigy  three  times  over :  at  Paris,  at 
Bordeaux,  and  at  Lyons.  The  last  victim  was  a  personal  favourite 
of  Louis  himself,  the  Marquis  de  Cinq  Mars,  Gaston  covering  his 
infamy  by  giving  formal  evidence  to  procure  his  condemnation, 
and  endeavouring  to  implicate  others  who  were  undoubtedly 
innocent  of  the  plot  in  which  he  himself  and  the  prisoner  had  been 
concerned,  merely  because  he  believed  Kichelieu  would  be  glad  of 
a  pretext  to  destroy  them. 

And  while  thus  putting  some  nobles  to  death,  and  reducing  others 
to  beggary,  Richelieu  was  equally  diligent  in  acquiring  fresh  honours 
and  wealth  for  himself.  He  was  made  a  duke  and  peer  of  France ; 
he  obtained,  if  it  were  not  more  correct  to  say  he  conferred  on  him- 
self, a  grant  of  many  of  the  estates  which  he  confiscated ;  and  he 
had  thus  amassed  an  enormous  fortune,  of  which  he  spent  portions 
with  the  most  insolent  ostentation,  and  portions  with  princely 
liberality  and  judgment.  He  built  a  palace  for  himself  which  no 
king's  palace  in  Europe  could  equal  in  extent  and  magnificence, 
then  known  as  the  Palais  Cardinal,  and  subsequently  as  the  Palais 
Royal.  But  he  also  devoted  large  sums  to  the  promotion  of  learn- 
ino-  and  the  fine  arts.     He  founded  the  Academy ;  an  admission 


230  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1635. 

into  which  is  still  the  distinction  most  coveted  by  the  chief  literary- 
ornaments  of  the  nation.  lie  founded  and  endowed  a  college  for 
education  at  the  Sorbonne.  And  he  bestowed  from  his  own  purse 
pensions  on  men  of  ability  to  enable  them  to  devote  their  lives  to 
the  studies  in  which  each  was  best  qualified  to  shine.  One  of 
those  so  pensioned  has  left  an  immortal  name,  Pierre  Corneille, 
the  earliest  of  the  great  tragic  writers  of  France,  who,  in  the 
winter  of  the  very  year  in  which  the  Spanish  army  at  Corbie, 
had  made  Paris  itself  tremble  for  its  safety,  won  the  citizens  to 
forget  their  alarm  by  the  production  of  the  *  Cid,'  still  perhaps  the 
noblest  specimen  of  tragedy  which  the  French  language  afibrds. 

It  was  not  till  by  his  victories  over  the  Protestants  and  tlie 
aristocracy  he  had  established  the  king's  authority  at  home  to  his 
satisfaction,  that  he  began  to  direct  his  serious  efforts  to  his  third 
object,  the  depression  of  the  House  of  Austria ;  for  the  war  with 
Spain,  which  has  been  mentioned,  had  been  conducted  on  too 
limited  a  scale,  and  had  been  too  brief  in  its  duration,  to  have  any 
permanent  effect.  But  just  at  the  moment  that  he  first  had 
leisure  to  turn  his  undivided  attention  to  foreign  politics,  the  Pro- 
testant princes,  who  were  in  arms  against  the  Emperor,  had  fallen 
into  difficulties,  which  favoured  his  views  in  a  singular  manner. 
The  death  of  Gustavus,  and  the  defeat  of  the  Swedes  at  Nordlingen, 
which  were  mentioned  in  the  last  chapter,  reduced  them  to  such 
straits  that  they  had  no  means  of  continuing  the  contest  without 
additional  foreign  aid  ;  and  sought  to  purchase  his  by  a  cession  of 
the  great  province  of  Alsace ;  to  be  considered  indeed  not  as  a 
French  province,  but  as  one  under  F'rench  protection,  which,  to  a 
grasp  as  tenacious  as  that  of  Richelieu,  was  much  the  same  thing. 
He  joyfully  accepted  the  ofter,  and  in  May  1635  concluded  a  treaty 
with  them,  with  the  States  of  Holland,  with  Sweden,  with  Switzer- 
land, and  with  several  of  the  petty  states  in  the  north  of  Italy, 
and  formally  declared  war  against  Spain  and  the  Empire.  In  the  end 
her  share  in  the  war  produced  great  glory  and  solid  advantages  to 
France ;  but  the  successes  by  which  it  was  earned  were  not  achieved 
till  after  his  death ;  and  during  his  lifetime  she  not  only  carried 
on  tlie  war  with  very  chequered  fortune,  but  on  one  occasion  was 
brought  to  the  very  brink  of  disgrace  and  ruin  through  his  rash 
over-confidence.  While  sending  one  army  into  Savoy,  and  another 
to  invade  Franche-Comt^,  he  overlooked  the  danger  to  which  his 
own  country  might  be  exposed  ;  and  in  1636,  the  Cardinal  Infante, 
who  commanded  the  Spanish  armies  in  the  Netherlands,  having 
received  intelligence  of  the  weakness  of  the  principal  French  for- 
tresses on  that  side  of  the  kingdom,  that  their  fortifications  were 
in  decay,  their  garrisons  scanty  and  in  want  of  supplies,  suddenly 
crossed  the  frontier  with  30,000  men,  driving  before  him  the  small 


K.D.  1642.]  THE  SPANISH  INVASION.  231 

division  wliich  Lad  been  allotted  to  Marshal  Breze  for  the  pro- 
tection of  the  district ;  he  took  town  after  town  without  resistance ; 
and  in  a  few  days  reached  Corbie,  whicli  was  scarcely  more  than 
fifty  miles  from  Paris.  It  seemed  as  if  nothing  could  save  the 
capital  from  capture ;  and  nothing  could  have  saved  it,  had  the 
Infante  been  able  to  exercise  real  authority  over  his  men ;  but  they 
were  greedy  adventurers,  and  had  found  such  vast  booty  in  the 
towns  which  they  had  already  taken  that  they  preferred  returning 
to  the  Netherlands  to  secure  it,  rather  than  risking  it  by  further 
enterprises.  Their  general  was  forced  to  humour  them  and  to 
retrace  his  steps,  and  the  citizens  of  Paris  breathed  again ;  but  so 
deep  was  their  recollection  of  the  terror  which  they  had  felt  that 
the  year  of  their  danger  was  long  commemorated  as  the  Year  of 
Corbie.  In  other  districts  gain  and  loss  constantly  balanced  one 
another.  If  in  Lorraine  the  Imperial  Piccolomini  cut  a  French 
division  to  pieces,  in  the  north  of  Italy  the  Marshal  d'Harcourt 
and  the  Vicomte  de  Turenne,  to  whom  these  campaigns  afforded 
the  first  opportunity  of  displaying  his  great  abilities,  gained  ad- 
vantages equally  important  over  the  Spanish  Marquis  de  Leganea 
and  Prince  Thomas  of  Savoy,  and  neither  could  strike  a  blow 
which  the  most  sanguine  could  regard  as  decisive. 

The  victories  which  were  to  close  the  war,  and  to  efface  all 
recollection  of  the  occasional  disaster  of  the  French  armies  by  the 
glory  with  which  they  at  last  crowned  them,  Richelieu  was  not  to 
witness.  His  constitution  had  never  been  strong ;  and  by  the 
end  of  1642  was  completely  worn  out ;  he  gradually  lost  the  use 
of  his  limbs,  and  became  unable  to  move,  and  even  to  bear  any 
mode  of  conveyance,  except  that  of  a  litter  borne  on  men's 
shoulders.  Ilis  nerves  too  gave  way,  and  he  fell  into  a  state  of 
helpless  terror,  expected  to  be  assassinated  by  emissaries  of  the 
king  himself.  At  the  beginning  of  December,  an  attack  of  pleurisy 
came  to  complete  his  sufferings  ;  and  on  the  fourth  day  of  that 
month  he  died,  at  the  age  of  fifty-seven,  having  been  a  minister 
for  above  eighteen  years,  and  absolute  master  of  the  whole 
authority  of  the  government  for  twelve. 

The  unanimous  verdict  of  subsequent  ages  has  placed  him  in  the 
very  front  rank  of  great  statesmen  :  and  if  largeness  of  mind,  great- 
ness of  objects,  a  clear  discernment  of  the  means  best  suited  for 
these  accomplishments,  and  resolution  in  carrying  out  his  designs, 
can  entitle  a  man  to  that  praise,  it  certainly  cannot  be'  denied  to 
Richelieu.  He  proposed  to  himself  important  objects,  and  he 
succeeded  in  them.  He  did  not  indeed  live  to  see  with  his  own 
eyes  the  overthrow  of  the  pre-eminence  which  the  House  of  Austria 
had  enjoyed  for  above  a  century,  and  the  elevation  of  France  in 
her  stead ;  but  it  was  on  the  point  of  accomplishment  when  he 


232  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1&42. 

died,  and  that  it  was  accomplished,  was  owing  to  his  successor's 
sagacity  in  still  building  on  the  foundation  which  he  had  laid,  and 
pursuing  the  policy  which  he  had  inaugurated.  And  though  it 
will  now  he  admitted,  that  the  solid  and  permanent  welfare  of  a 
nation  is  hetter  promoted  by  the  acts  of  peace,  than  by  designs 
only  attainable  through  successful  war,  we  cannot  in  fairness 
refuse  our  admiration  to  a  statesman  for  not  being  far  in  advance 
of  his  age.  lie  succeeded  in  establishing  the  absolute  power  of 
the  sovereign ;  and  though  we  may  fairly  question  the  wisdom  of 
preferring  to  a  limited  monarchy  an  absolute  despotism,  yet  in 
prosecuting  this  design,  he  was  animated  by  as  genuine  a  patriotism 
as  guided  his  foreign  policy.  In  his  view  the  king  was  to  desire, 
to  possess,  and  to  exercise  his  absolute  authority,  solely,  or  at  least 
principally,  for  the  benefit  of  the  people :  though  uncontrolled 
by  his  subjects,  he  was  to  acknowledge  the  restraints  of  religion,  of 
justice,  and  of  public  spirit.  If  he  was  to  have  all  a  father's  authority 
over  his  children,  he  was  also  to  have  all  a  father's  love  for  them. 
And  it  must  be  remembered,  too,  that  Richelieu  was  not  seeking 
to  introduce  a  new  order  of  things,  but  to  re-establish  the  old 
practice.  Centuries  had  elapsed  since  tha  kings  of  France  had 
first  rendered  their  power  absolute  ;  and,  though  in  the  last  two 
or  three  generations  their  prerogative  had  been  greatly  weakened, 
it  had  yielded  not  to  constitutional  restraints,  but  to  anarchy: 
and  the  struggle  which  was  in  progress  when  he  became  minister 
was  one  not  between  constitutional  and  despotic  authority,  but 
between  order  and  anarchy.  If  the  only  mode  in  which,  according 
to  the  unvarying  precedents  of  the  national  history,  order  had  ever 
been  maintained  was  the  uncontrolled  will  of  the  sovereign,  the 
minister  may  surely  be  excused  who  sought  the  restoration  of 
order  by  a  return  to  such  despotism.  But,  while  admitting  the 
patriotism  of  his  political  views;  admiring  the  ability  with  which 
he  accomplished  them  ;  and  giving  also  our  warmest  praise  to  the 
enlightened  spirit  in  which  he  laboured  to  encourage  education 
and  learning,  matters  which  few  rulers  had  at  that  time  thought 
worthy  their  attention,  we  must  speak  of  him  as  a  man  in  very 
diiferent  language.  Few  or  none  have  so  prostituted  their  power 
to  the  gratification  of  their  private  animosities :  few  have  been 
equally  mean  and  faithless  in  their  intrigues,  equally  treacherous, 
equally  revengeful,  equally  relentless.  For  the  preservation  of 
his  own  power,  he  did  not  hesitate  to  set  the  son  against  the 
mother,  to  sow  dissensions  between  the  husband  and  the  wife ;  to 
avenge  fancied  slights,  or  imagined  designs  against  his  influence, 
he  did  not  scruple  to  consign  able  and  honest  servants  of  the 
country  to  life-long  imprisonment,  or  even  at  times,  as  in  the  case 
of  Marshal  Marillac,  to  send  them    to  the  scaffold  on  charges 


A.D.  1643.]  KISE   OF  MAZARIN.  233 

which  he  knew  to  be  false,  supported  by  evidence  which  he  knew 
to  be  perjury.  And  on  the  whole,  it  must  be  considered  that  if, 
as  statesmen  and  rulers  few  have  been  greater,  as  men  few  have 
been  more  criminal  or  more  odious.  Even  while  dying,  he  pre- 
served his  influence  over  his  master  ;  inducing  him  to  appoint,  as 
his  successor,  one  who  might  have  been  supposed  disqualified  for 
such  a  post  by  his  birth,  since  he  was  a  native  not  of  France,  but 
of  Rome.  The  negotiations  which  had  terminated  the  war  for 
the  Duchy  of  Mantua,  though  nominally  entrusted  to  the  Pope's 
legate,  Pancirolo,  had  been  mainly  conducted  by  a  young  man  in 
his  train,  Giulio  Mazarini,  who  in  their  conduct  had  displayed  an 
activity,  an  acuteness,  a  fertility  of  resource,  and  a  promptitude  of 
decision,  which  had  at  once  attracted  llichelieu's  notice.  lie  had 
induced  him  to  quit  Rome,  and  to  settle  at  Paris ;  and,  as  further 
acquaintance  strengthened  his  original  impression  of  the  yoimg 
Italian's  capacity,  he  had  employed  him  in  more  than  one  impor- 
tant affair,  had  obtained  for  him  a  cardinal's  hat  from  the  Pope, 
and  though  he  must  have  seen  that  his  character  was  widely  dif- 
ferent from  his  own,  had  done  his  best  to  inculcate  his  own  views 
of  policy  on  his  mind,  and  to  train  him  to  fill  his  place.  Louis 
adopted  his  advice,  and,  on  the  very  evening  of  his  death, 
installed  his  pupil  in  his  office,  giving  thus  the  most  practical 
notice  of  his  intention  to  adhere  to  his  system ;  which  the  new 
minister,  whom  we  shall  henceforward  call,  by  the  French  abbre- 
viation of  his  name,  Mazarin,  made  equally  manifest,  by  the  osten- 
tatious preparations  which  he  at  once  set  on  foot,  for  continuing 
the  war  with  energy.  Fortune  has  a  proverbial  influence  over  the 
events  of  war:  and,  in  the  arrangements  which  he  made  for  the 
coming  campaign,  Mazarin  was  singularly  favoured  by  the  goddess 
who  aids  the  bold.  Sensible,  perhaps,  that  he  was  not  endowed 
with  the  resolution  and  firmness  by  which  Richelieu  had  stamped 
out  all  open  opposition,  and  even  all  secret  jealousy;  and  aware 
that  the  king,  who  had  placed  him  in  power,  could  not  live  long 
to  maintain  him  in  it ;  he  sought  rather  to  cultivate  the  goodwill 
of  all  classes,  and  especially  to  ingratiate  him  self  with  the  different 
members  of  the  royal  family.  Louis's  marriage  had  long  been 
unproductive,  but,  at  the  end  of  twenty-three  years,  in  the  autumn 
of  1638,  Queen  Anne  had  given  birth  to  a  Dauphin  :  and,  two 
years  later,  to  a  second  son,  who  eventually  succeeded  to  his  uncle's 
title  of  Duke  of  Orleans.  It  had,  therefore,  become  necessary  to 
make  arrangements  for  the  government,  in  the  event  of  a  minority  ; 
and  Mazarin,  in  accordance  with  the  plan  which  he  had  prescribed 
for  himself,  now  persuaded  Louis  to  nominate  the  queen  to  the 
regency,  and  to  appoint  his  brother  Gaston,  lieutenant-general 
of  the  kingdom :  while,  to  gratify  the  Prince  de  Cond^,  who  in 


234  MODERN   HISTORY.  [a.d.  1643. 

the  royal  family  stood  next  to  the  descendants  of  Henry  IV.,  he 
placed  bis  son,  the  Due  d'Enghien,  though  scarcely  of  age,  at  the 
head  of  the  army  of  Picardy,  not  scrupling  to  entrust  to  a  youth 
•who  had  served  but  one  campaign  the  task  of  opposing  the  most 
renowned  veterans  of  Spain. 

Louis  died  on  the  fourteenth  of  May  1643,  the  anniversary  of 
his  father's  assassination.  And,  only  five  days  afterwards,  the  new 
reign  was  inaugurated  by  the  most  brilliant  victory,  which  had  been 
won  by  France,  over  a  foreign  enemy,  since  a  former  d'Enghien 
saved  her  from  invasion  at  Cerisoles  :  and  which  seemed  to  justify 
the  choice  which  had  committed  the  force  on  which,  above  all 
others,  her  safet}^  defended,  to  the  youthful  inheritor  of  his  name. 
D'Enghien  waa  so  notoriously  devoid  of  military  experience,  that 
Mazarin,  while  giving  him  the  supreme  command,  had  sent  with 
him  the  Marshal  de  I'Hopital  and  General  Gassion,  commanders  of 
well'proved  valour  and  skill,  intending  that  he  should  guide  him- 
self by  their  advice.  But  the  young  prince  was  too  self-confident 
to  be  aware  that  he  needed  counsel,  and  too  headstrong  to  take  it. 
And  he  was  eager  to  display  his  personal  valour  in  a  battle. 
The  Spaniards,  under  two  tried  veterans,  Don  Francisco  de  Mello, 
and  the  Gount  de  Fuentes,  were  beseiging  Rocroi,  a  town  of  great 
importance,  as  one  of  the  keys  of  the  rich  province  of  Champagne, 
with  20,000  infantry  and  6,000  cavalry  :  the  French  army  num- 
bered 1,000  more  sabres,  but  in  infantry  was  weaker  by  4,003  men  : 
but,  disregarding  this  inequality,  d'Enghien,  justifying  his  resolu- 
tion by  the  necessity  of  saving  so  valuable  a  town  from  falling  into 
the  hands  of  the  enemy,  determined  on  an  instant  attack ;  and, 
luckily  for  him,  de  Mello  was  as  over-confident  as  himself,  The 
Spanish  position  was  very  strong :  a  wood  covered  one  flank,  a 
marsh  protected  the  other,  and  a  small  plain,  which  extended  in 
front  of  it,  could  only  be  approached  by  a  narrow  defile.  To 
attack  such  an  enemy  in  such  a  position  was,  as  de  I'Hopital  truly 
declared,  to  court  destruction;  but  d'Enghien  was  deaf  to  all 
warnings,  and  plunged  into  the  narrow  pass  in  which  a  few  thou- 
sand men  could  with  ease  have  destroyed  his  whole  army.  But 
from  the  defeat,  which  no  valour  of  his  own  troops  could  have 
averted,  he  was  saved  by  the  equal  folly  of  the  Spaniard.  In 
full  assurance  of  victory,  de  Mello  suffered  the  French  to  clear  the 
defile,  and  to  deploy  into  line  of  battle  without  molestation,  con- 
fident of  being  able  to  defeat  them,  and  relying  on  the  narrow  pass 
which  would  be  their  sole  line  of  retreat  to  render  the  disaster 
more  overwhelming.  Voltaire  has  affirmed  that  the  Due  d'Enghien 
was  born  a  general,  and  that  he  stands  almost  alone  as  a  possessor 
of  a  genius  which  could  dispense  with  experience :  the  higher 
qualities  of  a  general  he  never  possessed  at  any  time  ;  but  it  can- 


A.D.  1643.]  THE  EATTLE   OF  ROCROI.  235 

not  be  denied  that  even  in  this  his  first  battle  he  displayed  extra- 
ordinary quickness  and  correctness  of  judgment  in  discerning-  the 
progress  and  varying  character  of  the  fight,  and  a  rare  promptitude 
of  decision  in  availing  himself  of  each  circumstance  as  it  arose.  Ou 
the  morning  of  the  nineteenth,  he  attacked  the  Spanish  army,  along 
its  whole  line.  At  first  the  result  seemed  doubtful,  each  of  the 
commanders-in-chief  being  successful  where  he  fought  in  person. 
Each  led  on  his  right  wing,  and,  while  d'Enghien  beat  back  the 
Spanish  left  under  the  duque  d'Albuquerque,  de  Mello  inflicted 
still  greater  loss  on  the  French  left,  under  de  I'Hopital,  driving  it 
back  on  the  reserve  and  capturing  its  artillery.  But  d'Enghien'a 
eagle  eye  saw  what  had  happened  ;  he  at  once  gave  up  pressing 
d'Albuquerque,  and  wheeled  his  division  round  so  as  to  take  de 
Mello's  victorious  battalions  in  the  rear,  before  they  had  recovered 
from  the  disorder  into  which  their  pursuit  of  de  I'Hopital's  brigade 
had  thrown  them :  they  could  not  withstand  this  unexpected 
attack,  the  prince  recovered  even  the  guns  which  they  had  taken ; 
and,  being  now  victorious  at  both  extremities  of  the  field,  could 
employ  his  whole  force  against  the  Spanish  centre,  the  flower  of 
their  army,  which  de  Fuentes  held  in  reserve,  and  which  had  not 
yet  been  engaged.  He  had  no  time  to  lose ;  for  in  the  distance 
was  seen  a  fresh  division  of  6,000  men,  hastening  to  take  part  in 
the  conflict,  and  quite  sufficient  to  turn  the  scale  :  but,  contenting 
himself  with  sending  Gassion  with  a  small  force  to  hold  these 
troops  in  check,  he  without  a  moment's  delay  led  on  all  the  rest 
of  his  army  against  de  Fuentes.  More  than  once  he  was  repelled 
with  terrific  slaughter.  As  he  came  up  to  the  charge,  the  dense 
square  in  which  the  Spaniards  were  arrayed  opened,  and  unmasked 
a  heavy  battery  which  poured  into  his  ranks  a  deadly  fire,  before 
which  the  bravest  of  his  soldiers  quailed.  Again  and  again  he 
was  beaten  back ;  but  at  last  he  brought  up  his  last  reserves,  and 
also  his  cannon.  De  Fuentes  was  killed,  and  then,  as  the  French 
guns  cut  wide  gaps  in  the  Spanish  ranks,  the  French  soldiers  in 
hand-to-hand  combat  forced  their  way  into  the  openings ;  the 
square,  once  pierced,  was  easily  overpowered,  and  the  victory  was 
won :  8,000  Spaniards  were  slain  -,  7,000  were  taken  prisoners : 
their  artillery  too,  and  their  baggage  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
conquerors,  whose  loss  did  not  much  exceed  2,000  men. 

Rocroi  was  not  d'Enghien's  only  victory  ;  though  Fribourg,  in 
which  he  fought  the  next  year  for  two  days  against  the  great 
Bavarian  general  de  Mercy,  scarcely  deserves  the  name  of  one.  It 
is  true  that  at  last  de  Mercy,  whose  numbers  were  far  inferior  to 
those  of  his  antagonist,  was  forced  to  retreat ;  but  it  is  equally 
true  that  his  loss  was  far  less  than  that  which  had  been  sustained 
by  the  French.     But  in  two  other  battles  fortune,  and  the  skill  of 


236  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1645. 

others  ratber  tlian  his  own,  enabled  him  to  boast  of  decisive 
triumphs.  Throughout  this  reign  it  was  part  of  the  policy  of  the 
French  court  to  secure  a  factitious  reputation  for  military  skill  to 
the  princes  of  the  blood  royal,  by  giving  them  stronger  and  better 
appointed  armies  than  were  entrusted  to  other  commanders :  in 
this  way  at  times  enabling  them  to  retrieve  the  disasters  which 
had  befallen  others  who  had  been  worse  provided.  And  thus,  in 
the  spring  of  1645,  Mazarin  left  Turenne  with  a  very  inadequate 
force  to  confront  de  Mercy  in  the  district  between  the  Mayn  and  the 
Danube ;  but  when  Turenne  had  suffered  heavy  loss  at  Mariendal, 
d'Enghien  was  at  once  sent  to  the  scene  of  action,  which  raised  his 
army  to  23,000  men,  and  greatly  outnumbered  that  at  the  disposal 
of  the  great  Bavarian  general.  I)e  Mercy  had  but  15,000,  so  entirely 
by  this  time  were  the  resources  of  the  Empire  exhausted  by  the 
war ;  but  he  surpassed  d'Enghien  in  skill  as  much  as  he  fell  short 
of  him  in  force  :  had  Turenne  been  the  commander-in-chief,  there 
would  have  been  no  battle,  and,  in  the  battle  which  did  take  place, 
had  de  Mercy  himself  lived,  the  French  would  have  sustained  a 
defeat  which  would  have  counterbalanced  Rocroi.  De  Mercy  had 
taken  up  a  position  in  front  of  Nordlingen,  which  Turenne  pro- 
nounced it  madness  to  attack  ;  his  army  being  drawn  up  on  a  hill, 
his  centre  being  strengthened  by  a  village,  his  left  wing  by  a  for- 
tified castle,  his  rear  being  protected  by  inaccessible  mountains, 
and  his  front  covered  by  well-planned  and  strongly-armed  in- 
trenchments  ;  and  when  d'Enghien,  deaf  to  all  advice,  attacked  it, 
every  part  of  the  French  army  was  beaten  :  his  infantry  was  re- 
pulsed in  its  attacks  on  the  Bavarian  centre :  Jean  de  "VVerth,  de 
Mercy's  second  in  command,  was  driving  his  cavalry  before  him  in 
disorderly  flight :  when  a  chance  shot  laid  de  Mercy  dead  on  the 
field,  and  in  an  instant  the  fortune  of  the  day  was  changed.  Jean  de 
Werth,  excellent  when  under  the  command  of  others,  was  nervous 
under  the  responsibility  of  finding  himself  the  chief  commander. 
lie  hesitated  :  instead  of  at  once  pressing  on  the  French,  beaten  in 
every  quarter  as  they  were,  he  began  to  manoeuvre,  and  gave  them 
time  to  recover  from  their  disorder :  and  there  have  seldom  been 
commanders  better  able  to  profit  by  a  respite  than  d'Enghien  and 
Turenne.  The  marshal  rallied  the  broken  infantry ;  the  prince 
arrested  the  flight  of  the  cavalry ;  the  battle  was  restored ;  the 
influence  of  numbers  began  to  tell ;  and  at  night  Jean  de  Werth 
drew  oft'  his  men,  leaving  the  French  the  field  of  battle,  but  no 
other  token  of  victory  in  a  battle  which  nothing  but  his  own  want 
of  energy  could  have  enabled  them  to  call  a  drawn  one,  much  less 
a  victory. 

Tbreo  years  later  the  prince,  having  in  the  interval  succeeded  to 
the  title  of  Cond(5  by  the  death  of  his  father,  gained  a  more 
decided  victory  over  the  Spaniards  at  Lens ;  though  there  his  own 


A.D.  1648.]  THE  PEACE   OF  WESTPHALIA.  237 

flatterers  could  not  deny  that  he  was  beaten,  till  the  skill  of  the 
Marshal  de  Grammont,  his  second  in  command,  retrieved  the  day 
and  there,  too,  fortune  aided  him  by  the  death  of  the  most  formid- 
able of  the  hostile  generals.  At  Kocroi  de  Fuentes  had  fallen  at 
the  most  critical  moment  of  the  battle ;  at  Nordlingen  de  Mercy  was 
slain  when  nothing  but  his  death  could  have  saved  the  French ; 
and  now,  while  the  issue  of  the  day  was  still  doubtful,  General 
Beck,  who  had  led  the  Spanish  cavalry  with  admirable  gallantry, 
and  had  broken  Conde's  own  regiment,  received  a  mortal  wound. 
In  the  end,  however,  the  French  victory  was  complete  ;  and  was 
not  without  its  influence  on  the  treaty  which,  a  few  weeks  later, 
concluded  the  war. 

For  negotiations  had  for  some  time  been  goiiig  on  to  arrange 
the  terms  of  a  peace  for  which  all  the  contending  parties  were 
equally  anxious :  and  in  the  last  week  of  October  the  treaty  was 
signed  at  Munster  which  finally  put  an  end  to  the  Thirty  Years* 
War.  It  was  advantageous,  as  well  as  honorable,  to  the  German  Pro- 
testants, to  whom  it  confirmed  all  the  concessions  which  had  been 
made  to  them  at  Passau ;  while  it  also  prevented  all  possibility  of 
the  Catholic  prelates  and  statesmen  any  longer  taking  advantage  of 
the  dissensions  between  their  different  sects,  by  placing  both  Cal- 
vinists  and  Lutherans  on  the  same  footing.  It  even  provided  for 
the  extension  of  Protestantism  by  clauses  which  allowed  all  states 
and  princes  at  present  Catholic  to  change  their  religion,  and 
stipulated  that  such  a  change  should  forfeit  none  of  their  existing 
rights  as  members  of  the  Empire.  The  Elector  Palatine  was  dead, 
but  the  greater  portion  of  the  Palatinate  was  restored  to  his  heir : 
as  other  princes,  who  had  been  deprived  of  any  portions  of  their 
dominions  through  their  adherence  to  his  cause,  also  obtained 
their  restoration.  But  the  greatest  gainer  by  the  treaty  was 
France.  Her  right  to  retain  possession  of  Metz  and  the  rest  of 
that  district  won  by  Henry  II.  had  hitherto  always  been  dis- 
puted: it  was  now  acknowledged.  No  attempt  was  made  to 
disturb  her  possession  of  Pignerol ;  and  she  obtained  an  absolute 
cession  of  Alsace,  a  territory  of  great  value  in  itself,  but  chiefly  im- 
portant from  the  advantages  which  it  would  afford  her  in  the  event 
of  any  future  war  arising  between  her  and  the  Empire  :  though, 
perhaps,  in  another  point  of  view,  pernicious  to  her  from  the 
temptation  which 'it  would  thus  present  to  a  prince  of  aggressive 
ambition.^ 

^  The  authorities  for  the  preceding  bery  and  by  Siri,  between  which  the 

chapter,  besides  the  regular  Histories  author  proposes  to  hold  the  balance, 

of  France  and  Coxe's  House  of  Aus-  Aubery  being,  as  he  says  in  his  pre- 

trin^  are  a  Life   of  Richelieu,  pub-  face,  an  insupportable  flatterer,  and 

lished  anonymously   at   Cologne   in  Siri   too  unscrupulous  a  detractor ; 

1G95,  but  founded  to  a  great  extent  the  Memoirs  of  Bassompierre ;  and 

on  Memoiis  of  the  Cardinal  by  Au-  several  Biographies  of  Conde. 


238  MODEEN  HISTOKY.  [a.d.  1648. 


CHAPTER  XL 
A.D.  1648. 

ON  receiving  the  intelligence  of  tlie  victory  of  Lens,  the  first 
remark  made  by  the  young  king  was  that  it  would  be  a  great 
vexation  to  the  parliament :  for  during  the  preceding  spring  and 
summer  Paris  had  been  greatly  agitated  by  a  quarrel  which  had 
broken  out  between  the  ministry  and  that  body,  ever  on  the  watch 
to  extend  its  privileges,  and  which  resulted  in  a  rebellion  on 
which  it  will  be  worth  while  to  dwell  with  more  minuteness  than 
the  importance  of  its  origin  seems  at  first  sight  to  deserve,  because 
no  series  of  events  shows  more  clearly  how  great  was  the  de- 
moralisation which  had  already  infected  the  princes  and  nobles  of 
the  land.  How  completely  every  consideration  of  good  faith,  of 
loyalty,  and  of  humanity,  had  been  banished  from  the  minds  of 
the  very  highest,  whether  in  birth  or  in  general  reputation ;  and 
because  it  is  in  this  general  want  of  principle,  spreading  down- 
wards till  it  pervaded  every  class  of  society,  that  we  may  trace  the 
seeds  of  that  more  fearful  rebellion  which,  a  century  and  a  half 
later,  overthrew  all  the  institutions  of  the  country. 

The  quarrel  originated  in  one  of  Sully's  financial  measures. 
Before  his  time  it  had  become  usual  to  allow  superannuated  judges 
to  sell  their  offices  to  anyone  qualified  to  discharge  their  duties, 
and  willing  to  purchase ;  and,  acting  on  the  suggestion  of  one  of 
his  secretaries,  M.  Paulet,  from  whom  the  new  impost  took  the 
name  of  La  Paulette,  Sully  established  a  regulation  that,  in  con- 
sideration of  a  small  annual  tax,  the  judges  should  be  allowed  to 
leave  their  offices  to  their  heirs,  to  be  disposed  of  by  them,  in  case 
that  they  themselves  should  not  have  made  arrangements  for  the 
succession  during  their  lifetime.  The  tax  was  certainly  a  very 
light  one,  if  compared  with  the  greatness  of  the  boon  which  it 
secured  to  those  who  paid  it;  so  that  when  Mazarin,  at  the 
beginning  of  this  year,  found  himself  compelled,  by  the  expenses 
of  the  war,  to  increase  many  of  the  taxes,  he  not  unnaturally 
selected  La  l*aulette  as  one  of  the  imposts  which,  as  falling 
exclusively  on  a  wealthy  body,  could  bo  raised  with  the  least 
difficulty  and  the  least  injury  to  the  state.     But  tlic  lawyers  were 


A.D.  1648.J      MAZARIN   AUGMENTS    LA   PAULETTE.  239 

as  little  inclined  as  any  other  body  to  submit  to  an  augmentation 
of  their  burdens.  And,  while  each  class  complained  of  the  or- 
dinances which  affected  itself,  the  parliament  tried  to  make  com- 
mon cause  with  all,  by  putting  forward  a  claim  to  examine  the 
whole  mass  of  edicts ;  some  of  the  chambers  even  asserting  a  right 
to  prevent  their  execution  after  they  should  have  been  registered : 
till  at  last,  rising  in  these  pretensions,  they  endeavoured  to  bring 
the  whole  taxation  of  the  kingdom  under  their  own  revision,  and 
appointed  a  committee  to  deliberate  generally  on  measures  neces- 
sary for  the  reform  of  the  state. 

The  appointment  of  a  committee  so  manifestly  illegal  was  a 
challenge  to  the  minister  which  he  could  not  refuse,  and  the 
manner  in  which  he  took  it  up  was  very  characteristic  of  his 
temper,  and  brought  into  prominent  light  some  of  his  chief  defects. 
Mazarin  had  some  qualities  well  suited  to  his  position,  and  some 
which  were  a  serious  bar  to  the  efficient  discharge  of  its  duties. 
He  was  singularly  attractive  in  person  and  manner ;  he  was  acute, 
ingenious,  ready,  and  capable  at  times  of  acting  with  vigour  and 
decision.  But  he  was  too  much  inclined  to  rely  on  his  ingenuity 
and  address ;  his  cleverness  too  often  degenerated  into  cunning 
and  trick  :  he  was  completely  ignorant  of  the  previous  history  of 
the  kingdom  and  of  the  feelings  of  the  people,  nor  had  he  the 
sagacity  to  perceive  that  many  systems,  even  though  their  original 
institution  may  have  been  impolitic,  yet  cannot,  after  they  have 
been  long  established,  be  abolished  without  still  greater  impolicy. 
Two  necessities  now  pressed  upon  him:  to  collect  an  increased 
revenue,  and  to  repress  and  chastise  the  presumption  of  the 
parliament.  And  he  conceived  that  he  saw  a  plan  which  would 
combine  both  objects  ,•  w^hich  would  at  once  sow  divisions  among 
the  malcontents,  and,  to  a  great  extent,  disarm  them  by  depriving 
the  rest  of  the  co-operation  of  the  parliament,  the  body  the  most 
able  to  represent  their  grievances  with  effect ;  while  it  would  at 
the  same  time  punish  the  parliament  itself,  by  appearing  to  grant 
that  body  even  more  than  it  had  asked,  though  the  concession 
would,  in  fact,  by  destroying  the  inheritable  character  of  their 
offices,  deprive  them  of  half  their  value.  He  announced  that  the 
augmentation  of  all  the  other  taxes  would  be  persisted  in,  but 
that,  instead  of  raising  La  Paulette,  as  he  had  proposed,  he  would 
remit  that  impost  altogether.  He  was  so  proud  of  the  wit  of  thus 
< cursing  them  with  a  granted  prayer'  that  be  overlooked  the 
danger  which  might  arise  from  their  opposition,  when  their 
habitual  fondness  for  factious  resistance  and  encroachment  was 
sharpened  by  the  more  legitimate  purpose  of  defending  those 
pecuniary  interests  which  they  had  some  right  to  look  upon  as 
secured  under  the  guarantee  of  the  government.     It  was  a  common 


240  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1654. 

estimate  that  45,000  families  were  connected  with  the  profession 
of  the  law ;  and  the  whole  of  that  vast  body  was  now  seized  with 
consternation  and  anger,  of  which  the  parliament  naturally  be- 
came the  representative  and  spokesman.  They  held  meetings  in 
spite  of  the  regent's  prohibition ;  not  contented  with  demanding 
the  redress  of  their  present  grievance,  they  proposed  measures  for 
the  reform  of  most  of  the  departments  of  the  state,  but  conducted 
the  meetings  with  so  much  more  violence  than  steadiness,  that 
one  of  the  members  of  the  reforming  committee,  M.  Bachaumont, 
compared  their  conduct  to  that  of  the  schoolboys  slinging  stones 
under  the  city  walls,  who  ran  away  as  soon  as  they  saw  the  police 
coming  to  interrupt  their  sport,  but  resumed  it  as  soon  as  the 
officers  had  turned  their  back.  The  jest  spread  out  of  doors,  and 
hit  the  general  fancy.  The  French  word  for  a  sling' is  Fronde ;  it 
was  at  once  adopted  as  a  party  badge,  and  when,  presently,  the 
parliament  and  its  supporters  broke  out  into  open  insurrection, 
they  called  themselves  La  Fronde,  and  each  member  of  the  party 
a  Frondeur. 

Mazarin  by  himself  might  still  have  been  able  to  prevent  the 
discontent  from  ripening  into  revolt :  but  the  queen  regent  was 
passionate  and  impulsive.  She  adopted  his  advice  to  re-establish 
the  Paulette,  and  even  to  grant  some  of  the  reforms  which  the 
parliamentary  committee  had  recommended ;  but  she  cherished  a 
deep  resentment  against  its  leaders,  who,  as  she  viewed  matters, 
had  compelled  the  crown  to  submit  to  such  humiliation  :  and  when 
shortly  afterwards,  a  Te  Deum  for  the  victory  of  Lens  was  cele- 
brated at  the  great  metropolitan  cathedral  of  Notre  Dame,  in  the 
presence  of  the  king,  the  princes,  and  the  chief  nobles  of  the  land : 
and  when,  to  do  honour  to  the  solemnity,  the  streets  were  lined 
with  troops,  she  resolved  to  make  the  force  thus  collected  an 
instrument  of  her  revenge,  and,  as  soon  as  the  king  had  returned 
to  the  Tuileries,  she  sent  the  detachment  which  had  formed  the 
royal  escort  to  arrest  a  member  named  Broussol,  who  had  rendered 
himself  conspicuous  by  his  fiery  declamation  against  some  of  the 
abuses  of  which  the  committee  complained  ;  with  some  other 
councillors,  who  had  also  taken  a  leading  part  in  the  agitation. 
The  whole  city  rose  in  a  moment.  Broussel's  maid-servant  called 
out  of  Jiis  window  to  the  passers  by,  that  the  officers  were  carry- 
ing off'  her  master.  Instantly  a  mob  collected,  so  fierce  and  furious, 
that  it  was  not  without  hard  fighting,  and  the  entire  destruction 
of  the  carriage  in  which  the  prisoner  had  been  placed,  that  the 
officer  commanding  the  escort  was  able  to  convey  him  to  a  place 
of  security :  and,  before  his  companions  were  lodged  in  their 
separate  prisons,  the  whole  populace  was  thronging  the  streets  in 
formidable  bands;  uttering  frantic  menaces  against  the  palace; 


A.D.  16^8.]  CARDINAL  DE  RETZ.  241 

brandishing  weapons,  and  shouting  the  ill-omened  savage  cry, 
*  Kill,  kill ! '  which  had  not  been  heard  since  the  day  of  St.  Bar- 
tholomew. It  was  in  vain  that  the  royal  guards  tried  to  quell 
the  tumult,  their  commander,  the  Marshal  de  la  Meilleraye,  even 
shooting  with  his  own  hand  one  of  the  foremost  rioters.  The  mob, 
who  were  too  frantic  to  be  pacified,  were  too  strong  to  be  intimi- 
dated, and  the  only  consequence  of  the  marshal's  act  was  to  fur- 
nish the  rioters  with  a  leader  able  above  any  other  man  in  France 
to  render  the  revolt  formidable. 

John  Francis  Paul  Gondi,  so  much  better  known  by  the  title 
which  he  subsequently  attained  of  Cardinal  de  Retz,  that  it  will 
be  more  convenient  to  speak  of  him  by  it  from  the  first,  was  co- 
adjutor to  his  uncle,  the  Archbishop  of  Paris ;  and,  as  his  eventual 
successor  in  that  see,  was  already  a  man  of  great  consideration  and 
influence.  His  faculties  qualified  him  to  shine .  in  almost  every 
profession,  except  that  which  had  been  chosen  for  him.  He  was 
acute,  ready,  fearless,  a  shrewd  judge  of  men  and  circumstances, 
and  utterly  unscrupulous.  His  ecclesiastical  profession  and  rank 
did  not  prevent  his  being  one  of  the  most  dissolute  of  men ;  almost 
before  he  had  grown  to  man's  estate  he  was  a  notorious  and  suc- 
cessful duellist ;  and,  though  remarkable  for  his  ugliness,  no  lay 
noble  surpassed  him  in  the  triumphs  of  gallantry  or  in  the  number 
of  his  mistresses.  But  his  darling  passion  was  notoriety.  Accord- 
ing to  his  own  account,  he  had  learned  from  'Plutarch's  Lives'  that 
the  highest  of  all  positions  was  that  of  "the  head  of  a  party ;  and, 
as  he  could  not  arrive  at  the  object  of  his  ambition  by  attaching 
himself  to  the  court  where  Richelieu  first,  and  afterwards  Mazarin, 
monopolised  all  favour  and  influence,  he  resolved  to  obtain  it  by 
opposition.  He  had  commenced  that  course  in  the  last  reign,  as 
one  of  the  secret  advisers  of  the  Duke  of  Orleans  in  one  of  his 
many  plots  against  the  great  cardinal ;  but  when  the  conspiracy 
failed,  he  had  been  crafty  enough  or  lucky  enough  to  avoid  giving 
Richelieu,  who  certainl}'-  would  not  have  spared  him,  reason  to 
suspect  how  deeply  he  was  concerned  in  the  duke's  machinations. 
It  was  less  dangerous  to  attack  Mazarin ;  and  the  parliament  was 
a  more  trustworthy  ally  than  the  ever  wavering  and  treacherous 
Orleans ;  and  de  Retz,  with  singular  address  and  boldness  availed 
himself  of  the  opportunity  which  accident  threw  in  his  way  to 
perform  an  action  which  to  the  excited  populace  bore  the  appear- 
ance of  putting  himself  in  an  attitude  of  direct  defiance  to  the 
minister ;  while,  if  the  court  should  prove  too  strong,  it  would  be 
easy  to  represent  it  as  the  discharge  of  a  duty  imperative  on  one  of 
his  clerical  profession  and  office.  His  house  was  close  to  the 
scene  of  tumult,  and,  seeing  from  the  window  the  man  whom  the 
marshal  had  shot  lying  in  the  agonies  of  death,  he  at  once  de-. 
12 


242  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  164S. 

scended  into  tbe  street,  -wearing  his  episcopal  rochet,  and,  with  his 
crucifix  in  his  hand,  knelt  down  in  the  gutter  to  adniinister  to  the 
sufferer  the  last  rites  of  the  Church.     His  charitable  deed  was 
hailed  with  acclamations  hy  the  mob ;  it  gave  him  an  influence 
which  he  never  afterwards  lost  with  them,  and  which  was  power- 
ful enough  even  to  enable  him  to  protect  the  marshal  from  their 
fury,  whom  previously  they  had  been  threatening  to  murder,  and 
who  believed  and  acknowledged  that  he  owed  his  life  to  the  co- 
adjutor's exertions.     As  yet  the  discontent  might  probably  have 
been   appeased  ;   but  Mazarin's  want  of  appreciation  of  the  feel- 
ings of  the  citizens,   and   the  queen's  hasty   temper  and   indig- 
nation at  the  insults  which  she  conceived  to  have  been  offered 
to  herself  as  regent  stood  in  the  way.      The   cardinal   sneered 
at  the   coadjutor's  representations   of  the   dangerous  posture  of 
affairs,  though  they  were  fully  supported  by  de  la  Meilleraye ; 
and  the  queen,  in  her  rage,  condescended  to  threaten  him  with 
personal  violence.     He  was  more  amused  than  terrified  at  the 
menace ;  but  when,  in  the  evening,  he  received  a  warning  from  de 
la  Meilleraye  that  she  was  thinking  of  arresting  him,  he  thought 
it  time  to  stand  on  his  guard.     He  replied  quietly  to  the  marshal's 
messenger  that  he  saw  that  the  court  was  resolved  to  destroy  the 
people  ;  that  he  was  resolved  to  save  them ;  and  that  by  noon  the 
next  day  he  would  be  master  of  Paris.     He  kept  his  word.     He 
had  agents  of  all  classes  ready  to  do  his  bidding.     At  his  instiga- 
tion, the  militia  poured  out  to  anticipate  the  royal  guards  in  the 
occupation  of  the  most  commanding  positions ;  the  citizens,  fol- 
lowing the  example  set  in  the  wars  of  the  League,  began  to  erect 
barricades :  a  constant  resource  of  the  disafi'ected  in  all  the  troubles 
which,  in  the  last  century,  have  agitated  that  most  unquiet  and 
unfortunate  city.   By  midday  1,200  such  barriers  blocked  up  almost 
every  thoroughfare ;  and  were  protected  by  an  armed  guard,  not  in- 
deed always  of  men,  but  children  of  six  years  old  were  seen  brandish- 
ing daggers,  and  women  were  beating  the  drums,  and  striving  to 
their  utmost  to  emulate  the  ardour  of  their  stouter  relatives. 

Even  the  queen  felt  that  de  Retz  was  master  of  the  situation, 
and  condescended  to  beg  him  to  act  as  a  peacemaker  and  to  restore 
tranquillity.  If  she  would  have  made  him  governor  of  the  city, 
he  would  have  been  glad  enough  to  undertake  the  part  which  she 
desired  to  assign  him  ;  but,  as  she  refused,  he  declared  that  he 
had  no  such  influence  as  she  ascribed  to  him,  though  cries  of  '  Vive 
le  Coadjuteur'  were  much  more  frequent  in  the  streets  than  those 
of  '  Vive  le  Roi ' ;  but  he  had  still  ends  of  his  own  to  gain,  and  he 
thought  it  necessary  to  their  attainment  to  humble  the  court  by 
showing  it  its  utter  helplessness  before  an  excited  people.  The 
disorders  increased.  The  queen  did  condescend  so  far  as  to  release 
Broussel,  and  for  a  moment  Paris  was  quieted ;  but,  at  the  same 


A.D.  1648.]         CONDE  SUPPORTS  THE  COURT.  243 

time,  she  took  measures  to  chastise  those  who  had  brought  her  to 
this  humiliation.  She  quitted  Paris  to  put  herself  out  of  the  reach 
of  any  renewal  of  the  outbreak,  and  she  sent  orders  to  Cond6  to 
hasten  to  join  her  with  some  picked  regiments.  He  came  ;  but  at 
first  it  was  far  from  being  certain  that  his  arrival  would  strengthen 
the  court.  Though  a  brave,  and,  to  a  certain  extent,  a  skilful 
soldier,  he  had  no  other  good  quality.  He  was  rapacious,  trea- 
cherous, and  cruel ;  moreover,  in  the  present  quarrel  he  was  not 
greatly  inclined  to  espouse  either  side,  and  could  not  be  depended 
on  to  adhere  to  the  party  to  which  he  might  at  first  attach  him- 
self. If  he  had  a  great  contempt  for  lawyers,  he  had  a  positive 
hatred  for  Mazarin ;  and  one  of  his  first  steps  on  reaching  the 
metropolis  was  to  hold  a  long  conference  with  de  Retz,  in  which 
he  agreed  to  co-operate  with  him  to  effect  the  dismissal  of  the 
minister.  But  he  and  the  coadjutor  were  too  like  one  another  to 
agree  long.  Presently,  it  occurred  to  him  that,  as  a  prince  of  the 
blood  royal,  it  did  not  become  him  to  disturb  the  crown ;  he  gave 
in  his  adhesion  to  the  court,  inducing  the  Duke  of  Orleans  to 
support  it  likewise ;  and  prepared  to  menace  the  parliament  with 
war,  if  not  actually  to  commence  operations.  Nothing  could  more 
fully  have  corresponded  with  the  coadjutor's  secret  wishes.  lie 
was  not  without  allies  in  the  royal  family  itself,  for  Conde  had 
quarrelled  with  his  brother  the  Prince  de  Conti,  and  with  his 
brother-in-law  the  Due  de  Longueville,  who,  with  many  wealthy 
nobles,  now  made  common  cause  with  de  Retz  ;  and  confident  in 
such  leaders,  the  parliament  at  once  proceeded  to  measures  of  open 
rebellion.  They  passed  a  resolution  banishing  Mazarin  ;  who,  in- 
deed, had  openly  violated  a  law  which  had  been  passed  in  the 
last  reign  at  the  downfall  of  the  Concini,  and  which  had  made  it 
a  capital  oifence  in  any  foreigner  to  become  a  minister  of  state ; 
they  raised  troops  and  taxes,  seized  the  money  in  the  royal  trea- 
sury, and  appointed  the  Prince  de  Conti  *  generalissimo  of  the 
army  of  the  king  under  the  orders  of  the  parliament,'  as  if  the 
flimsy  veil  of  this  title  would  disguise  the  fact  of  their  being  in 
revolt  against  the  king  himself. 

Once  more  civil  war  had  begun.  It  is  difficult  to  speak  seriously 
of  what  the  very  actors  could  not  think  seriously  at  the  time  when 
they  were  engaged  in  it.  We  have  full  accounts  of  the  whole 
rebellion,  both  from  de  Retz  himself,  and  from  one  who,  though  a 
lady,  and  a  royal  princess,  bore  a  not  unimportant  part  in  some  of 
its  most  stirring  scenes.  Mademoiselle  de  Montpensier,  daughter  of 
the  Duke  of  Orleans,  and  their  language  shows  that  throughout  they 
looked  on  the  whole  series  of  transactions  as  a  good  jest,  as  a  farce 
in  which  the  scenes  might  be  shifted,  and  the  actors  might  change 
their  parts  at  pleasure.    According  to  the  coadjutor's  description  of 


244  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1649. 

the  court  on  tlie  very  first  evening  when  he  accompanied  de  la 
Meilleraye  to  the  queen's  presence,  all  including  himself,  were 
acting ;  Mazarin,  feigning  confidence,  the  queen,  assuming  an  air 
of  calmness,  while  the  one  was  frightened  out  of  his  wits,  and 
the  other  was  secretly  boiling  over  with  indignation,  were  not 
counterfeiting  more  than  he  himself,  who  was  professing  friendship 
to  them,  and  complete  innocence  of  all  plots.  And  now,  when 
the  chiefs  of  the  revolt,  preparing  for  instant  action,  assembled 
daily  in  the  apartments  of  Madame  de  Longueville,  which  had 
become  the  head  quarters  of  the  parliamentary  staff;  her  chamber, 
crowded  as  it  was  with  high-born  nobles,  train-band  captains, 
lawyers,  and  fine  ladies,  all  equally  loud  in  giving,  and  all  almost 
equally  competent  to  give  their  opinion  on  the  line  of  conduct  to  be 
pursued ;  and  resounding,  as  it  did,  sometimes  with  the  clang  of 
arms  and  trumpets,  and  sometimes  with  fiddles  and  dances,  pre- 
sented a  spectacle,  as  it  struck  him,  oftener  described  in  novels 
than  seen  in  real  life.  And  it  is  equally,  if  not  far  more  difficult 
to  form  a  correct  idea  of  the  rebellion,  both  because  every  one  con- 
cerned in  it  tried  to  disguise  his  motives,  so  that  even  the  Duke  de 
Rochefoucault,  intimately  as  he  knew  the  leaders  on  both  sides 
and  deeply  implicated  in  it,  as  he  waa  himself,  despaired  of  giving 
a  true  account  of  it ;  and  also  from  the  singular  way  in  which, 
under  the  influence  of  one  caprice  or  another,  in  the  course  of  the 
war,  almost  every  one  changed  his  side.  Cond^,  who  was  at  first 
the  prop  of  the  court,  was  afterwards  thrown  into  prison  by  the 
queen :  and  subsequently  took  the  command  of  the  rebel  army,  and 
added  treachery  to  rebellion.  The  Duke  of  Orleans  did  the  same. 
Turenne,  taking  the  exactly  contrary  course,  was  a  rebel  at  first, 
and  afterwards  the  chief  bulwark  of  the  crown  against  his  old 
comrade's  treason :  and  even  de  Retz,  the  originator  of  the  whole 
revolt,  became  an  object  of  such  suspicion  to  his  friends  that  some 
of  them  proposed  his  assassination ;  while  the  queen  became  so  far 
reconciled  to  him  that  he  had  the  singular  honour  of  concerting 
with  her  measures  for  the  arrest  of  Cond^,  and  subsequently 
that  of  refusing  her  offer  to  supersede  Mazarin,  and  to  become 
prime  minister  of  the  kingdom.  But,  though  these  characteris- 
tics of  the  Fronde  may  excite  a  smile,  yet  in  truth  the  levity  with 
with  which  the  different  individuals,  the  highest  in  the  kingdom  by 
birth  and  rank,  changed  from  rebellion  to  loyalty,  and  from  loyalty 
to  rebellion,  was  the  most  really  dangerous  symptom  in  the  whole 
revolt :  arguing,  as  it  did,  an  innate  want  of  principle,  a  total 
indiff*erenco  to,  and  even  ignorance  of  patriotism,  good  faith, 
honour,  duty,  of  every  virtue  on  whicli  alone  the  real  welfare  of  a 
nation  can  be  founded. 
At  first  the  revolt  seemed  likely  to  terminate  as  quickly  as  it 


A.D.  1649.]  THE  TREATY   OF  RUEL.  245 

had  begun  :  Coiid«5,  with  12,000  men,  attacked  his  brother  Conti's 
troops  at  Charenton,  a  village  reaching  to  the  very  suburbs  of  the 
city,  and  easily  routed  them.  And  even  without  such  a  blow, 
the  course  of  events  abroad  would  have  prompted  the  parliament 
of  its  own  accord  to  abandon  the  contest.  When,  a  few  weeks 
before,  the  queen  had  released  Broussel,  she  had  been  principally 
influenced  by  the  prayers  and  warnings  of  her  sister-in-law,  the 
queen  of  England,  who  had  taken  refuge  in  Paris  from  the  rebels 
who  had  overthrown  her  husband's  throne :  and  now,  on  the  very 
day  of  Conde's  victory  at  Charenton,  intelligence  arrived  of  the 
murder  of  Charles  I. ;  and  the  French  parliament,  which  had 
originally  been  encouraged  in  its  encroachments  on  the  royal 
power  by  its  identity  of  name  with  the  assembly  which  had  at 
first  been  led  by  Hampden  and  Hyde,  now  shrank  from  continuing 
a  line  of  conduct  which  might  lead  others  to  identify  them  with  a 
body  stained  with  such  unparalleled  guilt.  They  wished  there- 
fore for  a  reconciliation  with  the  court.  The  court,  recognising 
the  fact  that  their  leaders  had  been  too  numerous  and  too  power- 
ful for  punishment,  was  willing  to  pardon  what  had  taken  place  : 
and  peace  was  signed,  after  a  short  negotiation,  in  March  1649,  at 
Ruel,  a  royal  palace  where  the  queen  was  residing  at  the  moment ; 
which  was,  in  fact,  little  more  than  an  amnesty  to  all  concerned  in 
the  outbreak,  except  de  Retz,  and  the  Duke  of  Beaufort,  a  grandson 
of  Henry  IV.,  who  out  of  personal  vanity  had  put  himself  forward 
as  a  patron  of  the  parliament ;  since  both  the  coadj  utor  and  the 
duke  refused  to  be  included  in  it,  declaring  that  they  had  been 
guilty  of  no  act  requiring  pardon. 

Their  disclaimer  was  but  a  bad  omen  for  the  duration  of  the 
peace  thus  brought  about ;  if  indeed  a  treaty  which  is  merely  an 
amnesty  for  past  rebellion,  does  not  in  itself  invite  a  renewal  of  it. 
And  this  treaty  of  Ruel  did  not  profess  to  put  matters  on  any  new 
footing,  for  the  grievances  which  had  supplied  the  original  pretext 
for  complaint  had  been  removed  before  the  parliament  took  up 
arms.  And  the  personal  motives  which  had  really  been  at  the 
bottom  of  the  insurrection  were  left  untouched,  if  indeed  they 
were  not  embittered  by  its  result ;  since  most  of  the  leaders  were 
disappointed;  though  their  vexation  was  chiefly  with  their  own 
party :  and  some  had  become  inclined  to  reconcile  themselves  with 
those  with  whom  they  had  been  previously  at  enmity,  in  order  to 
avenge  themselves  on  others  with  whom  they  had  originally  been 
united. 

But,  if  the  Fronde  in  its  first  outbreak  had  been  a  farce,  in  its 
revival  it  was  more  farcical  still.  Cond^  soon  began  to  quarrel 
with  everyone :  with  Mazarin,  about  his  niece's  marriage :  with 
the  whole  body  of  the  nobles,  about  matters  of  court  etiquette, 


246  MODERIi  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1650. 

taking  upon  himself  to  prohibit  their  meetinj^  to  discuss  some  pre- 
tensions that  they  considered  themselves  entitled  to  advance ;  and 
offending  them  so  deeply  that  800  of  the  most  influential  of  the 
body  signed  an  agreement  to  resist  him  by  all  the  means  in  their 
power ;  and,  finally,  using  such  language  towards  the  queen  her- 
self, because  she  refused  his  application  for  the  government  of 
Havre,  that  even  the  ladies  of  the  court  began  to  urge  their  mis- 
tress to  arrest  him.  Meanwhile  de  Retz  was,  almost  as  a  matter 
of  course,  intriguing  with  everybody  j  he  and  the  Duke  of  Beau- 
fort still  ostentatiously  retained  the  title  of  Frondeur ;  and  before 
the  end  of  the  year,  as  there  was  still  much  distress  among  the 
community,  great  financial  emban'assment,  and  consequently  general 
discontent,  he  thought  the  time  was  come  for  renewed  action  ;  and 
he  began  to  plot,  or,  if  that  be  too  dignified  a  word  for  what  took 
place,  to  play  tricks  to  exasperate  the  populace  against  the 
minister,  while  Mazarin  played  counter-tricks  to  ensure  the  sepa- 
ration between  Conde  and  the  parliament.  De  Retz  found  that  a 
mere  report  that  Mazarin  intended  to  hang  Beaufort  obtained  no 
credit  and  produced  no  effect ;  so  he  tried  what  might  be  done  by 
a  sham  attempt  at  assassination.  His  secretary,  Guy  Joly,  cut  a 
hole  in  his  coat,  and  gave  himself  a  scratch  on  his  arm,  and  thus 
prepared  drove  through  the  city;  as  he  passed  down  one  of  the  most 
crowded  streets,  a  man  stopped  his  carriage,  and  fired  througli  the 
window.  He  had  dropped  to  the  bottom  out  of  harm's  way,  but  he 
went  home  and  took  to  his  bed  as  a  wounded  man.  On  the  same 
evening  one  of  Condi's  carriages  was  also  fired  at,  as  if  in  retalia- 
tion, the  perpetrators  of  this  attack  being  secret  agents  of  Mazarin, 
who  intended  by  it  to  lead  the  prince  to  believe  that  the  parti- 
sans of  the  parliament  had  tried  to  get  rid  of  him.  Cond^,  no 
doubt,  knew  the  truth ;  but  he  too  pretended  to  believe  in  the  reality 
of  the  attack,  and  lodged  a  formal  complaint  against  de  Retz 
and  Beaufort  as  its  authors.  The  coadjutor  first  ridiculed,  then 
easily  disproved  the  charge,  and  the  tribunals  dismissed  it ;  but 
Condd  insisted  that  to  acquit  anyone  of  a  charge  which  he  brought 
against  him  was  in  itself  an  affront,  and  demanded  that  the  coad- 
jutor and  the  duke  should  confess  their  guilt  and  quit  the  city.  He 
not  only  made  himself  ridiculous,  but  he  made  it  safe  for  the 
court  to  treat  him  as  if  he  were  powerless ;  and  Mazarin  crowned 
the  series  of  intrigue  and  plot  by  a  trick  conceiv(^d  in  the  finest 
spirit  of  comedy,  making  the  haughty  prince  an  actor  in  his  own 
imprisonment.  Pretending  a  conviction  that  the  attack  upon  him 
was  a  matter  of  grave  state  importance,  and  that  the  officers  of 
justice  had  discovered  the  hiding-place  of  one  of  the  criminals,  he 
procured  Condi's  signature  to  an  order  to  some  of  the  troops  under 
his  command  to  escort  some  prisoners  who  were  to  be  arrested  tc 


A.D.  1650.]  THE  REVOLT   OF  BORDEAUX.  247 

Vincennes.  An  officer  instantly  arrested  Conde  himself,  with  both 
his  brothers,  and  thej  were  safely  conveyed  to  prison  by  some  of 
his  own  soldiers,  in  obedience  to  his  own  order.  ■>s 

It  may  be  that  this  step  ensured  the  eventual  renewal  of  war, 
since  it  was  obviously  impossible  to  keep  the  princes  long  in  con- 
finement, and  certain  that  Conde,  when  released,  would  seek  re- 
venge. But  it  delayed  it  for  a  moment,  not  only  by  removing  ,  ^ 
him,  but  by  dividing  the  Fronde,  which  now  for  a  while  broke  fJ<A>-oo« 
into  two  parties,  the  Oldjiaods,  whose  chief  aim  was  the  over-.^  -^ 
throw  of  Mazarin,  and  which  still  submitted  to  the  guidance  of  *  ^ 
de  Retz  ;  and  the  New  Fronde,  which  put  forward  as  its  principal 
object  the  release  "of  tJie  princes,  and  which  may  be  called  the 
Ladies'  Party,  as  the  war,  when  it  did  break  out,  may  be  called 
the  Ladies'  War.  For  not  only  were  the  chief  plotters  ladies,  but, 
after  the  war  had  actually  broken  out,  one  of  the  boldest  actors 
in  it  was  a  lady.  Conde's  wife,  the  princess,  and  her  sister,  the 
Duchess  of  Longueville,  were  justified  in  agitating  for  his  release : 
and  they  were  joined  by  the  wife  of  the  young  Elector  Palatine,  a 
princess  of  Italian  birth  and  Italian  capacity  for  intrigue  of  every 
kind,  by  a  host  of  other  high-born  ladies  of  the  same  character,  or 
want  of  character,  and  by  Mademoiselle  de  Montpensier,  daughter 
of  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  who,  though  herself  of  spotless  reputation, 
combined  with  them,  partly  in  deference  to  her  father,  and  still 
more  from  an  energetic  restlessness,  which  prompted  her  by  turns 
to  interfere  in  politics,  to  manoeuvre  for  a  husband,  and  to  under- 
take the  conduct  of  warlike  operations  with  equal  vivacity.  As 
the  most  likely  mode  to  secure  her  husband's  release  was  to  enlist 
some  powerful  body  or  city,  as  yet  unconnected  with  these  trans- 
actions, in  his  behalf,  the  princess  repaired  to  Bordeaux,  where 
the  populace  espoused  her  cause  with  enthusiasm :  the  municipal 
magistrates  were  hardly  of  the  same  opinion,  but  the  mob  sur- 
rounded their  SGuncil  chamber,  vowing  that  no  one  should  quit  it 
till  they  had  resolved  to  take  arms  for  the  princes.  The  dinner 
hour  at  Bordeaux  was  twelve  o'clock,  and  regularity  at  meals  has 
at  all  times  been  a  civic  virtue ;  still,  the  mayor  and  his  colleagues 
held  out  gallantly  for  some  hours  later,  but  by  five  o'clock  they 
were  famished  into  a  surrender,  passed  the  vote  demanded  of 
them,  and  put  the  city  into  a  state  of  defence.  It  was  too  im- 
portant a  place  to  be  permitted  to  remain  in  a  state  of  revolt :  so  in 
August  Marshal  de  la  Meilleraye  invested  it  with  11,000  men,  and 
for  a  while  those  who  had  won  it  to  their  cause  toiled  manfully  to 
preserve  it.  The  princess  pawned  her  jewels  and  melted  down 
her  plate  to  provide  funds:  her  ladies  worked  at  the  ramparts, 
carrying  earth  in  baskets  trimmed  with  Conde's  colours,  while  the 
Dukes  de  Bouillon  and  de  la  Rochefoucault,  who  had  planned  the 


248  MODERN  HISTORY.  Fa.d.  1651. 

works  which  they  were  executing,  brought  them  trays  of  fruit  and 
sweetmeats ;  but,  after  a  few  weeks,  a  kindred  cause  to  that  which 
had  forced  the  city  to  embrace  their  party,  led  it  to  abandon  them. 
The  magistrates  had  become  rebels  in  August  to  get  their  dinners: 
in  September  the  vintage  commences  in  that  district,  and  they 
became  eager  for  peace  to  procure  leisure  to  make  their  wine.  Be 
Retz,  as  one  who  had  no  concern  in  the  struggle,  mediated  be- 
tween them  and  the  court ;  and  before  the  end  of  the  month  an 
amnesty  was  granted,  and  Bordeaux  returned  to  its  duty. 

Mazarin  was  not  relieved  from  perplexities  by  this  failure  of  the 
insurrection  in  that  great  city ;  in  truth,  it  added  to  them,  by  show- 
ing the  leaders  of  the  New  Fronde  that  they  could  not  effect  their 
objects  single-handed,  and  thus  leading  them  to  coalesce  with  the 
Old  Fronde.  The  union  was  for  a  while  delayed  by  their 
jealousy  of  de  Ketz;  but  the  conviction  of  its  necessity  for  their 
common  interests  gradually  prevailed  over  merely  personal  feel- 
ings. By  January  1651,  all  points  of  difference  were  arranged  be- 
tween them ;  and,  as  one  solid  party,  they  now  combined  their 
efforts,  demands,  and  exertions,  insisting  with  equal  earnestness 
on  the  release  of  the  princes  and  on  the  dismissal  of  the  minister 
who  kept  them  in  prison.  It  had  been  a  wise  act  in  Mazarin  to 
show  his  power  by  arresting  them ;  it  was  very  impolitic  to  detain 
them  so  long.  The  spirit  of  Cond^  himself  had  been  so  lowered 
by  confinement  that  he  repeatedly  authorised  his  friend  the  Duke 
de  la  Rochefoucault  and  his  sister  to  promise  lasting  fidelity  to 
the  court  for  the  future  as  the  condition  of  his  liberation ;  and  the 
cardinal  had  had  several  opportunities  of  yielding  in  such  a  way 
as  to  give  his  liberation  the  appearance  of  a  favour  which  it  was 
at  his  discretion  to  grant  or  to  withhold.  But  now  the  two  Frondes 
had  hardly  coalesced  when  d'Orleans  openly  joined  them ;  and,  con- 
temptible as  he  was  in  character,  his  position  as  the  king's  uncle, 
and  as  lieutenant-general  of  the  kingdom,  gave  him  such  weight, 
that  Mazarin  saw  that  it  was  beyond  his  power  to  keep  his  prisoners 
any  longer  in  confinement ;  though  he  perceived  at  the  same  time 
that  their  liberty  was  incompatible  with  his  own  continuance  in 
office.  To  give  their  liberation  something  like  an  appearance  of  a 
voluntary  act  of  grace  on  his  part,  he  repaired  himself  to  Havre,  to 
which  city  he  had  transferred  them  some  time  before,  and  an- 
nounced to  them  their  release  by  word  of  mouth ;  and  then  pro- 
ceeded to  show  his  sense  of  his  own  position  and  his  own  danger  by 

^  J?—  fleeing  to  Cologne  ;  by  this  virtual  resignation  of  his  office  saving 

Y  ^^  his  royal  mistress  the  pain  of  dismissing  him. 

He  did  not,  indeed,  intend  or  expect  to  remain  long  in  exile,  either 
from  the  country  or  from  the  government.  His  favorite  proverb 
was,  '  Time  and  I  against  any  two.'   And  he  had  little  doubt  that, 


A.D.  1651.]    MUTUAL  JEALOUSIES  OF  THE  LEADERS.       249 

as  enmity  to  himself  had  been  the  chief  cement  which  had  united 
the  leaders  of  the  different  parties,  his  absence  would  revive  their 
mutual  jealousies.  But  for  a  moment  his  flight  encouraged  the 
parliament,  and  even  de  Retz,  who  had  generally  been  cautious 
not  to  render  the  breach  between  the  court  and  himself  irrecon- 
cileable,  to  adopt  measures  of  an  unusually  decided  character.  In 
obedience  to  an  order  signed  by  the  Duchess  of  Orleans,  in  her 
husband's  name,  de  Retz  had  once  more  set  the  militia  in  motion, 
and  had  seized  the  gates  of  i^aris,  in  order  to  prevent  tne  queen 
from  leaving  the  city  with  the  youDg  king,  and,  as  it  was  appre- 
hended that  she  designed  to  do,  rejoining  Mazarin  in  the  pro- 
vinces, while  the  parliament  passed  a  resolution  that  henceforth  fiuu^(oJ\ 
no  cardinal  should  be  admissible  into  the  council  oT stated  Both  i  / 
steps  were  in  the  highest  degree  impolitic :  the"  seizuf©  of  the  *k  |-*>*" 
city  gates  was  an  attack  upon  the  freedom  of  the  king  himself,  v 
which  struck  many  of  the  Frondeurs  themselves  with  horror ;  and 
the  resolution  of  the  parliament  was  felt  as  an  insult  to  the  whole 
body  of  the  clergy,  who  were  not  only  far  more  numerous  than 
the  lawyers,  who  composed  the  parliament,  but  infinitely  more 
closely  connected  with  the  aristocracy  of  the  kingdom.  That  the 
parliament  should  ever  have  passed  it  may  perhaps  be  taken  as  a 
proof  that  their  champion,  de  Retz,  who  by  this  time  felt  assured 
of  speedily  obtaining  the  cardinal's  hat,  had  no  expectation  of  the 
lead  in  the  administration  being  offered  to  himself;  but,  as  no  one 
ever  paid  the  slightest  attention  to  the  vote,  it  would  hardly  have 
been  worth  recording  at  all,  had  it  not  been  for  the  patriotic  view 
of  their  own  position  which  the  whole  body  of  the  French  clergy 
took  in  protesting  against  it.  Ultramontane  principles,  as  they 
are  now  called,  had  no  root  in  their  body  at  that  time.  They  de- 
clared that  ^  the  oath  which  the  cardinals  took  to  the  Pope  was 
posterior  and  subordinate  to  that  which  they  had  previously  taken 
to  the  king  and  to  the  country;  they  were  citizens  of  France 
before  they  were  princes  of  the  Church,  and  therefore,'  tliey 
argued,  '  it  was  cruel  to  wish  to  keep  their  talents  in  the  shade, 
and  to  deprive  them  of  the  privilege  of  serving  the  state.' 

Mazarin's  anticipations  that  his  foes  would  quarrel  among  them- 
selves were  speedily  verified.  Each  knew  the  others  too  well  not 
to  be  suspicious  of  them.  D'Orl^ans  believed  that  Cond^  planned 
wresting  his  office  of  lieutenant-general  of  the  kingdom  from  him : 
Conde  suspected  Orleans  of  having  advised  that  he  should  be  again 
arrested.  De  Retz  feared,  or  pretended  to  fear,  that  both  were 
leagued  for  his  destruction ;  and,  adopting  a  plan  which  he  him- 
self, in  his  Memoirs,  calls  *  a  stage  trick,'  he  announf^ed  his  purpose 
to  retire  from  political  life,  and  for  the  future  to  confine  himself  to 
the  discharge  of  his  spiritual  duties ;  while,  at  the  same  time,  he 


250  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1651. 

made  public  proclamation  of  his  fear  of  violence,  by  surrounding 
his  house  with  a  body  of  troops. 

He  knew  who  were  his  enemies  :  he  had  little  idea  of  the  pre- 
ferment which  some  whom  he  ranked  among  them  destined  for 
J,  him;  and  was,  in  all  likelihood,  completely  surprised  when,  by 

^  Mazarin's  advice,   the   queen   offered   him    the    post   of    prime 

^yJ^JIrminister ;    though,  as  he  never  underrated  his  own  capacity,  he 
probably  felt  no  doubt  at  all  of  his  fitness  for  it.     So  entirely, 
-Vs,  however,  was  he  taken  by  surprise,  that  at  first  he  did  not  know 

whether  to  accept  or  refuse  the  offer.  He  so  far  entered  into  the 
views  with  which  the  queen  pressed  the  offer  upon  him,  that  he 
undertook  to  detach  Orleans  from  Conde,  who  was  the  principal 
object  of  the  fears  of  both  queen  and  cardinal,  and  wrote 
pamphlets  against  the  prince^  to  which  Cond6  replied  by  hiring  a 
scribbler  of  the  day,  named  Montardet,  to  libel  him ;  but  he 
refused  to  be  reconciled  to  Mazarin  himself,  not  because  he  had 
any  irreconcileable  quarrel  with  him,  but  because  the  appearance 
of  hostility  to  him  was  indispensable  to  the  maintenance  of  his 
influence  with  his  party.  To  dwell  further  on  the  miserable 
intrigues  which  occupied  the  ensuing  months  would  be  profitless 
and  wearisome.  Eventually,  de  Retz  refused  the  queen's  offers, 
though  far  beyond  his  original  ambition ;  while  Conde's  hostility 
to  the  court,  the  fruit  of  pique  and  an  overweening  pri'^e,  which 
thought  no  concession  or  reward  equal  to  his  merit,  grew  gradually 
more  and  more  decided:  and  at  one  time  it  seemed  as  if  the  queen, 
still  separated  from  her  counsellor  and  friend,  if  not  her  lover, 
Mazarin,  would  have  both  Conde  and  Turenne  to  cope  with  at 
once ;  for  that  great  soldier,  though  loyal  at  heart,  scrupulous  in 
observing  his  engagements,  and  never  straying  from  the  path  of 
duty  without  painful  stings  of  conscience,  was  deeply  entangled 
with  Madame  de  Lpngueville,  and  for  love  of  her  had  almost 
thrown  in  his  lot  with  the  Fronde :  but,  though  we  do  not  know 
how  it  was  effected,  the  queen  did  at  last  secure  his  adhesion,  and 
to  his  military  skill  the  eventual  triumph  of  the  royal  cause  was 
owing.  Of  Orleans  it  is  unnecessary  to  speak :  always  false,  trea- 
cherous',  and  cowarclly,  these  vices  seemed,  if  possible,  to  grow 
upon  him ;  so  that  even  de  Retz,  who  had  greater  influence  over 
him  than  anyone,  could  not  rouse  him  to  any  decided  or  manly 
line  of  conduct.  The  more  he  was  pressed  to  take  an  open  part, 
the  more  pusillanimous  he  grew ;  sometimes  he  would  walk  up 
and  down  his  room  whistling  for  hours,  sometimes  he  would  go  to 
bed  and  declare  himself  too  ill  to  think  of  business :  and  it  would 
have  been  utterly  unimportant  which  side  he  espoused,  if  his 
daughter  had  not  decided  for  him,  and  acted  in  his  name  :  and  in 
the  war  which  ensued  her  masculine  vigour  of  mind  and  body 


^  i 


k^^.  1652.]  LOUIS  XIV.   COMES   OF  AGE.  251 

presents  us  with  the  most  curious  episode  in  the  whole  history  of 
the  Fronde. 

At  last,  in  the  winter  of  1651,  Conde  raised  the  standard  of  ^2uA-»iAt 
civil  war,  aggravating  his  treason  by  making  it  in  formal  alliance  ^ 
with  the  Spaniards,  the  inveterate  enemies  of  his  country;  andC j^^. ^<^ 
the  time  which  he  selected  was  a  remarkable  outrage  upon  the 
French  notions  of  propriety,  since  it  was  the  month  in  which.  (i§j2 
Louis  attained  his  majority;  and  rebellion  against  a  king  in  the  ^'^^^'^ 
personal  possession  of  his  authority  had,  by  some  curious  process 
of  logic,  always  been  accounted  among  the  French  nobles  a  far 
greater  crime  than  rebellion  against  a  regent.  It  almost  appeared 
as  if  he  designed  to  give  his  treason  the  appearance  of  a  personal 
affront  to  Louis  :  for  he  ostentatiously  quitted  Paris  a  day  or  two 
before  the  king  held  the  Bed  of  Justice  ^  to  declare  his  attainment 
of  his  majority,  at  which  the  attendance  of  all  the  princes  of  the 
blood  was  an  acknowledged  duty.  Being  governor  of  Guienne,  he 
selected  Bordeaux  as  the  point  at  wliich  to  commence  his  opera- 
tions ;  but  he  soon  ascertained  that  his  rebellion  would  be  a  failure. 
His  union  with  the  foreign  epemy  had  indisposed  all  classes  to  sup- 
port him ;  nor  did  it  benefit  him  when  it  became  known  that  he 
had  sought  another  ally  still  more  distasteful  to  all  Frenchmen  of 
loyalty  than  the  Spaniard ;  endeavouring  to  secure  his  friendship 
by  the  sacrifice  of  both  his  own  and  the  national  honour.  lie 
sent  an  agent  to  Cromwell,  a  man  hateful  to  all  Frenchmen  as  the 
murderer  of  their  princess's  husband,  to  solicit  his  friendship,  .and 
to  offer,  as  the  price  of  the  assistance  of  a  body  of  British  troops, 
that  he  would  turn  Protestant,  and  would  assist  the  English  to 
recover  Calais.  But  the  English  usurper  was  well  acquainted 
with  the  internal  politics  of  the  Continental  States,  and  was  a 
shrewd  judge  of  character.  He  was  not  inclined  to  trust  one 
whom,  as  he  learnt,  none  of  his  own  countrymen  trusted  ;  and  his 
comment  on  his  offer  to  his  own  friends  was  that  Conde  was  a 
fool  and  a  chatterer,  and  was  betrayed  by  his  own  followers  to 
Mazarin.  But  not  only  did  Cond^  fail  in  attaining  his  object,  but 
his  revolt,  conducted  as  he  conducted  it,  brought  about  the  result 
which  of  all  others  he  least  desired,  the  restoration  of  Mazarin. 
The  hatred  of  the  foreigners  whom  he  made,  or  sought  to  make, 
his  friends  so  completely  efi'aced  the  unpopularity  of  the  foreigner 

1  A  Bed  of  Justice  was  an  apsem-  edicts  which  the  parliament  resisted  ; 

blage  of  all  the  chambers  of  the  par-  since  it  was  a  rule  of  practice  ad- 

liament  in  the  king's  presence,  for  mitted  b^'  themselves  that  they  had 

the  performance  of  some  act  of  more  no  power  to  raise  any  discussion  in 

than  usual  importance  or  solemnity,  the    king's    presence,   or    to    refuse 

The  most  common  motives  for  hold-  instant  compliance  with  any  order 

ing  one  during  the  recent  reigns  had  which    he    in    person    delivered  to 

been  to  compel  the  registration  of  them. 


252  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1652. 

whom  he  had  denounced  as  his  enemy  that  the  cardinal  at  once 
ventured  to  return  to  France  j  raised  a  considerable  hody  of  troops 
"        .  at  his  own  expense  to  reinforce  the  royal  army,  and  imperceptibly 

'f'^  Xj  resumed  the  g-overnment  of  the  state.     Not   that  he   did   this 

t.,,%^\  *  without  reawakening  a  strong  show  at  least  of  opposition.  The 
(z^^**^  parliament  denounced  him,  and  passed  a  vote  of  outlawry  against 
him,  which,  however,  was  of  no  real  validity;  and  Orleans,  join- 
ing in  the  denunciations  of  him,  showed  a  greater  inclination  than 
before  to  support  Conde  so  far  as  he  could  aid  him,  w^ithout  com- 
promising himself.  But  the  object  of  the  prince,  and  of  those 
who  thought  that  they  had  most  influence  with  Orleans,  was  to 
make  him  compromise  himself;  for,  without  his  open  co-operation, 
the  great  city  of  Orleans,  which  was  the  only  place  of  importance 
to  the  south  of  Paris  at  all  inclined  to  favour  Conde,  and  which 
Turenne  was  now  marching  to  attack,  would  inevitably  be  lost  to 
their  cause.  In  the  spring  of  1652,  the  citizens  themselves  had 
requested  of  the  duke  directions  for  their  conduct,  professing  their 
willingness  either  to  submit  to  the  king's  army  or  to  resist  it,  as 
he  might  command  ;  and  he  had  never  been  in  such  perplexity ; 
as  it  seemed  impossible  for  him  to  avoid  declaring  himself  on  one 
side  or  the  other  :  yet  even  out  of  this  he  flattered  himself  that 
he  found  a  way  of  escape.  He  went  to  bed,  and  sent  his  daughter 
to  the  city  to  manage  its  affairs  for  him  at  her  own  discretion. 
She  was  delighted  with  the  errand.  She  loved  authority  and  ex- 
citement; and,  having  generally  some  project  of  love  or  marriage 
in  her  head,  she  had  recently  adopted  the  idea  that,  if  she  should 
find  that  she  could  not  obtain  the  hand  of  the  king,  as  she  partly 
proposed  to  herself,  and  if  Conde's  princess  were  to  die,  he  himself 
might  suit  her  for  a  husband.  There  was  historical  precedent,  too, 
for  the  defence  of  Orleans  by  a  maiden,  and  she  was  encouraged  by 
the  predictions  of  an  astrologer  to  hope  for  some  extraordinary 
success  and  credit  from  the  expedition.  She  at  once  formed  a 
female  staffs,  selecting  some  high-born  ladies  of  fashion  for  her 
aides-de-camp,  and  hastened  from  Paris.  On  her  way  she  fell  in 
with  some  regiments  which  the  dukes  of  Beaufort  and  Nemours 
had  levied  for  the  prince's  service,  and  took  them  under  her  own 
command ;  though  the  resolution  which  throughout  she  showed  to 
enforce  the  strict  rules  of  military  discipline  more  than  once  nearly 
embroiled  her  with  the  leaders.  However,  at  last  she  shamed  the 
dukes,  and  terrified  their  officers  into  order ;  she  presided  at  councils 
of  war,  and  let  it  be  seen  that  she  would  have  no  objection  to  preside 
at  a  court-martial.  But  before  she  arrived  at  Orleans,  Turenne, 
coming  up  from  the  other  side,  had  arrived  equally  near  to  it;  and 
the  magistrates,  seeing  nothing  but  danger  from  an  open  adoption 
of  either  party,  desired  to  save  the  city  by  a  profession  of  neu- 


V.D.  1662.]    MDLLE.  DE  MONTPENSIER  AT  ORLEANS.       253 

trality,  and  sent  the  princess  a  message  that  they  could  not  admi* 
her ;  but  that,  if  she  would  plead  illness  and  halt,  they  would 
refuse  the  marshal  entrance,  and,  when  he  had  passed  on,  would 
then  gladly  receive  her  and  her  army  within  their  walls.  She 
would  not  condescend  to  reply  to  such  a  proposal ;  but,  not  having 
inherited  her  father's  aptitude  for  sudden  maladies,  she  marched 
rapidly  on,  and,  with  a  small  body-guard,  presented  herself  at  the 
gates,  and  summoned  the  magistrates  to  open  them.  As  they 
gave  no  signs  of  any  inclination  to  obey,  she  presently  engaged  a 
crowd  of  bargemen  to  break  down  a  portion  of  the  wall  where  an 
old  gateway,  which  had  been  blocked  up,  opened  on  the  river. 
They  quickly  made  a  breach ;  and,  having  ferried  her  across  the 
water,  lifted  her  into  a  chair,  and  bore  her  in  triumph  into  the 
city,  the  drums  beating,  and  the  populace  shouting,  'Long  live  the 
king  and  the  princes !  but  down  with  Mazarin  I ' 

She  was  now  as  absolutely  mistress  of  the  city  as  Joan  of  Arc 
had  been.  The  magistrates,  whose  hearts  had  been  with  her  even 
while  their  fears  had  driven  them  to  refuse  her  admission,  now 
yielded  willingly  to  the  excitement  produced  among  the  citizens 
by  her  presence,  and  resigned  the  whole  authority  of  the  city  to 
her.  She  was  as  ready  to  govern  a  town  as  to  command  an  army. 
She  summoned  the  municipal  authorities  to  the  town  hall,  and 
made  them  a  speech.  She  introduced  some  of  her  regiments  into 
the  city,  and  allotted  them  their  duties  with  military  precision : 
laid  an  embargo  on  some  provisions  and  horses  which  had  been  pur- 
chased for  the  royal  array ;  and,  in  a  few  hours,  put  the  whole 
place  in  such  a  state  of  defence,  and  excited  so  unanimous  an 
enthusiasm  in  all  classes,  that  the  royal  commanders,  when  they 
came  in  front  of  the  city,  could  see  no  prospect  of  reducing  it, 
except  by  a  protracted  siege,  for  which  they  had  neither  time  nor 
means  ;  and  forbore  to  attack  it.  She  was  rather  disappointed,  as 
she  would  have  liked  nothing  better  than  to  lead  her  troops  into 
action  :  but  she  consoled  herself  with  the  idea  that  a  battle  might 
have  deranged  her  matrimonial  plans,  and  with  sending  a  message  to 
the  queen  that,  if  her  majesty's  object  were  peace,  the  best  way 
to  secure  it  would  be  to  give  her  the  king  for  a  husband.  Anne 
preferred  withdrawing  her  army.  Mademoiselle  sent  hers  to 
pursue  it ;  remaining  herself  in  Orleans,  where,  though  half  her 
time  was  taken  up  in  laughing  over  her  late  exploit,  dancing  and 
revelling,  the  other  half  was  spent  in  making  sensible  and  humane 
arrangements  to  repair  the  injuries  which  the  poorer  citizens  had 
sustained.  And  it  must  be  recorded,  to  the  honour  of  her  prudence 
and  ability,  that  she  fully  met  all  the  demands  of  this  self-imposed 
duty,  and  provided  pay  for  her  troops,  without  touching  the  large 
sums  which  were  in  the  hands  of  the  receivers  of  the  king's  taxes, 


204  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1662. 

and  whicli  those  around  Ler  urged  her  to  appropriate,  .is>,  in  other 
towns,  Conde's  officers  had  seized  them  without  scruple.  Her 
reply  was,  that  she  had  always  been  accustomed  to  think  it  a  duty 
to  render  to  Caesar  the  things  which  were  Caesar's  :  and  she  acted 
in  the  spirit  of  this  answer,  with  such  firmness,  that,  throughout 
her  stay  in  the  city,  the  roj-^al  revenues  were  collected  for  the  king's 
use  with  as  great  regularity  as  in  any  place  held  by  any  of  his  own 
governors  or  garrisons. 

Mademoiselle,  La  Grande  Mademoiselle,  as  she  was  often  called, 
had  thus  shown  herself  the  only  partisan  on  whose  zealous  co- 
operation Cond^  could  really  depend ;  though,  while  the  king  could 
obtain  his  taxes  from  Orleans,  the  keeping  his  troops  from  entering 
that  city  did  the  prince  but  nominal  service.  But  midsummer  had 
hardly  passed  when  he  had  to  trust  to  her  for  his  personal  safety. 
And  again  she  came  to  his  aid,  mingling  as  before  a  great  deal  of 
active  humanitj,  and  good  sense  with  her  old  wayward  headstrong 
fancy  for  rebellion  for  rebellion's  sake,  without  a  single  object 
which  she  wished  to  obtain  herself,  and  without  the  least  desire 
to  assist  those  of  whom  she  constituted  herself  the  ally  in  the 
attainment  of  them.  By  the  beginning  of  July,  Conde,  gradually 
driven  northwards,  and  hemmed  in  on  all  sides,  was  forced  to  ac- 
knowledge to  himself,  that  his  only  hope  lay  in  procuring  the  active 
support  of  the  Parisians.  But,  when  he  reached  the  capital,  he 
found  to  his  dismay  not  only  that  the  parliament,  in  spite  of  all 
its  factious  disloyalty,  so  detested  his  junction  with  the  Spaniards, 
that  not  even  against  Mazarin  would  they  co-operate  with  him  : 
but  that  de  Ketz  had  to  a  great  extent  alienated  Orleans  from 
him,  and  that  his  army  would  be  refused  admittance  into  the  city. 
He  learnt,  too,  that  Turenne  was  hastening  towards  Paris,  to 
attack  him  with  a  force  far  superior  to  his  own :  and,  in  fact,  he 
had  hardly  time  to  take  up  a  position  in  the  suburb  of  St.-Antoine, 
where  the  citizens  a  short  time  previously  had  thrown  up  some 
entrenchments,  before  Turenno  arrived  and  prepared  to  force  him  to 
a  battle.  A  terrible  fight  ensued  ;  Conde,  exerting  himself  with 
even  more  tlian  his  usual  energy  and  intrepidity,  did  all  that  per- 
sonal heroism  could  effect  to  balance  the  inequality  of  his  numbers  : 
but  Turenne  was  as  brave  as  he,  and  far  more  skilful :  the  prince  was 
evidently  overpowered,  and  seemed  in  imminent  danger  of  being 
entirely  destroyed.  Once  more  Mademoiselle  de  Montpensier  came 
to  his  aid.  Her  father  was  in  his  palace  at  the  Luxembourg, 
trembling  at  the  sound  of  the  battle :  he  professed  to  be  too  ill 
even  to  go  down  to  the  walls,  and  see  what  was  going  on :  and, 
when  she  begged  him,  for  shame's  sake,  to  give  some  colour  to  his 
excuse  by  going  to  bed_,  he  was  too  terrified  even  for  that,  but 
paced  up  and  down  his  apartment,  whistling  as  usual.     At  lasti 


&.D.  1662.]    FEROCITY  OF  CONDE'S  FOLLOWERS.  255 

she  obtained  an  order  from  him,  in  his  capacity  of  lieutenant- 
general  of  the  kingdom,  enjoining  the  magistrates  to  allow  the 
prince's  baggage  to  pass  through  the  city ;  and,  in  spite  of  their 
fear  of  committing  themselves  with  the  king  who  had  just  sent 
them  commands  of  an  opposite  character,  she  compelled  them  to 
obey  it :  she  called  out  some  companies  of  militia ;  saw  the  gates 
opened  for  the  baggage,  and  then  took  her  way  to  the  ramparts  of 
the  Bastille,  and,  having  ordered  the  guns  to  be  loaded,  calmly 
surveyed  the  field  of  battle  with  her  opera-glass :  and  presently, 
when  Conde's  defeat  became  more  decided,  in  defiance  of  the  king's 
order,  she  admitted  his  broken  regiments  also  into  the  city,  and 
opened  fire  upon  Turenne's  battalions  as  they  pressed  upon  them 
in  their  retreat. 

Conde's  situation  was  now  desperate ;  and  never  did  despair 
lead  a  reckless  man  to  more  unprovoked  or  more  atrocious  crime. 
Because  the  town  council,  though  consenting  to  give  him  and  hia 
army  a  momentary  asylum,  refused  to  join  themselves  to  his  cause, 
and  to  plunge  the  city  into  rebellion,  which  his  very  need  of  their 
assistance  proved  to  be  hopeless,  he  roused  the  mob  against  them, 
by  declaring  that  the  council  was  filled  with  partisans  of  Mazarin : 
and  the  rabble,  understanding  his  denunciations  as  a  hint  to  attack 
them,  at  once  crowded  round  the  council  hall,  uttering  ferocious 
threats,  and  firing  through  the  windows.  It  was  in  vain  that 
some  of  the  members,  notorious  for  their  zeal  in  behalf  of  the 
Fronde,  and  for  their  enmity  to  the  minister,  sought  to  pacify 
them.  Their  fury  increased,  fed  by  its  own  violence.  Some 
ruffians  forced  their  way  into  the  opposite  houses,  and  from  them 
fired  into  the  windows  of  the  town  hall  with  greater  efTect  than 
before  :  others  brought  faggots  and  straw,  and  kindled  them  at  the 
doors,  which  had  been  barred  ;  and,  having  thus  broken  down  an 
entrance,  rushed  in,  shouting  the  name  of  Conde,  and,  with  dag- 
gers in  their  hands,  threatening  all  the  councillors  with  instant 
death.  The  scenes  which  ensued  resembled  the  sacking  of  a  town. 
The  flames,  which  had  destroyed  the  doors,  spread  to  the  rest  of 
the  building,  and  from  thence  to  other  houses  ;  threatening  even 
to  destroy  the  adjacent  church  of  St.  John's.  And,  while  the 
conflagration  was  raging,  the  work  of  murder  went  on :  every 
councillor  who  fell  into  the  rioters'  hands  was  slaughtered  without 
mercy.  The  very  clergy  of  St.  John's,  for  trying  to  save  some  of 
the  most  sacred  ornaments  of  their  church,  were  pelted  with 
stones.  Nothing  seemed  capable  of  allaying  the  frenzy  of  the 
rabble.  Conde  refused  to  interfere :  it  was  still  more  useless  to 
expect  aid  from  Orleans :  till,  fortunately.  Mademoiselle  de  Mont- 
pensier  learnt  what  was  going  on.  She  at  once  repaired  to  the 
burning  hall :    and,  at  great  personal  risk,  checked  the  further 


256  MODERN   niSTOKY.  [a.d.  1652. 

profp-ess  of  the  tumult,  saving  all  those  who  had  escaped  from  the 
first  fury  of  the  rioters,  among  whom  were  the  veteran  Marshal  de 
I'Hopital,  the  governor  of  the  city,  and  M.  Le  Fevre,  the  provost 
of  the  merchants.  They  had'  been,  fortunately,  able  to  conceal 
themselves  in  the  closets  and  cellars  of  the  building,  and  now 
regained  their  homes  under  her  protection. 

The  massacre  of  the  municipal  magistrates,  the  most  shameful 
incident  in  the  whole  rebellion,  was  the  forerunner  of  its  extinc- 
tion ;  Conde  did,  indeed,  by  means  of  a  remnant  of  the  council, 
whom  he  assembled  and  terrified  into  submission  to  his  dictates, 
endeavour  to  bring  the  court  to  a  treaty  with  him,  showing  at 
the  same  time  how  entirely  selfish  all  his  own  motives  were,  by 
offering  to  abandon  his  associates  and  to  reconcile  himself  to 
Mazarin,  if  the  king  would  grant  his  demands  of  promotions  and 
appointments  for  himself  and  his  family.  But  Mazarin  knew  his 
weakness ;  that  his  whole  army  was  reduced  to  2,500  men ;  that 
his  chief  adherents  were  quarrelling  among  themselves  and  with 
him ;  and  refused  to  treat.  For  a  week  or  two  Paris  was  still 
agitated  by  threats,  discussions,  and  the  quarrel  of  angry  factions. 
One  party  paraded  the  streets,  wearing  wisps  of  straw  in  their 
hats,  to  intimate  their  approval  of  those  who  had  burned  the  town- 
hall.  Another  party,  eager  for  peace,  assumed  for  its  badge  a 
scrap  of  paper,  the  material  on  which  treaties  are  written,  to 
indicate  their  desire  for  an  accommodation.  And  these  daily 
increased,  while  the  champions  of  war  diminished;  till,  at  last 
Conde,  seeing  no  hope  for  himself  any  longer  in  Paris,  or  even 
in  France,  fled  from  the  kingdom,  and  joined  the  Spanish  army  in 
the  Netherlands.  The  king  returned  to  Paris,  issued  a  proclama- 
tion declaring  him  and  those  who  had  accompanied  him  in  his 
flight  guilty  of  high  treason,  and  confiscating  their  estates  ;  with 
an  amnesty,  pardoning  alli  those  who  had  been  engaged  in  the 
rebellion,  with  the  exception  of  one  or  two  of  the  most  powerful 
.  or  most  violent  of  the  leaders.  And  thus,  in  the  autumn  of  1652, 
the  wars  of  the  Fronde  were  terminated. 

The  Fronde  had  been  professedly  aimed  principally  at  the  over- 
throw of  Mazarin  :  it  left  him  almost  as  absolutely  master  of  the 
kingdom  as  Richelieu  had  been,  and  far  more  secure  against  any 
future  conspiracy  than  his  predecessor  could  ever  feel  himself. 
For  the  coalition  against  him  had  embraced  so  many  of  the  princes 
and  chief  nobles,  that  its  suppression  left  him  no  longer  any  enemy 
or  opposition  to  dread.  Paris  and  the  parliament  were,  it  is  true, 
still  out  of  humour  and  unfriendly :  but  the  parliament  was  too 
much  daunted  by  its  late  defeat  to  provoke  another,  and  Paris  was 
not  yet  mistress  of  France.  De  Retz,  indeed,  though  on  this  occa- 
sion he  had  been  included  in  the  amnesty,  might  still  have  been 


A.D.  1658.]  TREATY  WITH  CROMWELL.  257 

dangerous ;  but  he  had  given  the  queen,  who  still  exercised  most 
of  the  authority  of  the  government,  deep  personal  offence :  he  had 
pronounced  her  fat  and  coarse-looking,  and  his  disparagement  of 
her  charms  was  so  far  more  unpardonable  than  his  organisation  of 
rebellion,  that  before  the  end  of  the  year  he  was  sent  to  Vincennes ; 
and  his  imprisonment  closed  up  the  only  source  from  which  future 
disturbance  to  the  administratiorr  of  the  home  government  could 
be  anticipated. 

Even  the  war  in  the  Netherlands,  to  which  Condi's  union  with 
the  Spaniards  had  restored  a  degree  of  activity  which  his  victory 
of  Lens  seemed  to  have  crushed  out  of  it,  could  hardly  be  said  to 
cause  Mazarin  much  trouble  or  anxiety.  It  was  true,  indeed,  that 
the  recent  struggle  had  so  greatly  exhausted  the  resources  of  the 
country,  that  the  force  which  could  be  furnished  to  Turenne  was 
far  inferior  in  number  to  that  which  Philip  of  Spain  supplied  the 
prince.  But,  as  had  happened  before,  the  pre-eminence  of  the 
great  marshal's  capacity  more  than  counterbalanced  his  numerical 
weakness.  In  five  successive  campaigns  he  constantly  had  the 
advantage ;  crowning  his  successes  in  the  sixth  by  the  decisive 
battle  of  the  Dunes ;  his  defeat  in  which,  however,  must  not  be 
imputed  as  a  disgrace  to  the  prince,  since  the  battle  was  fought  in 
spite  of  his  earnest  remonstrances.  In  it  Turenne  had  the  assist- 
ance of  a  new  ally.  Cromwell  had  disdained  to  connect  himself 
with  Conde's  rashness;  but  he  was  not  unwilling  to  obtain  an 
influence  on  the  Continent,  and  to  distract  the  attention  of  the 
English  from  his  attacks  on  their  own  liberties  by  triumphs  over 
foreign  enemies :  while  Mazarin  was  not  scrupulous  in  the  offers 
with  which  he  tempted  his  alliance,  and  promised  concessions 
neither  compatible  with  the  interests  of  France  nor  with  his  sove- 
reign's honour.  He  agreed  to  give  up  Mardyk  and  Dunkirk  to 
England,  if  by  English  aid  Turenne  could  wrest  them  from  the 
Spaniards ;  and  to  remove  the  English  royal  family  from  France, 
though  the  English  queen  was  Louis's  aunt,  and  the  English 
princes  his  cousins.  He  little  thought  when  he  made  these  dis- 
honorable stipulations  how  near  at  hand  were  Cromwell's  death 
and  the  restoration  of  Charles  11.  to  his  throne  -,  though  eventually 
the  cession  of  Dunkirk,  which  followed  on  the  battle  of  the 
Dunes,  did  become  advantageous  to  French  interests,  the  sub- 
sequent restoration  of  that  town  greatly  contributing  to  the  down- 
fall of  the  English  minister  whose  patriotism  and  honesty  were 
the  greatest  obstacle  to  Louis's  designs  of  enslaving  and  dishonor- 
ing both  king  and  kingdom. 

Mazarin  was  throughout  eager  for  the  restoration  of  peace, 
which  was  even  more  desirable  for  Spain  than  for  France  ;  and,  as 
the  young  king  grew  up  to  manhood,  the  arrangement  of  a  mar- 


258  MODERN   HISTORY.  [a.d.  16C0. 

riage  for  him  facilitated  the  attainment  of  his  object,  while  it 
afforded  the  cardinal  an  opportunity  of  showing  himself  in  an  un- 
usually favorable  light.  In  money  matters  he  had  made  himself 
conspicuous  above  all  others,  even  in  that  rapacious  age,  for  a 
grasping  and  covetous  disposition.  But,  in  selecting  a  wife  for  his 
sovereign,  he  showed  himself  superior  to  selfish  considerations. 
He  not  only  had  it  in  his  power  to  direct  Louis's  choice  in  any 
^  direction,  but  it  was  notorious  that,  if  he  did  not  himself  oppose 

.^„,^^^  his  inclinations,  that  choice  would  lead  to  the  aggrandisement  of 

r^irX^  his  own  family,  since  Louis  had  been  greatly  attracted  by  the 
/t^  It,  charms  of  his  niece,  Maria  Mancini,  and  was  known  to  have  spoken 
^^  ^/  of  her  as  his  intended  queen  ;  and,  had  the  cardinal  only  let  things 
^V  take  their  course,  such  she  would  have  been.  But  Mazarin  con- 
sidered that  such  a  match  would  be  a  degradation  of  the  king  and 
an  injury  to  the  kingdom :  and  he  resolved  to  prevent  it.  He 
spoke  to  Louis  himself  with  a  plainness  and  resolution  foreign  to 
his  general  character,  declaring  that  it  would  be  a  disgrace  to  him- 
self as  minister,  and  an  abuse  of  the  confidence  which  the  queen 
mother  had  always  placed  in  him,  if  he  were  to  suffer  him  thus  to 
lower  his  dignity  j  and  that,  as  guardian  of  his  niece,  he  would 
stab  her  with  his  own  hand  rather  than  permit  it.  It  was  not 
without  tears  that  Louis  yielded,  and  consented  to  accept  a  wife 
of  more  royal  lineage.  But,  when  he  had  once  obtained  his  con- 
sent, Mazarin  took  care  not  to  give  the  predilection  thus  expressed 
any  opportunity  of  returning ;  and  coupled  with  his  proposals  of 
peace  to  the  Spanish  court  an  offer  of  his  sovereign's  hand  to  the 
Infanta  Maria  Teresa.  Such  a  termination  of  the  war  seemed 
honorable  to  both  parties  :  and  to  France  it  was  not  without  solid 
advantages  also,  since  she  gave  back  but  few  of  her  conquests,  and 
retained  those  which  she  had  made  in  Artois,  and  along  hei 
northern  frontier,  as  well  as  Roussillon  in  the  south.  And 
Mazarin  did  not  draw  back  when  he  found  that  Philip  conceived 
his  personal  honour  concerned  in  making  the  pardon  of  Cond^  and 
his  restoration  to  all  his  former  honours  a  condition  of  the  treaty. 
In  June  1G60,  the  marriage  took  place ;  Louis  accompanying  it 
by  a  formal  renunciation  of  all  pretensions  to  the  Spanish  crown 
which,  througlTT^  might  devolve  on  him  or  his  heirs,  in  the  event 
of  the  death  of  the  Infanta's  brothers,  who  were  both  infants. 
Even  at  the  time  of  his  making  the  renunciation,  he  never  designed 
to  be  bound  by  it ;  and  his  conduct  throughout  his  whole  reign 
proved  him  so  entirely  destitute  of  honour  and  good  faith,  that  his 
subsequent  violation  of  the  engagement  he  thus  entered  into  is  in 
no  degree  remarkable.  But  it  is  a  singular  coincidence  that,  only 
three  months  before,  by  his  unprovoked  invasion  and  annexation 


A.D.  1G61.]  DEATH  OF  MAZAEIN.  259 

to  his  own  dominions  of  the  little  principality  of  Orange,  he  should 
have  made  aa  irreconcileable  enemy  of  its  prince;  who,  though  as  yet 
only  a  child,  and  lord  of  one  of  the  pettiest  territories  in  Europe, 
became  subsequently  sovereign  of  one  of  the  mightiest  kingdoms, 
and  able  to  compel  him  to  a  renewal,  in  its  most  important  points, 
of  the  compact,  to  which,  when  he  first  entered  into  it,  he  had  no 
design  of  paying  the  slightest  attention. 

Mazarin's  health  had  long  been  breaking  ;  for  years  he  had  been  n.  -j^ 
a  martyr  to  the  gout ;  latterly  dropsy  had  contributed  to  wear  out"^^'^*'^^ 
a  constitution  enfeebled  by  a  constant  application  to  his  official ^Aw*-it>-» 
duties ;  and  at  the  beginning  of  1 661  he  died.  Ilis  talents  had 
been  of  a  lower  order  than  those  of  Richelieu ;  he  may  be  said 
rather  to  have  outwitted  his  adversaries  than  to  have  overborne 
them  ;  to  have  escaped  from  difficulties  rather  than  to  have  sur- 
mounted them.  Yet  he  cannot  be  denied  to  have  been  a  success- 
ful minister,  both  for  himself  and  for  his  adopted  country.  He 
triumphed  over  the  most  formidable  combination  that  ever  laboured 
for  the  downfall  of  any  minister,  and  in  spite  of  princes,  nobles, 
parliament,  and  fine  ladies,  preserved  to  the  end  of  his  life  a  power  fk/ 
which,  for  the  last  nine  years,  was  absolute  and  unresisted.  And  ^-^^-^  ?-, 
he  terminated  a  long  war  by  a  treaty  which  greatly  strengthened 
France  in  power  and  influence.  Though  rapacious,  and,  as  it  is 
hardly  unfair  to  infer  from  the  enormous  wealth  he  left  behind  him,^ 
unscrupulous  as  to  the  means  of  gratifying  his  rapacity,  he  could 
yet  appreciate  virtue  and  integrity  in  others.  Indeed,  in  one 
quality  of  great  importance  in  a  chief  minister,  it  is  impossible  to 
deny  him  the  very  highest  praise.  In  discerning  eminent  abilities 
in  others,  in  appreciating  them  correctly,  and  in  training  and  em- 
ploying them  for  the  service  of  the  state  he  displayed  a  most  ex- 
cellent judgment,  and  an  admirable  freedom  from  jealousy.  "When 
he  died,  Le  Tellier  wjis,  what  we  may  term,  the  home  secretary ; 
Lyonne  was  at  the  head  of  the  foreign  office :  two  statesmen  sur- 
passed by  none  of  their  contemporaries  in  fitness  for  these  posts, 
in  talent,  in  information,  and  genuine  zeal  for  the  public  welfare. 
Both  owed  their  rise  to  Mazarin's  penetration  ;  and,  if  we  cannot 
ascribe  the  same  conscientious  honesty  to  Fouquet,  whom  he  had 
made  superintendent  of  finance,  it  cannot  be  denied  that  that 
statesman  also  was  endowed  with  very  eminent  capacity,  with 
fertility  of  resource,  with  courage  and  firmness ;  in  fact,  with  the 
qualities  requisite  to  enable  a  minister  to  raise  a  revenue  from  a 
country  impoverished  by  a  long  course  of  disorders.    He  estimated 

*  Voltaire  affirms  that  Mazarin  left     francs),  a  sum  equal  to  eight  millions 
behind  him  about  200  millions  (of     of  English  money. 


260  MODEEN  HISTOKY.  [a.d.  1661, 

still  more  highly  the  qualities  of  his  own  private  secretary;  and 
the  general  verdict  of  posterity  which  ranks  Colbert  amongst  the 
greatest  and  most  virtuous  ministers  of  his  country,  must,  in  can- 
dour, allow  no  trifling  merit  to  the  statesman  who  brought  him 
into  notice,  and  recommended  him  to  the  king  as  the  one  of  his 
subjects  the  most  worthy  of  his  confidence.' 

^  The  authorities  for  this  chapter,  Mdlle.  de  Montpensier,  Cardinal  de 
besides  the  regular  Histories,  are  the  Retz,  Conde',  the  Due  de  Rochefou- 
Memoirs  of  Madame  de  Motteville,      cault,  and  the  Esprit  de  la  Fronde 


A.D.  1661.]         COLBERT  SUCCEEDS  MAZARIN.  261 


CHAPTER  XII. 
A.D.  1661. 

MAZARIN  had  given  Louis  good  counsel  when  he  recom- 
mended him  to  repose  his  chief  trust  in  polbert.  He  had 
previously  given  him  another  piece  of  advice,  which  would  have 
been  also  good  if  Louis  had  been  capable  of  correctly  understand- 
ing it,  and  qualified  by  talents  and  information  to  carry  it  out. 
Conscious  that  he  had  exercised  the  entire  authority  of  the  state 
without  control,  as,  in  fact,  his  sovereign's  youth  had  rendered  it 
almost  inevitable  that  he  should,  and  that  therefore  it  had  been  in 
his  power  to  misuse  it,  to  the  danger  and  injury  of  both  king  and 
kingdom,  if  he  had  been  so  inclined,  he  iiad  jirgod  bim  never 
again  to  place  any  other  minister  in  the  high  position  which  he 
Ead  himself  enjoyed,  but  to  take  upon  himself  the  principal 
direction  of  affairs.  There  could  be  no  question  that  ever  since 
the  installation  of  Richelieu  in  office  the  power  of  the  minister 
had  overshadowed  the  legitimate  authority  of  the  sovereign; 
and  that  it  becomes  a  constitutional  prince,  and  is  still  more 
indispensable  to  an  absolute  monarch,  who  would  preserve  the 
respect  of  his  subjects,  to  iicquaint  himself  carefully  with  all 
that  relates  to  the  government  of  his  people,  with  their  feelings, 
their  interests,  and  with  the  degree  in  which  those  are  consulted 
by  the  chief  officers  to  whom  he  entrusts  the  administration  of 
affiiirs.  But  Louis  interpreted  the  cardinal's  counsel  as  a  recom- 
mendation to  take  under  his  own  superintendence  the  details 
of  each  separate  department,  and  to  regard  those  who  had 
hitherto  held  the  chief  posts  in  each  as  so  many  private  secre- 
taries to  provide  for  the  execution  of  the  arrangements  which 
he  himself  should  make  in  every  branch  of  his  service,  and  with 
respect  to  every  particular  transaction.  And  this  view  of  the 
advice  which  had  been  given  to  him  coincided  with  his  notions 
of  kingly  authority  and  dignity ;  though  it  is  hardly  too  much 
to  say  that  it  betrays  an  utter  incapacity  on  his  part  for  compre- 
hending the  very  nature  of  government. 

In  ti^uth,  while  no  single  mind  could  have  discharged  the  duties 
which  Ijouis  now  announced  his  intention  to  take  upon  himself,  it 


262  MODERN   HISTORY.  [a.d.  1661. 

would  have  been  difficult  to  find  anywhere  a  person  less  qualified 
than  himself  to  manage  a  single  department.  As  he  was  scantily 
endowed  by  nature,'  a  careful  education  had  been  even  more  de- 
sirable for  him  than  it  might  be  for  some  whose  innate  quickness 
of  apprehension  might  compensate  for  a  deficiency  of  earjy  train- 
ing. But,  whether,  during  his  childhood,  his  mother  had  been  too 
much  occupied  by  her  duties  as  regent  to  pay  the  necessary  atten- 
tion to  his  education,  or  whether,  from  a  desire  to  preserve  her 
own  authority  after  he  should  have  arrived  at  manhood,  she  had 
designedly  neglected  it,  he  had  been  suffered  to  grow  up  in  the 
most  complete  and  shameful  ignorance.  He  could  hardly  read  or 
write,  much  less  spell.  With  the  past  history,  the  constitution 
and  laws  of  the  kingdom  he  was  utterly  unacquainted ;  and  equally 
uninformed  as  to  its  present  resources,  and  as  to  the  condition  and 
interests  of  the  different  classes  of  his  subjects.  He  even  despised 
knowledge  of  all  kinds,  merely  because  he  was  destitute  of  it. 
And  as  no  one  dared  to  intimate  to  him  that  he  was  deficient  in 
anything,  he  continued  to  the  last  day  of  his  life  as  ignorant  as  he 
was  at  the  hour  when  he  first  became  his  own  master.  To  such  a 
prince,  his  late  minister's  advice,  however  honestly  intended,  was 
pernicious.  He  was,  in  fact,  as  completely  governed  by  his  minis- 
ters as  his  mother  and  himself  had  been  governed  by  Mazarin,  or 
his  father  by  Richelieu ;  but  he  was  jealous  to  the  last  degree  of 
being  supposed  to  be  influenced  by  them ;  he  was  incessantly  on 
the  watch  to  disguise  their  authority  from  the  world,  and  even 
from  himself;  and,  to  show  his  independence  of  their  advice,  he 
would  frequently  act  in  express  contradiction  of  it ;  guiding  his 
opposition  to  them  by  such  pure  caprice  that  they  could  never  feel 
sure  beforehand  of  obtaining  his  assent  to  the  most  beneficial  or 
the  most  indispensable  of  their  proposals.  It  was  only  by  the 
grossest  flattery,  by  a  pretence  of  attributing  every  measure  for 
which  they  were  anxious  to  his  suggestions,  and  of  being  his 
pupils  in  the  act  of  government,  that  they  were  able  to  preserve 
their  influence  in  their  own  departments  and  to  retain  their  places. 
And  any  intermission  of  this  servility  was  so  deeply  resented  that 
throughout  his  whole  reign  there  were  few  of  his  civil  servants 
who,  after  years  of  faithful  and  able  service,  were  not  dismissed 
with  disgrace,  while  many  of  them  were  persecuted,  to  their 
eventual  ruin. 

And  his    ignorance,  gross  and  ignoble  as  it  was,  did  not  in- 

^  In  his  own  lifetime  it  was  the  gence  of  his  'abilities  and  acquire- 

fashion   of    the    courtiers,   and    the  menta  as  a  statesman;' but  St.-Simon, 

writers  were  all  courtiers,  to  extol  who  knew  him  well,  saj'^s,  '  I/esprit 

the  king's  capacity  ;  and   even  our  du  roi  etait  au-dessous  du  mddiocre.* 

own  Macaulay  speaks  with    indul-  — Vol.  xiii.  13. 


A.D.  1661.]  CHARAGTEll  OF  LOUIS.  263 

capacitate  liim  from  exercising  a  wholesome  influence  on  the 
government  nearly  as  much  as  the  moral  obliquity  which  led  him 
to  adopt,  on  the  most  important  subjects,  principles  of  action  alike 
opposed  to  and  incompatible  with  his  personal  honour  and  the 
welfare  of  his  people.  So  far  was  he  from  the  feeling  of  his  pre- 
decessor John,  that  if  good  faith  were  banished  from  all  the  rest 
of  the  world  it  ought  to  preserve  its  abode  in  the  breast  of  princes, 
that  he  conceived  one  of  the  privileges  of  his  royal  rank  to  be, 
that  it  placed  him  above  the  necessity  of  l^^fippirig!  his  word ;  that 
it  exempted  him  from  all  the  ordinary  obligations  of  honour ;  that 
the  more  strong  and  explicit  was  the  language  of  his  promises,  the 
slighter  was  theirvalidity :  in  short,  that  a  king  was  absolved  from  all 
regard  to  any  pledges  or  engagements  he  might  make,  because  few 
expected,  and  fewer  still  could  compel  him  to  observe  them.  Still 
more  mischievous  in  its  effect  on  the  tranquillity  and  prosperity  of 
his  subjects  was  his  notion,  that  the  acquisition  of  territory  was 
'  the  noblest  and  most  agreeable  occupation  of  kings  ' ;'  and  that, 
therefore,  the  mere  probability  of  being  able  to  attain  such  an 
object  was  a  sufficient  motive  for  plunging  into  war  with  unofi*end- 
ing  neighbours.  On  his  death-bed  he  owned  that  his  fondness  for 
war  had  been  an  error,  which  his  successor  would  do  well  to 
avoid ;  and  few  things  are  stranger  than  that  he  should  have  felt 
and  yielded  to  such  an  inclination.  For,  though  he  professed  to 
look  on  Francis  I.  as  his  own  model,  he  was  so  far  from  feeling 
the  martial  ardour  which  prompted  that  fiery  prince  to  win  his 
spurs  by  deeds  of  valour  in  the  field,  that  he  was,  throughout  his 
life,  a  notorious  coward ;  venturing  indeed,  occasionally,  to  look 
on  at  a  siege  from  a  safe  distance,  but  never  having  the  courage 
to  expose  himself  on  a  field  of  battle ;  and,  on  one  occasion,  pre- 
ferring to  derange  liuxembourg's  best  conceived  plans,  and  to 
deprive  his  great  marshal  of  an  assured  victory,  rather  than  re- 
main in  a  district  where  there  was  the  least  possibility  of  a  hardy 
English  regiment  forcing  its  way  to  a  conflict  with  his  body 
guard. 

Such  as  he  was,  however,  he  undertook  the  task  which  he 
conceived  to  have  been  recommended  to  him,  and  applied  himself 
to  its  performance  with  a  methodical  industry  and  preserving 
steadiness  of  purpose  which  is  the  most  respectable  characteristic 
in  his  long  career ;  setting  apart  a  portFon  of  every  morning  for  deli- 
beration with  the  heads  of  the  difterent  departments,  and,  wherever 
he  might  be,  rarely  permitting  any  temptation  to  lead  him  to  violate 
his  rule.  But  earnest  and  unwearied  as  his  assiduity  was,  the 
task  which  he  had  undertaken  was  so  far  beyond   his  powers, 

^  His  own  phrase  in  his  Historical  Memoirs. 


26-i  MODERN  niSTORY.  [a.d.  1661. 

beyond  indeed  those  of  any  single  individual,  that  lie  could  not  pre- 
vent the  difterent  departments  from  often  talfing  the  impress  of  the 
mmd  of  their  ostensible  chiefs :  and  two  of  his  subsequent  minis- 
ters were  men  of  such  ability  and  force  of  character  that  it  is  to 
them  that  the  most  important  public  events  which,  during  the 
next  quarter  of  a  century,  distinguish  the  history  of  France,  are 
principally  to  be  attributed.  From  the  king  himself  proceeded  all 
that  was  ruinous  and  degrading ;  to  the  example  of  his  personal 
dissoluteness  is  to  be  traced  the  steady  growth  of  gambling,  extra- 
vagance, licentiousness,  and  shamelessness  continuing  and  inflaming 
the  demoralisation  of  the  whole  people  which  had  been  so  long  in 
progress.  In  his  mistaken  vanity  originated  the  new  fashion 
which  taught  all  the  nobles  of  the  land  to  consider  the  court  as 
their  proper  home,  and  a  residence  on  their  estates^  and  among 
their  dependents  an  exile  and  a  degradation :  a  habit  and  feeling 
which  contributed  more  than  any  other  single  cause  to  that 
separation,  if  not  antagonism,  of  classes  to  which  was  owing  so 
much  of  the  horror  and  misery  of  the  Kevolution.  His  merciless 
superstition  and  bigotry,  never  more  strangely  combined  with  vice 
and  profligacy  than  in  his  case,  renewed  the  religious  perse- 
cutions which  desolated  some  of  his  fairest  provinces,  and  drove 
thousands  of  his  most  virtuous  and  most  useful  subjects  to  enrich 
foreign  lands  with  their  ingenious  industrj^  To  Colbert  and 
Louvois  was  owing  all  that  tended  to  either  the  welfare  or  the 
J^  fJi/%^^  credit  of  the  nation.  .Til^^Colbert,  the  restoration  of  the  internal 
>     •  prosperity  of  the  country  j  to  Louvois,  the  victories  and  the  con- 

'''^*'v^"'*>^^ue8ts  which,  by  the  peace  of  Nimeguen,  rendered  France  indis- 
putably the  most  mighty  kingdom  in  the  world ;  and  crowned 
her  monarch  with  a  brilliancy  of  glory,  as  well  as  a  solidity  of 
power,  which  no  preceding  sovereign  of  France  had  ever  enjoyed 
and  to  find  a  parallel  for  which  we  should  have  to  look  back  to 
Charles  after  Pavia,  or  Henry  after  Agincourt. 

The  departments  of  these  two  ministers  were,  of  course,  different, 
yet  not  more  different  than  their  characters.  Colbert,  the 
minister  of  finance,  was  modest,  and  unassuming ;  free  alike  from 
rapacity  and  ostentation :  avowing  himself  a  follower  in  the  steps 
of  Sully,  though  in  some  matters  entertaining  larger,  and  more 
enlightened  views :  thinking  more  of  his  sovereign's  greatness  than 
of  his  own :  and,  it  must  be  confessed,  zealous  to  promote  the 
prosperity  of  the  kingdom  more  on  account  of  the  extent  in  which 
it  would  tend  to  the  magnificence  and  renown  of  Louis  himself, 
than  of  the  degree  in  which  it  would  relieve  or  elevate  the  lower 
classes.  But,  however  mistaken  the  motive  which  dictated  his 
different  measures,  the  measures  themselves  were,  for  the  most 
part,  eminently  judicious  and  beneficial.     One  of  the  greatest  evils 


A.D.  1661.]  POLICY  OF   COLBEET.  265 

in  the  sj'^stem  of  government  was  one  which  neither  Sully  nor 
Richelieu  had  ventured  to  attack,  the  exf^mption  which  tl^e  nobi- 
lity  had  always  claimgd  ^"""^  tjie  payment  of  many  of  the  heaviest" 
taxes :  an  exemption,  which  was  not  only  highly  injurious  to  the 
revenue,  but  w^hich  was  also  mischievous  even  to  the  nobles 
themselves,  as  sowing  the  seeds  of,  and  fostering  the  jealousy  with 
which  they  were  regarded  by  all  other  classes  :  and  one  of  his  first 
steps  was  greatly  to  reduce  the  number  of  those  to  whom  this  immu- 
nity was  allowed ;  bringing  back  many  thousands  of  those  who  of 
late  had  enjoyed  it  into  the  ranks  of  the  taxpayers,  and  prosecuting 
forheavy  fines  those  who  had  obtained  it  by  false  titles  and  other  -r  ' 

illegal  means.     He  abolislied  altogether  the  duties  which  had  been^  -ff'W^^^.^   d 
previously  imposed  on  the  transit  of  goods  from  one  province  t^\AlAAA 
another ;  and  which  had  been  a  most  vexatious  impediment  to  their 
industry  and  trade.  And  he  gave  a  further  stimulus  to  productive  in- 
dustry of  every  kind  by  the  improvement  of  all  the  ordinary  means 
of  communication ;  and  especially  by  one  imperishable  monument  of 
his  judgment  and  energy,  the  great  canal  of  LanofuedQC,  which,  " 
meeting  the  Garonne  at  Toulouse^where  that  river  is  still  navigable, 
and  proceeding  from  that  point  to  the  western  extremity  of  the 
Gulf  of  Lyons,  thus  connects  the  Mediterranean  with  the  Atlantic. 
His  was  not,  indeed,  the  mind  which  planned  and  executed  that 
gigantic  work  ;  but  the  genius  of  its  engineer  Kiquet  was  almost     /   '  . 
as  much  indebted  to  the  discernment  with  which  Colbert  appre-     UckX/lM-*' 
ciated  his  design,  and  the  large-minded  liberality  with   which,  in  J  >»  J 

spite  of  the  numerous  calls  made  upon  his  resources,  he  provided  ^>*-^''*-''^^ 
means  for  its  execution,  as  Colbert's  fame  is  now  indebted  to  the 
invention  and  fertility  of  Riquet  for  the  construction  of  the  most 
lasting  monument  to  his  glory.  He  encouraged  commerce  by  a 
series  of  beneficial  regulations  :  and,  in  this  instance,  departing  from 
Sully's  principles,  he  encouraged  the  settlement  of  French  colonies  . 

in  different  parts  of  the  world,  in  America,  in  the  West  Indies,  L^iA/^^'yv^/^ 
in  Madagascar,  and  India;  nor  were  his  labours  entirely  confined  to 
peaceful  works.     In  his  days  the  controller  of  finance  was  minister 
also  of  the  marine  ,•  and  in  this  department  he  exerted  himself  for 
the  augmentation  of  the  navy  with  the  same  untiring  energy  that 
he  bestowed  on  tasks  more  congenial  to  his  disposition.    When 
he  received  his  appointment  all  the  arsenals  of  the  kingdom  could    >r 
scarcely  have  sent  out  a  single  fleet :  when  he  died  he  left  behind  j-CC^A^- 
him  a  force  rivalling  the  British  navy  in  numbers,  and  superior  to 
that  possessed  by  any  other  nation ;  and  before  the  close  of  his 
administration,  the  French  flag  began  to  be  seen  in  seas  where 
a  quarter  of  a  century  before  the  French  name  had  scarcely  been 
heard  of ;  while  the  measures  which  he  had  taken  to  secure  a  con- 
stant supply  of  crews  to  man  tbo  fleet  had  been  so  successful,  that 
13 


266  MODEKN  HISTOEY.  [a.d.  16vS3. 

the  number  of  seamen  registered  at  the  different  ports  amounted 
to  80,000. 

In  one  point  he  took  liichelieu  rather  than  Sully  for  his  model  ; 
and  neitlier  the  fostering  care  wftlTwlnch  he  encouraged  the  navy, 
nor  the  ingenuity  and  boldness  with  which  he  augmented  the 
revenue,  contributed  more  to  Louis's  gratification  at  the  time,  nor 
have  done  nearly  so  much  for  his  renown  with  posterity,  as  the 
liberal  protection  which  iiF>  T;^pstnwft£L-fin  \ho  men  of  genius  who 

loi-ned  his  reign.  Louis  himself,  as  has  beerrmenti(5ireS7"3espTsed 
te'amingp :; "  but  Colbert,  following  on  a  large  scale  the  example 
which  Richelieu  had  set  him  in  his  Academy  of  Literature,  founded 
several  other  academies  for  different  branches  of  science  and  art, 
and  gave  pensions  to  men  of  learning  and  genius,  not  only  with 
princely  liberality,  but,  what  is  far  rarer,  with  honest  impartiality 
and  tasteful  discrimination.  Moliere,  Racine,  Boileau,  La  Fon- 
taine, Mezerai,  were  all  recipients  of  his  well  selected  bounty.  And 
those  who  speak  of  Louis  himself  and  of  his  reign  with  admira- 
tion, are,  whether  consciously  or  unconsciously,  far  more  influenced 
by  their  genius  and  learning  than  by  the  most  brilliant  exploits  of 
Luxembourg  or  Turenne.  For  his  great  services  he  was  ungrate- 
fully requited  by  his  master.  So  eager  was  Louis  to  have  it 
thought  that  his  ministers  owed  everything  to  himself,  that  he 
rarely,  if  ever,  employed  one  of  high  birth,  and  that  he  preferred 
men  of  moderate  talents  to  those  of  more  exalted  abilities.  He 
became  jealous  of  the  reputation  which  he  saw  Colbert  was  ac- 
quiring. The  great  minister  was  no  flatterer ;  and,  as  Sully  had 
endeavoured  to  put  a  limit  to  Henry's  wastefulness,  so  Colbert  at 
times  urged  upon  the  king  the  praises  of  economy  with  an  earnest- 
ness which  Louis,  less  generous  than  his  grandfather,  resented  as 
a  reproach.  He  began  to  treat  him  with  harshness.  When 
Colbert  had  been  twenty  years  in  office,  his  incessant  application 
to  its  duties  began  to  produce  its  eflect  on  his  constitution ;  and 
by  the  beginning  of  1G83  he  became  seriously  ill,  while  Louis  took 
every  opportunity  of  showing  not  only  complete  want  of  sympathy 
with  hij  ill-health,  but  increased  dislike  of  his  person.  High- 
minded  as  he  was  in  other  matters,  Colbert  could  not  support  the 
manifest  loss  of  his  sovereign's  favour  with  equanimity,  and  his 
anxiety  aggravated  his  disease.  When  he  was  on  bis  death  bed, 
Louis  wrote  him  a  letter  j  but,  anticipating  nothing  but  fresh  re- 
proaches or  sneers  from  its  contents,  he  declined  to  open  it, 
exclaiming  to  his  attendants,  in  language  which  he  might  almost 
seem  to  have  borrowed  from  our  own  Wolsey,  '  If  I  had  served  my 
God  as  faithfully  as  I  have  served  this  man,  I  might  long  since 
have  worked  out  my  salvation  ;  but  now  what  awaits  me?' 

Louvois  secretary  of  state  for  wai-,  though  equally  devoted  to 


A.T>.  1683.J  POLICY  OF  LOUVOIS.  267 

the  performance  of  his  official  duties,  was  one  of  the  most  haughty, 
arrogant,  and  domineering  of  men ;  not  hesitating  to  dictate  to  the 
greatest  generals,  nor  at  times  fearing  even  to  thwart  and  to  con- 
tradict the  king  himself.  lie,  too,  wished  the  king  to  be  great, 
but  he  desired  also  that  with  all  the  world  he  himself  should 
have  the  credit  of  having  made  him  so.  He  would  have  disdained 
to  be  thought  to  follow  the  example  of  any  predecessor,  but  in 
truth  there  had  been  in  Europe  no  previous  example  whatever  of 
the  idea  which  he  had  formed  of  his  duties,  nor  of  the  manner  in 
which  he  had  applied  himself  tp  their  performance.  Under  former 
kings,  if  the  officers  of  the  different  regiments  or  divisions  satisfied 
their  own  commander,  no  one  inquired  further;  and  the  com- 
manders, except  when  under  such  a  king  as  Henry  IV.,  or  such  a 
minister  as  Richelieu,  exercised  a  degree  of  independence  very 
inconsistent  with  a  legitimate  subordination  or  real  discipline; 
while  former  secretaries  at  war  had  not  dared  to  exert  any  autho- 
rity over  the  highborn  nobles,  but  had  limited  their  duties  to  the 
furnishing  of  the  tioops  with  supplies.  But  Louvois  was  resolved 
to  make  the  whole  army  feel  itself  to  be  the  king's  army,  and  to 
teach  every  officer  in  it  of  every  rank  that  he  was  responsible  to 
the  king,  or,  in  other  words,  to  himself,  for  the  strict  performance 
of  his  duties.^  In  fact,  he  introduced  a  complete  revolution  into 
the  whole  military  system  :  no  part  of  its  arrangements,  whether 
relating  to  its  supplies,  its  distribution,  or  its  discipline,  was,  in  his 
eyes,  independent  of  his  control.  And  he  performed  his  duties  in 
all  their  vast  and  novel  extent  with  a  completeness  almost  as  ad- 
mirable as  his  conception  of  them.  He  was  also  something  more 
than  a  great  quartermaster  or  adjutant-general.  He  had,  above 
any  one  of  his  contemporaries,  the  eye  and  mind  of  a  statesman  ; 
and  he  did  not  conceive  it  to  be  beyond  his  province  to  plan  the 
whole  outline  and  scheme  of  intended  operations,  to  decide  in  what 
quarters  the  different  armies  could  be  most  usefully  employed,  and 
even  how  the  generals  in  command  should  employ  them ;  though 
in  this  his  overweening  confidence  at  times  carried  him  too  far, 
provoking  such  commanders  as  Turenne  and  Luxembourg  to  appeal 
to  Louis  against  his  orders;  and  giving  Louis,  jealously  glad  to 
mortify  him,  a  plea  for  rendering  his  great  marshals  independent 
of  his  interference.  .^ 

The  scale  on  which  Louis's  wars  were  carried  on  would  have 

^  '  M.  Louvois  dit,  I'autre  jour,  tout  dniit  I'avoir  vue,  Monsieur."  **  Mon- 

haut  au  M.  Nogacet, "  Monsieur, votre  sit-ur,  j'y  donnerai  ordre."     "II  fau- 

compagnie  est  en  fort  mauvais  etat."  drait  I'avoir  donne,  11  faut  prendre 

"Monsieur,"  dit-il,  "je  ne  le  savais  parti,  Monsieur,  ou  se  declarer  cour- 

pas."     "II  faut  le  savoir,"  dit  M.  de  tisan,  ou  s'acquitter  de  son  devoir 

Louvois,  "  I'avez-vous  vue  ?  "  "  Non,  quand  on  est  officier."  ' — Madame  de 

Monsieur,"  dit  Nogacet.     "  II  fau-  Scvigne,  Feb.  4,  1G89. 


268  MODEEN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1670. 

taxed  the  talents  of  any  other  man  to  the  utmost.     No  such  hosts 

^^"^^    ^   had  ever  been  put  in  motion  hy  one  sovereign  in  modern  Europe 

as  those  with  which  Louis  carried  on  war  at  the  same  time  in  the 

•j.  Netherlands,  in  Franche-Comte,  and  on  the  frontiers  of  Spain.    In 

.     1671  the*  armies  entrusted  to  Conde,  Turenne,  and   Bouteville, 

known  afterwards  as  the  Marshal  duke  of  Luxembourg,  amounted 

to  112,000  men.     Yet  to  maintain  them  all  in  a  state  of  efficiency, 

well  provided  with  all  the  appliances  requisite  to  enable  troops  to 

support  rapid  marches  and  protracted  campaigns^was  not  beyond 

the  genius  of   Louvois;    and,  great  as  was  the  ability  of  the 

generals,  they  were  in  no  slight  degree  indebted  for  their  triumphs 

and  their  glory  to  his  intuitive  perception  of  their  wants,  to  the 

fertility  of  resource  with  which  he  supplied  them,  and  to  the 

firmness  with  which  he  compelled  every  subordinate  officer,  civil 

or  military,  to  do  his  duty.     With  all  his  boldness,  he  was  not 

A^rash ;    when,  towards  the   end  of  his  career,  the  fugitive  king 

UUvCv»TH«A?anies,  looking  to  Louis  for  the  aid  by  which  he  hoped  to  re- 
cover his   throne,  sought  to   stimulate  his  ally  to  invade  Eng- 

""♦^^014^  land,  Louvois,  alone  of  French  statesmen,  saw  the  hopelessness 
6  of  such  an  undertaking ;  and  remonstrated  vigorously  against  it ; 

^^  •  and,  had  he  lived,  it  is  possible  that  the  country  might  have 

been  saved  the  greatest  disaster  that  had  as  yet  befallen  it  since 
the  accession  of  Louis,  the  overthrow  of  her  fleet  at  La  Hogue, 
and  the  discovery  that  even  her  own  harbours  could  not  protect 
its  relics  from  the  invincible  crews  who  had  put  them  to  flight, 
and  who  felt  that  on  their  own  prowess  and  skill  depended  the 
safety  and  the  honour  of  Britain.  It  must  be  confessed  that 
there  were  features  in  his  character  and  parts  of  his  conduct 
^         .   which  excite  very  different  feelings.     He  not  only  at  times  urged 

^ """^^-VTrtVL  iiis  sovereign  into  wanton  and  utterly  unjustifiable  wars,  but  he 
■  eagerly  seconded  the  atrocious  cruelty  with  which,  in  more  in- 
stances than  one,  they  were  carried  on.  The  imperious  orders  by 
which  Louis  compelled  Turenne  first,  and  afterwards  Duras,  to 
ravage  the  Palatinate ;  confounding,  in  one  common  destruction, 
the  peaceful  villages,  the  fortified  strongholds,  and  the  venerable 
cities  sanctified  by  ancient  traditions  and  centuries  of  hallowed 
memories;  expelling  and  massacreing  the  miserable  inhabitants, 
till  one  of  the  most  fertile  provinces  of  Europe  was  reduced  to  a 
desert,  were  aggravated  by  the  minister  who  would  fain  have 
extended  the  ruin  more  widely  than  even  the  tyrant  on  the  throne 
had  contemplated;  and  it  was  with  even  greater  zest  that  he 
exerted  his  ingenuity  to  devise  new  methods  of  persecution  by 
which  the  king  might  wreak  his  vengeance  on  his  fellow  subjects 
who  differed  from  him  in  religion.  In  these  matters  he  was  a 
pliant  tool,  eager  to  win  his  master's  favour  by  outrunning  his 


A.D.  1670.]  LICENTIOUSNESS  OF  LOUIS.  269 

orders,  in  anticipation  of  what  he,  perhaps  not  erroneously,  believed 

to    be   his   secret  wishes.      In   one  respect  .alone  he  resembled    £^       y 

Colbert ;  in  the  gross  ingratitude  with  which  his  services  were    ^^^J**'^ 

requited   by  his  master    Louis,  though,  to   mortify  Colbert,  heW'>-**'v^ 

sometimes  extolled  Louvois's  financial  and  economical  skill  above 

his,  did  not  in  reality  feel  less  jealous  of  him  or  like  him  better. 

The  minister's  peremptory  manner  and  language  had  raised  him  *f       ^ 

up  a  host  of  enemies  among  the  courtiers  ever  on  the  watch  to  fP'O^f^/*'^ 

take  advantage  of  the  king's  ebullitions  of  ill-temper  towards  him.  /    "^|U^   i 

And  at  last,  his  zeal  for  the  public  service,  coupled  with  a  regard    ^ 

for  the  king's  personal  honour,  which  he  conceived  to  be  at  stake, 

brought  on  him  the  fixed  ill-will  of  one  whose  constant  access  to 

the  king  made  her  enmity  more  formidable  than  that  of  all  the 

court  besides.     For  many  years  Louis  had  scandalised  the  world 

with  a  greater  shamelessness  of  profligacy  than  even  the  most 

licentious  of  his  predecessors.     He  had  outraged  even  his  own 

female   relations,    compelling    his   unmarried   cousin,   Mdlle.    de 

Montpensier,  to  act  as  a  go-between  in  his  amours,^  and  his  wife 

to  appear  in  public  with  two  of  his  mistresses  at  once,  carrying 

her,  Madame  de  la  Valliere,  and  Madame  de  Montespan,  with  him 

in  his  various  expeditions  to  the  frontiers,  while  the  wondering 

peasants  in  the  different  villages  through  which  they  passed  gazed 

with  amazement  on  the  three  ladies,  the  three  queens  as  they 

called  them,  in  the  same  carriage.'^     But,  ofiended  as  all  but  the 

most  hardened  were  at  this  parade  of  unparalleled  license,  for 

that  a  king  should   have  two  titular  mistresses  at  once  was  a 

novelty  even  in  Paris,  they  did  not  feel  it  to  be  nearly  such  a 

degradation  of  the  court  as  his  change  of  conduct  when  he  fell 

under  the  dominion  of  a  more  artful  woman  than  any  of  his 

former  favorites.     Of  artifice,  indeed,  neither  of  those  who  have 

been  mentioned  could  justly  be  accused.     Madame  de  la  Valliere 

was  too  meek,  Madame  de  Montespan  too  imperious  to  practise  it ; 

but  the  former,  always  ashamed  of  lier  position,  into  which  she 

seems  to  have  been  betrayed  by  genuine  love  for  Louis  as  a  man, 

had  long  retired  from  the  court  and  taken  refuge  in  a  convent; 

^  There  is  not  a  more  curious  pas-  3Iemoires  de  Montpensier,  v.  354. 

page  in  all  the   Princess's  Memoirs  ^  »  Qq^    e'pouvantable    fracas,   qui 

than  that  in  which  she  relates  her  retentit  avec  horreur  chez  toutes  Jes 

reprimand  of  the  Marquis  de  Montes-  nations,   et   qui   donna  au  monde  le 

pan  for  presuming  to  doubt  the  king's  spectacle  nouveau  de  deux  maitresses 

right  to  seduce  the  marchioness.   '  Je  a  la  fois.     II  les  promena  aux  fron- 

lui  lavai  la  tete.  .  .  .  Je  lui  fis  com-  tieres,  aux  camps,  des  moments  aux 

prendre  qu'il  manquait  de  conduite  arme'es,  toutes  deux  dans  le  carrosse 

par  ses  harangues,  dans  lesquelles  il  de  la  reine.    Les  peuples  accourant  de 

melait  le  roi  avec  des  citations  de  la  toutes  parts   se  montraient  les  trois 

Sainte   ficriturc    et    les  peres.  .  .  .  reines.'— S^.-iStwion,  vol.  xiii.  92. 
II  disait  quantite  de  sottises,'  &c. — 


270  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1683. 

and  the  latter  hj  her  yiolence,  her  peevishness,  and  still  more 
perhaps  by  satiety,  had  wearied  Louis  so  that  he  rarely  saw  her, 
when,  in  1683,  the  queen  suddenly  died,  and  a  lady  who  had  for 
some  time  been  about  the  court  in  a  situation  which  brou<^ht  her 
into  constant  contact  with  the  king,  saw  in  her  death  an  oppor- 
tunity for  her  own  elevation  which  she  could  not  before  have 
anticipated. 

In  the  early  part  of  the  reign,  Mademoiselle  d'Aubign^,  a  young 
J.  \\  \  lady  of  good  family,  and  great  beauty,  but  very  poor,  had  been 
«Q  J\^  VAi  •'^educed  to  marry  a  young  lawyer  of  the  name  of  Scarron,  who  had 
y„^AAjSjj>4,4^  gained  the  patronage  of  the  men  of  fashion  of  his  day,  as  the 
author  of  a  number  of  lively  farces,  and  as  a  boon  companion  of 
more  wit  than  propriety.  He  died  while  she  was  still  young ;  but 
some  of  her  husband's  patrons  did  not  regard  her  with  the  less 
favour  because  he  was  removed :  and  she  was  recommended  to 
Madame  de  Montespan  as  well  qualified  to  be  the  governess  of  the 
children  whom  that  lady  had  borne  to  the  king.  Iler  conduct  on 
receiving  the  offer  was  curious  and  characteristic.  She  was  not 
likely  to  have  learned  any  very  sensitive  delicacy  from  her  husband : 
her  own  especial  friends,  both  before  and  since  his  death,  were 
among  the  most  abandoned  and  notorious  women  in  Paris :  but, 
on  being  invited  to  take  charge  of  the  education  of  illegitimate 
children,  she  was  seized  with  a  sudden  scruple  ,•  she  could  not,  she 
said,  listen  to  such  a  request  from  their  mother;  though  her 
loyalty  would  forbid  her  refusing  such  a  wish  if  expressed  by  her 
king.  Louis  condescended  to  express  his  own  desire  that  she 
would  undertake  the  task  ;  and,  as  he  was  fond  of  the  children,  and 
constantly  visited  their  nursery,  he  soon  became  acquainted  with 
the  brilliant  conversational  powers  of  their  governess.  He  in- 
creased a  small  pension  which  she  had  enjoyed  since  Scarron's 
death  :  gave  her  a  sum  of  money,  with  which  she  bought  a  small 
estate  called  Maintenon :  and  sent  his  favorite  architect,  Le 
Notre,  to  lay  out  the  grounds :  so  that,  in  a  short  time,  her  influ- 
ence had  become  notorious  to  the  whole  court.  When,  in  1G80, 
the  Dauphin  married  the  Princess  of  Bavaria,  she  was  appointed 
her  lad}'  of  the  bedchamber ;  and  she  gradually  began  to  feel  so 
sure  of  her  influence  that  she  ventured  to  disparage  Madame  de 
Montespan  to  Louis  himself.  The  marchioness's  star  grew  pale, 
to  borrow  an  expression  from  Madame  de  Sevignd,  before  the  light 
of  this  new  attraction  ;  who  was,  however,  three  years  older  than 
the  king  himself.  And  so  matters  went  on,  for  seven  or  eight 
years,  without  any  positive  certainty  being  arrived  at  with  respect 
to  her  relations  with  the  king :  though  few,  if  any,  hesitated  to 
put  their  own  construction  on  them.  But,  by  the  time  the  queen 
died,  she,  being  now  nearly  fifty  years  of  age,  had  gradually 


A.D.  1691.]  LOUIS  MAREIES  MADAME  DE  MAINTENON.   27 1 

assumed  a  tone  of  strict  decorum  and  devotion ;  and  though  when, 
a  day  or  two  afterwards,  she  threw  herself  in  Louis's  way,  in  such 
ostentatiously  deep  mourning,  and  with  such  a  parade  of  distress, 
that  he  could  not  help  laughing  at  her,^  it  proved  a  judicious  act 
of  sympathy,  even  if  it  was  not  appreciated  at  the  time.    Not  long  i^       '    m 
afterwards  Louis  married  her  privately ;   and  she  was  left  with»***^"*^ 
nothing  to  wish  for,  but  that  he  would  make  public  proclamation  ty\ 
of  the  act,  and  allow  her  to  assume  the  title  of  queen.  ^^^1 

Her  eagerness  for  this  recognition,  which  could  not  be  called 
unnatural,  produced  more  than  one  quarrel  between  the  king  and 
his  ministers,  who  agreed  in  looking  on  such  a  step  as  a  degrada- 
tion of  his  royal  dignity ;  but  none  opposed  it  with  such  vehera-    n 
ence  as  Louvois.     Learning,  on  one  occasion,  that  Louis  had  given  £j8xV\>'** 
the  lady  a  distinct  promise  to  own  his  marriage,  he  forced  his  way         ^         , 
into  the  king's  cabinet,  and  remonstrated  fiercely  against  his  per-  <^*v  *'^   i 
formance  of  his  engagement :  and  the  scene  which  ensued,  as  it  t  p  I 

is  painted  by  St.-Simon,  gives  us  a  curious  picture  of  the  king's  ^-W^**'^'*-*^** 
meanness  and  timidity,  and  of  the  minister's  uncourtierlike  plain-  >^,^  \[/^ 
ness.     The  king  shuffled,  prevaricated,  and  tried  to  escape  into  the 
next  room,  where  stood  the  gentlemen  in  waiting  (listening  and 
looking  in  at  this  strange  scene  through  a  glass  door),  whose  pre- 
sence, he  thought,  would  protect  him  from  the  secretary's  re- 
proaches.    Louvois,  who  saw  his  manoeuvre,  stopped  him,  and, 
embracing  his  knees,  compelled  him  to  hear  him  out ;  and,  at  last, 
drawing  his  sword,  offered  it  to  the  king,  begging  his  majesty 
rather  to  slay  him  on  the  spot  than  to  disgrace  himself  before  the 
eyes  of  all  Europe  by  the  avowal  of  a  connection  so  unworthy  of 
him.    Before  his  inexorable  servant  would  release  his  hold  of  him, 
Louis,  who  had  already  promised  him  more  than  once  that  nothing 
should  ever  induce  him  to  own  his  marriage,  was  forced  to  repeat 
his  promise  ;  and  he  kept  it :  but  the  lady  knew  well  to  whom  the 
disappointment  of  her  hopes  was  owing,  and  never  rested  till  she, 
in  return,  had  exacted  a  pledge  from  Louis  to  release  both  her  and 
himself  from  a  servant  so  much  inclined  to  give  himself  the  airs  of   f 
a  master.     It  was  not  so  difficult  to  keep  the  king  to  this  engage-   I-w-cmM 
nient.     Even  after  the  minister  knew  how  bitter  an  enemy  he  had    C.O'X/'A 
provoked,  he  disdained  to  hold  his  temper  under  restraint.     More 
than  once  stormy  scenes  between  him  and  his  royal  master  became 
the  talk  of  the  -court :  till,  at  last,  in  June  1691,  a  severe  check 
which  the  Marquis  de  Feuquieres,  who  commanded  a  division  in 

1  *  Madame    de    Maintenon  .   .   .  Queen  having  died  on  Friday),  ne 

parut  aux  yeux  du  roi  dans  un  si  put    s'empecher     de    lui    en     faire 

grand  deuil,  avec  un  air  si  afflige,  quelques   plaisanteries.'  —  3Iemoires 

que  lui,  dont  la  douleur  etait  passe'e  de  Montpensier,  vi. 
(this  was  on  Monday  or  Tuesdixy,  the 


%^^ 


272  MODEKN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1691. 

Piedmont,  received  before  Coni,  inflamed  Louis's  anger  with  the 
secretary  at  war  beyond  all  bounds.  The  failure  was  of  no  great 
importance ;  and  Prince  Eugene,  the  Imperial  general  who  had 
bafHtd  the  marquis,  was  a  commander  before  whom  no  man  need 
have  been  ashamed  to  retreat.  But  Louis,  up  to  that  time,  had 
enjoyed  such  uninterrupted  success  in  all  his  military  enterprises, 
that  he  had  become  unable  to  endure  the  slightest  interruption  to 
it.  It  was  Louvois  who  had  appointed  de  Feuquieres  to  the  com- 
mand, and  he  was  known  to  regard  him  with  peculiar  favour.  And 
it  was  on  Louvois,  accordingl}',  as  being  most  within  reach,  that 
the  king's  displeasure,  on  heiiring  of  his  failure,  was  first  vented. 
*,  Louvois  was  not  of  a  temper  to  bear  violent  reproaches  from  any 

r^**^^^  *■  one  without  defending  himself;   once  more  a  vehement  dispute 
''Kk^  (a      between  the  king  and  him  ensued  :  and,  when  they  parted,  Louis 
V    was  so  much  exasperated  that  he  resolved  to  arrest  him  the  next 
^^A,->^ '      day,  and  send  him  to  the  Bastille.     But  the  next  day  never  came 
*  for  Louvois.     He  had  been  as  violently  enraged  as  the  king ;  but 

A^\>  on  him  it  had  a  different  effect :  he  had  hardly  reached  liis  house, 

when  he  was  seized  with  apoplexy,  of  which  he  died  almost 
instantly :  and  Louis  had  the  bad  taste  and  vanity  to  speak  of  his 
loss  as  a  matter  of  no  importance ;  and,  while  everyone  else,  even 
those  who  had  the  least  personal  liking  for  the  deceased  minister, 
did  not  dissemble  their  sense  of  the  greatness  of  the  national  loss, 
at  a  time  when  it  was  engaged  in  formidable  wars,  both  in  the 
north  and  in  the  south,  he  proclaimed  ostentatiously  that  the 
enterprise  which  he  had  most  at  heart,  the  expulsion  of  the  Prince 
of  Orange  from  the  British  throne,  and  the  restoration  of  James 
to  his  dominions,  would  not  go  on  the  worse  for  what  had 
happened. 

But  the  depriving  the  kingdom  of  the  service  of  its  ablest 
administrator  and  statesman  was  not  the  greatest  mischief  done 
to  it  by  the  influence  of  Madame  de  Maintenon ;  and  it  must  be 
added,  that  in  the  injury  which  she  inflicted  on  it  by  her  bigotry 
she  was  aided  by  the  most  zealous  co-operation  of  Louis  himself. 
She  rekindled  the  fury  of  religious  intolerance  and  persecution :  to 
which  Louis  was  the  more  inclined  that  in  the  earl}^  years  of  his 
reign,  a  schism  had  broken  out  among  the  Roman  Catholics  them- 
selves :  a  party  among  whom,  had  not  only  broached  some  novel 
theological  doctrines,  but,  at  the  same  time,  had  also  shown  ad 
inclination  to  favour  the  Fronde  in  its  rebellion,  a  feeling  quite  suf- 
ficient to  predispose  king  and  court  to  regard  them  with  disfavour. 
The  new  sect  were  called  Jansenists,  from  the  name  of  their  founder, 
Jansen,  professor  of  divinity  at  Louvain,  and  afterwards  Bishop  of 
Ypres,  who  had  inculcated,  in  his  lectures  and  in  one  or  two 
publications,  some  of  the  opinions  of  St.   Augustine  in  language 


M^ 


A.©.  1645.]  EISE   OF  THE  JANSENLSTS.  273 

wliicli  seemed  to  imply  an  agreement  with  some  of  the  doctrines 
of  the  Huguenots ;  and  with  a  power  of  argument  and  persuasiveness 
of  eloquence,  which  had  procured  him  a  numerous  band  of  disciples. 
His  writings  produced  great  excitement  among  the  more  rigid 
Roman  Catholics.     The  Jesuits  headed  the  opposition  to  them  : 
denouncing  them  with  extreme  bitterness,  and  persuading  Pope 
Innocent  to  issue  a  formal  condemnation  of  some  of  the  proposi- 
tions contained  in  them.     And  the  Jansenists,  nowise  afraid  to 
stand  up  in  their  own  defence,  willingly  entered  the  field  against 
the  Jesuits,  being  fortunate  enough  to  number  in  their  ranks  the 
wittiest  man  and  the  most  powerful  writer  in  the  whole  kingdom. 
In  a  series  of  Essays,  which  he  entitled  Provincial  Letters,  Blaise 
Pascal,  previously  known  only  as  an, admirable  mathematician,  ex- 
posed the  errors  of  the  Jesuits  both  in  their  principles  and  their  prac- 
tice with  irresistible  power,  making  them  as  generally  ridiculous 
as  they  were  already  generally  odious.^  And,  as  it  was  hardly  pos- 
sible to  attack  them  without  occasionally  trenching  on  the  autho- 
rity of  the  Pope  himself,  whose  champion  they  professed  to   be, 
he  was  insensibly  drawn  on  to  advance  some  doctrines  not  alto- 
gether compatible  with  the  admission  of  the  Papal  infallibility. 
Louis,  who  cared  little  enough  for  religion,  but  a  great  deal  for 
the  principles  of  sovereign  power,  and  for  his  own  dignity,   was 
easily  persuaded  to  look  on  those  who  claimed  a  right  to  freedom  of 
opinion  on  any  subject  as  enemies  of  his  own  authority,  and  to 
identify  an  innovating  spirit  in  religion  with  disloyalty  in  affairs 
of  state;  and,  accordingly,  he  did  his  utmost  to  discountenance 
Jansenism,  and  endeavoured  to  compel  all  the  French  clergy  to 
sign  a  formal  repudiation  of  its  principles ;  but,  as  even  the  Pope, 
reasonably    fearing    to    increase    the    number    of   seceders   from 
Catholicism,  abstained,  as  yet,  from  pronouncing  it  heresy,  he  was 
unable  to  persecute  those  who  refused,  and   was    all  the  more 
ready  to  indemnify  himself  for  his  disappointment  at  the  expense 
of  some  other  body ;  nor  was  it  difficult  to   find  victims.     The 
Huguenots  were  the  special  objects  of  antipathy  to  his  confessor, 
a  Jesuit  of  the  name  of  Annat ;  who  out  of  the  king's  vices  found 
a  way  to  the  gratification  of  his  own  bigotry.     His  Order  never 
strained  matters   with  kings,    and  was   always  more  zealous  for 
orthodoxy  than  for  religion.     And  now  Annat,  finding  it  impossible 
to  induce  Louis  to  forsake  his  licentious  habits,  was  willing  to  accept 
a  compromise ;  and  suggested  to  him,  instead  of  abandoning  them, 

1  Voltaire  -vvoulfl    not  be    a  safe  of  French  satirists,'  he  adds :   *  Les 

{iuide  on  the  theological  points  in-  mciUeures  come'dies  de  Muliere  n'ont 

volved  in  the  dispute ;  but  he  may  pas  plus   de   sel   que   les  premieres 

be  admitted  as  a  competent  judge  of  LettresProvinciales  ;  Bossuet  n'a  rien 

compositions  in  his  own   language:  de  plus  sublime  que  les   dernieres.' 

and,  hiving  called  Pascal  the'  fu'st  Sitcle  de  Louis  XIV.  chap.  35. 


/CM-<.WC. 


274  MODEEN  HISTOEY.  [a.b.  1G84, 

to  atone  for  tbera  by  the  extirpation  of  Protestantism.  IIo 
found  a  ready  listener  in  the  kinof,  who,  much  more  inclined 
to  oppress  others  than  mortify  himself,  was  glad  to  obtain  indul- 
gence for  his  darling  sins  at  so  easy  a  rate.  Speedily  the  law 
began  to  be  strained  to  deprive  the  Huguenots  of  the  privileges 
granted  or  secured  to  them  by  his  predecessors ;  even  the  indul- 
gences which  Richelieu  had  confirmed  to  them  were  curtailed ; 
their  liberty  of  worship  was  abridged ;  their  ministers  were  im- 
prisoned or  banished  on  the  most  frivolous  pretexts ;  and  they  were 
carefully  excluded  from,  and  even  deprived  of,  all  official  or  honor- 
able employments.  Presently  edicts  of  a  more  active  severity  were 
issued  against  them  :  they  were  forbidden  to  marry  Catholics;  or 
to  act  as  guardians  to  the  children  of  their  nearest  relatives.  Num- 
bers began  to  flee  from  the  country,  and  to  seek  the  asylum  which 
England,  Holland,  and  some  of  the  German  States  gladly  opened 
to  them.  Fresh  ordinances  denounced  the  punishment  of  the 
galleys  for  all  who  thus  endeavoured  to  emigrate,  and  forbad  the 
sale  of  their  estates  by  those  who  were  suspected  of  the  design  to 
quit  the  country.  While  at  the  same  time  honours  were  lavished  on 
all  persons  of  rank  or  reputation,  and  pecuniary  bribes  were  distri- 
buted with  profusion  among  those  of  a  lower  class,  who  could  be 
induced  to  renounce  Protestantism  for  the  religion  professed  by 
the  king.  It  is  remarkable  that,  while  Louis  was  thus  harassing  the 
Huguenots,  he  himself  was  so  far  from  desiring  to  extend  or  aug- 
ment the  Papal  authority,  that  he  was  steadily  curtailing  the 
privileges  and  jurisdiction  which  the  Pope  claimed  over  the  French 
clergy.  He  permitted  the  parliament  to  ordain  the  suppression 
of  Papal  Bulls ;  and  he  more  than  once  contemplated  the  establish- 
ment of  an  independent  French  Church  under  a  native  patriarch, 
which,  while  adhering  to  Romish  doctrine,  should  acknowledge  the 
king  himself  as  the  supreme  authority  in  all  ecclesiastical  and 
spiritual  as  in  all  temporal  matters. 

J3ut  with  the  growth  of  Madame  de  Maintenon's  influence  his 
feelings  altered.  He  was  not  more  inclined  than  before  to  sub- 
ordinate his  royal  authority  to  Papal  domination  ;  but  he  became 
far  more  zealous  in  enforcing  submission  to  the  Papal  doctrines  as 
such.  The  lady  hated  the  Huguenots  with  all  the  zeal  of  an 
apostate,  because  she  herself  had  been  bred  up  in  the  profession  of 
their  tenets,  and  had  deserted  them  on  her  marriage  with  Scarron, 
who,  as  his  chief  dependence  was  on  court  favour,  insisted  on  her 
conversion,  though  it  Avas  rather  the  abandonment  of  a  creed  to 
which  he  was  not  attached,  than  the  adoption  of  one  in  which  he 
did  believe.  While  he  lived  it  would  have  been  difficult  to  decide 
what  her  religion  was  ;  but  as  soon  as  she  became  a  widow,  she 
showed  her  earnestness  by  a  display  of  great  zeal  in  converting 


A.D.  1685.J  PERSECUTION  OF  HUGUENOTS.  275 

others :    selecting  as  the    subjects  of  her  proselytising  abilities 
chiefly  young  children ;  and  being  so  little  fettered  in  her  pro- 
ceedings by  scruples,  that  some  of  her  most  remarkable  converts 
were  made  by  kidnapping  the  little  daughters  of  Huguenot  fathers 
during  the  absence  of  their  parents  from  home,  and  whipping 
them  till  they  came  over  to  Catholicism,  though  they  were  so 
unable,  by  reason  of  their  tender  age,  to  distinguish  between  one 
religion  and  another,  that  their  idea  of  the  mass  was  that  it  was 
a  ceremony  in  honour  of  the  king.    Whipping  was  all  that  she 
could  do  while  she  continued  Madame  Scarron  ;  but,  now  that  she 
had  the  principal  influence  over  the  king,  she  conceived  the  idea 
of  a  persecution  on  a  grander  and  severer  scale  ;  and,  in  inducing 
Louis  to  adopt  such  a  course,  she  was  aided  by  Louvois,  who, 
though  he  cared  but  little  about  religious  doctrines  or  disputes, 
was  as  eager  as  she  for  the  suppression  of  Protestantism  in  the 
kingdom,  because  he  was  meditating  a  war  with  the  chief  Pro- 
testant nations,  and  he  feared  that  a  Huguenot  brotherhood  in 
France  might  not  be  unwilling  to  ally  itself  with  them.     While 
his  father  Tellier,  who  had  lately  received    the   appointment    of 
Chancellor,  was  so  stern  a  bigot  that  he  was  wont  to  say  that  his 
one  great  wish  was  to  live  and  hold  oHice  long  enough  to  afhx  the 
great  seal  to  the  decree  for  the  revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes. 
But  that  was  too  strong  a  measure  to  commence  with  ;  and  not 
sufficiently  efficacious  till  steps  should  have  been  taken  to  prevent 
those  who  would  be  affected  by  it  from  escaping  its  operation. 
Accordingly  laws  of  greater  severity  than  ever  were  enacted  against 
all  emigrants,  and  all  who  should  aid  or  even  be  privy,  without 
giving  information,  to  the  intended  emigration  of  any  Huguenot. 
Yet  the  penalties  imposed  were  incurred,  the  new  laws  were  baffled, 
and  emigration  went  on  steadily,  till  the  notorious  futility  of  his 
ordinances  stimulated  Louis  to  fresh  contrivances  of  cruelty.     He 
directed  Louvois  to  issue  a  notice  tj  the  military  commanders, 
that  all  those  who  would  not  adopt  his  religion,  (for  it  was  the 
fact  of  its  being  his  that  made  the  rejection  of  it  so  offensive  in  his 
eyes),  should  suffer  the  most  extreme  rigour;  and  the  method 
which,  in  obedience  to  his  urgency,  Louvois  now  devised,  and 
which,   from  the  nature  of  the  troops  employed,  obtained  the 
name  of  the  Dragonnades,  has  become  almost  proverbial  for  its 
atrocity.     The  great  bulk  of  the  Huguenots  were  in  the  southern 
provinces ;  and,  at  the  beginning  of  1685,  Louvois  sent  orders  to 
Marshal  Boufflers,  who  commanded  the  troops  stationed  in  that 
district,  to  quarter  his  men  exclusively  on  the  Protestants,  keeping 
some  in  every  house  till  the  inhabitants  should  be  converted,  and 
then  transferring  them  to  another  whose  tenants  were  still  in- 
tractable.    The  dragoons  so  employed  were  well  aware  that  a 


276  MODEKN  HISTOEY.  [a.d.  1685. 

peaceful  residence  in  their  quarters  was  not  what  was  expected  of 
them ;  and  entered  with  a  brutal  joy  into  the  views  of  their  masters, 
hoping  to  gain  the  favour  of  their  superiors  by  acting  up  to,  or,  if 
possible,  exceeding  their  instructions.  In  blasphemous  mockery, 
they  fastened  crossbars  to  their  muskets,  and  compelled  the 
peasantry  to  kiss  the  crosses  thus  manufactured;  they  drove  them 
in  crowds  like  cattle  to  the  Romish  churches,  pricking  them,  fis 
they  went,  with  swords  or  bayonets  to  quicken  their  pace.  They 
dragged  the  women  through  the  mud  by  the  hair,  stripped  them, 
and  scourged  them,  and  cut  and  gashed  the  faces  of  those  whom 
they  supposed  vain  of  their  personal  attractions. 

Against  cruelties  like  these  the  faith  of  the  greater  part  of  the 
Protestants  was  not  firm  enough  to  hold  out.  Thousands  consented 
to  renounce  their  religion,  signing  the  recantations  demanded  of 
them  with  such  rapidity,  that  the  Duke  de  Noailles,  who  com- 
manded in  the  Cevennes,  wrote  to  Louvois  that,  though  the 
Huguenots  in  his  district  amounted  to  a  quarter  of  a  million  of 
poople,  less  than  a  month  would  suffice  to  convert  the  whole  of 
them.  Even  the  rulers  at  Versailles  could  perceive  that  such 
conversions  were  formal  and  insincere ;  but  with  that  they  were 
satisfied,  Madame  de  Maintenon  herself  remarking  that  it  would 
be  all  the  same  in  the  next  generation,  since,  though,  the  parents 
who  were  converted  might  be  hypocrites,  thinking  of  nothing  but 
of  an  escape  from  ill-treatment,  their  children,  who  would  bo 
educated  by  Catholics,  would  be  sufficiently  orthodox.  Yet  .all 
did  not  yield,  even  to  the  JDragonnades.  Many  only  adhered  to 
their  religion  the  more  steadfastly  for  the  cruelty  which  had  been 
employed  to  make  tliem  desert  it.  In  Languedoc  and  in  Dauphin«5 
multitudes  still  assembled  every  Sunday,  and  persisted  in  the 
public  performance  of  their  religious  worship,  in  defiance  of  the 
royal  edicts,  and  of  the  presence  of  the  troops,  who  were  at  once 
informers,  witnesses,  judges,  and  executioners;  and  who,  exciting 
themselves  to  fury  at  the  sight,  would  often  rush  in  and  massacre 
the  unresisting  congregations,  or  drag  them  oft'  before  the  tribunals 
of  obsequious  magistrates,  who  would  at  once  pass  on  them 
sentences  of  death,  which  were  instantly  executed.  And,  in  the 
Cevennes,  the  anticipations  of  de  Noailles  were  so  completely 
falsified  that,  as  we  shall  see,  twenty  years  afterwards  it  required 
a  series  of  military  operations  under  the.  conduct  of  one  of  the 
ablest  generals  in  the  kingdom  to  subdue  those  Huguenots  who 
remained,  and  who  were  formidable  enough,  even  when  vanquished, 
to  extort  a  compromise  from  the  conquerors  on  conditions  which 
were  as  mortifying  to  the  pride  of  Louis  as  the  disasters  endured 
at  the  same  time  by  his  other  generals  at  the  hands  of  his  foreign 
enemies. 


A.D.  1685.]  BEVOCATION   OF  THE  EDICT   OF  NANTES.  277 

But,  though  the  contest  was  not  finally  terminated  till  the 
commencement  of  the  next  century,  the  continued  resistance  of 
those  who  still  refused  to  desert  their  faith,  led  to  the  immediate 
accomplishment  of  Le  Tellier's  prayer  in  the  revocation  of  the 
Edict  of  Nantes  ;  to  which  the  recusants  constantly  appealed,  with 
undeniable  truth,  as  the  charter  which  formally  and  expressly 
secured  them  all  the  privileges  which  they  claimed.  To  allow  it 
to  remain  in  force,  his  advisers  were  constantly  assuring  Louis 
was  a  sin ;  as  it  was  one  which  gave  him  no  pleasure,  one  which 
indeed  contravened  his  notions  of  his  own  dignity,  he  was  willing 
enough  to  renounce  it ;  and,  in  October  1685,  he  signed  an  ordinance 
revoking  it  in  every  one  of  its  clauses  and  provisions,  absolutely 
prohibiting  the  celebration  of  the  Protestant  worship  in  every 
part  of  his  dominions,  banishing  for  ever  all  Protestant  ministers, 
and  re-enacting  the  penalties  which  had  been  denounced  against 
all  emigrants.  This  last  clause  was  one  which  must  always  be 
fruitless,  even  when  unaccompanied  by  others  which  compel  its  vio- 
lation. And  the  emigration  which  was  now  seen  to  be  the  only  refuge 
for  those  whom  neither  fear  nor  actual  persecution  could  drive  to 
apostacy,  received  such  an  impulse  from  the  revocation  of  the 
Edict,  that  within  a  few  years  500,000  Protestants  had  quitted 
the  country  :  those  who  thus  fled  being  not  only  among  the  most 
honest  and  conscientious,  but  also  among  the  most  ingenious  and 
industrious  of  the  king's  subjects,  and,  as  such,  those  whom  it 
was  most  for  his  interest  to  retain  in  his  kingdom. 

If  such  a  fact  can  be  any  excuse  for  Louis,  it  must  be  admitted 
that  the  revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  though  one  of  the 
most  tyrannical  and  faithless  of  all  his  actions,  wa3  in  entire 
unison  with  the  feelings  of  the  great  majority  of  his  subjects.  His 
resolution  to  exterminate  heresy  was  the  theme  of  rapturous  pane- 
gyric among  all  classes,  and  even  among  both  sexes,  of  the  Catholics. 
It  was  not  even  confined  to  one  school  among  the  divines.  If 
the  Jesuits  were  its  original  prompters,  Arnauld  the  Jansenist 
was  not  less  fervent  in  proclaiming  its  justice  j  and  the  eloquent 
Bishop  of  Meaux,  whose  special  boast  it  was  that  he  was  not  a 
Jesuit,  exertecT  his  most  impassioned  oratory  in  eulogy  not  only 
of  the  success  but  of  the  righteousness  of  the  measure;  while 
ladies,  from  whom  at  least  pity  for  suflering  and  misery  might 
have  been  looked  for,  were  equally  loud  in  their  panegyric : 
Madame  de  Sevigne  pronouncing  the  revocation  of  the  Edict  an 
act  by  itself  sufficient  to  secure  the  sovereign  who  ordained  it  an 
immortality  of  renown.  But,  in  truth,  if  the  success  of  a  policy  is 
to  be  estimated  by,  or  depends  on  the  extent  to  which  it  promotes 
the  welfare  of  the  country,  Voltaire,  when  he  pronounced  the 
act  one  of   the  great  misfortunes  of 'Franco,  judged  more   cor- 


278  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  168U. 

rectly  as  well  as  more  humanely  than  Bossuet.  it  was  an  un- 
doing of  one  of  the  most  beneficial  parts  of  Sully's  policy. 
It  drove  away  from  the  land  crowds  of  the  artisans  that  it 
was  that  great  minister's  boast  to  have  attracted  to  it  for  its 
service  and  enrichment.  It  was  not  only  that  the  veteran 
Marshal  Schomberg  fled  to  Holland,  and  presently  aided  in 
the  expulsion  of  Louis's  cousin  from  the  throne  of  England,  or 
that  bands  of  soldiers  of  inferior  rank  enlisted  in  the  Dutch  service 
and  swelled  the  armies  which  sold  their  lives  so  dearly  at  Stein- 
kerk  and  Neerwindeu ;  many  fled  whose  labours  had  hitherto 
contributed  no  little  to  provide  those  proverbial  sinews  of  war  of 
which  Louis's  aggressive  ambition  kept  him  in  such  constant 
need.  The  silk-weavers  established  manufactories  at  Spitaltields 
and  Macclesfield.  Makers  of  hats  and  stockings,  and  similar 
articles,  of  which  France  had  hitherto  enjoyed  the  monopoly,  found 
a  home  in  Saxony.  Glass-blowers  fled  to  Bohemia,  and  there 
taught  the  art  of  fabricating  those  beautiful  vases  of  diff'erent 
colours,  which,  since  that  day,  has  been  lost  to  the  land  where 
they  had  previously  practised  it. 

Nor  even  had  the  revocation  the  triumph  of  entirely  gaining 
its  end,  and  suppressing  Protestantism  in  the  kingdom.  As  has 
been  mentioned,  the  Cevennes  were  still  unsubdued ;  and,  in  that 
wild  mountainous  district,  many  devout  resolute  men  still  main- 
tained the  religion  which  they  had  been  taught  from  their  child- 
hood. It  was  not  easy  for  soldiers  encumbered  with  their 
military  trappings  to  track  the  native  inhabitants,  to  whom  every 
pass  among  the  hills  and  forests  had  been  familiar  from  infancy ; 
though  the  authorities  were  aware  that  in  many  a  secret  ravine 
or  cavern  bands  of  prosecuted  Huguenots  met  to  worship  in  their 
own  fashion,  it  was  long  before  they  could  discover  their  principal 
haunts  ;  but  whenever  they  did  succeed  in  surpi-ising  a  company, 
they  indemnified  themselves  for  their  frequent  failures  by  the  ex- 
treme atrocity  of  the  vengeance  they  took  on  all  who  fell  into 
their  hands.  The  preachers  were  broken  on  the  wheel,  and  the 
congregations  were  sent  to  the  galleys,  where  they  were  treated 
with  a  severity  rarely  practised  towards  the  most  hardened 
criminals.  Cruelty  drove  them  to  despair,  more  than  once  they 
contemplated,  and  once  they  even  commenced  an  insurrection, 
which,  however,  was  premature,  and  easily  crushed ;  but  in  1702, 
just  at  the  moment  when  the  commencement  of  the  great  War  of 
the  Succession  promised  to  farnish  full  employment  for  all  the 
statesmen  and  generals  in  the  country,  an  extraordinary  act  of 
tyranny,  perpetrated  by  the  chief  Romish  ecclesiastic  in  the  dis- 
trict, the  Abbe  du  Chaila,  roused  the  spirit  of  resistance  into 


&.T).  1702.]  THE   CAMISARDS.  279 

general   action,    and    tlie     whole    Protestant  population   of  the 
Cevennes  rose  at  once  against  their  oppressors. 

The  Abbe  had  at  all  times  been  diligent  and  pitiless  as  a  per- 
secutor ;  but  he  had  rarely  been  able  to  lay  his  hands  on  victims 
of  any  higher  class  than  the  peasants  and  shepherds  of  the  district, 
when,  having  obtained  intelligence  that  a  number  of  the  wealthier 
inhabitants  favoured  the  doctrines,  and  secretly  practised  the  forms 
of  worship  which  he  held  in  abhorrence,  and  that  they  were  de- 
signing to  quit  the  country  for  Switzerland,  he  succeeded  in 
capturing  the  whole  party,  and  at  once  threw  them  into  dun- 
geons which  he  had  constructed  under  his  own  house.  Among 
his  prisoners  were  two  young  ladies,  named  Sexti  de  Moissac, 
belonging  to  one  of  the  principal  families  in  the  province ;  and 
their  relations,  who  kuew  du  Chaila's  character,  were  by  no  means 
inclined  to  leave  them  at  his  mercy.  They  took  their  measures 
with  decision  :  collecting  a  band  of  peasants,  rudely  armed  with 
agricultural  implements,  they  attacked  the  Abbe's  house,  forced 
an  entrance,  and,  exploring  the  dungeons,  found  their  worst  fears 
realised.  Though  not  above  one  or  two  days  had  elapsed  since 
the  arrest  of  the  company,  and  though  it  was  alleged  that  they 
were  only  detained  for  trial,  it  was  evident  that  they  had  already 
been  exposed  to  the  worst  extremities  of  cruelty.  Their  bodies 
were  swollen  and  lacerated,  in  many  instances  their  bones  were 
broken,  and  some  of  them  were  evidently  dying  of  the  tortures 
which  had  been  inflicted  on  them.  Their  deliverers  had  sot  com- 
pleted their  investigation,  when  the  Abbe's  servants  attacked  them 
with  guns,  firing  upon  them  and  killing  several ;  and  the  comrades 
of  those  who  thus  fell,  exasperated  by  this  onslaught,  and  maddened 
by  what  they  had  seen,  set  fire  to  the  house,  and  du  Chaila 
himself  perished  in  the  flames.  The  success  of  this  attack  on  the 
most  detested  and  most  dreaded  of  their  persecutors  acted  as  a 
stimulus  on  all  the  Protestants  of  the  district.  Armed  bands  rose 
in  all  directions,  committing  atrocities  hardly  less  pardonable 
than  the  severities  which  had  infuriated  them  :  murdering  several 
of  the  officers  who  fell  into  their  hands;  and  presently,  uniting, 
formed  themselves  into  a  small  army,  choosing  for  their  leadera 
an  old  soldier,  named  Laporte,  and  a  young  baker,  named  Jean 
Cavalier,  who,  though  only  twenty-two  years  of  age,  had  already 
acquired  an  ascendency  over  his  companions  which  the  energy 
and  talent  he  afterwards  displayed  fully  justified ;  they  assumed 
a  name,  Camisards,  from  a  sort  of  smock  frock  called  camise,  which 
was  the  ordinary  garb  of  the  majority,  and  the  systematic  organisa- 
tion which  they  thus  gave  to  their  movement  encouraging  others 
to  join  them,  they  soon  found  their  numbers  amount  to  1,000 


280  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1702. 

armed  men,  and  fearlessly  stood  forth  in  open  insurrection  against 
the  government. 

The  governor  of  the  province,  M.  Lamoignon  de  Baville,  long 
known  to  them  all  as  one  of  the  fiercest  of  their  enemies,  was  also 
a  man  of  prompt  and  decided  character  ;  while  his  brother-in-law, 
the  Count  de  JBroglie,  the  military  commander-in-chief,  was  a 
soldier  of  fair  professional  reputation.  The  two  officers  determined 
to  crush  the  insurrection  in  the  bud ;  but  their  forces  and  their 
skill  proved  so  unequal  to  the  contest,  that  it  became  necessary  to 
supersede  de  Broglie,  and  he  was  replaced  by  a  Marshal  of  France, 
Montrevel,  who  had  no  better  success.  He  succeeded,  indeed,  in  sur- 
prising some  parties  of  unarmed  worshippers  on  Sundays ;  when 
he  outdid  all  former  persecutors  in  barbarity :  on  one  occasion, 
having  come  suddenly  upon  a  congregation  assembled  for  prayer, 
in  a  mill  near  Nismes,  he  set  fire  to  it  and  burnt  the  whole  company 
alive,  commanding  his  soldiers  to  thrust  even  the  women  who 
tried  to  escape  back  into  the  flames  with  their  bayonets.  Village 
after  village  he  treated  in  the  same  manner,  burning  the  houses  and 
slaughtering  the  inhabitants ;  but  his  cruelty  baffled  itself.  From 
many  villages  the  whole  population  fled  before  he  could  reach 
them,  and  joined  the  Camisard  army,  which  thus  grew  in  numbers, 
and  daily  became  more  and  more  formidable.  It  was  in  vain  that 
Pope  Clement  XI.  came  to  the  marshal's  support  with  a  public 
sanction  of  all  his  sanguinary  proceedings,  and  published  a  Crusade 
against. the  Camisards,  promising  a  general  and  complete  remis- 
sion of  sins  to  all  who  should  join  in  their  extirpation.  Even  the 
spiritual  benediction  failed  to  render  his  men  able  to  cope  with  their 
antagonists  :  till,  when  the  contest  had  lasted  two  years,  Louis  re- 
called Montrevel  also,  and,  though  not  without  a  bitter  feeling  of 
humiliation,  consented  to  try  milder  means.  Marshal  Villars  was 
a  man  of  more  humane  temper  than  de  Broglie  or  Montrevel,  and 
as  he  was  also  one  of  the  bravest  and  ablest  generals  of  the  day, 
he  could  venture  to  advise  the  adoption  of  a  more  moderate  tone 
towards  the  insurgents  without  incurring  the  charge  of  timidity. 
His  counsel  was  taken,  and  he  himself  was  sent  down  to  the 
Cevennes  to  carry  it  out.  His  predecessors  had  come  with  sword 
and  firebrand ;  he,  like  them,  brandished  the  sword  in  one  hand, 
but  he  held  forth  a  treaty  in  the  other.  Though  the  demands 
which  the  progress  of  the  -^ar  on  the  Danube  made  on  the  re- 
sources of  the  kingdom  were  such  that  the  whole  force  that  could 
be  spared  to  him  did  not  exceed  2,500  men,  in  his  skilful  hands  it 
proved  sufficient.  Dividing  it  into  suitable  detachments,  he  pressed 
the  insurgents  in  many  quarters  at  once,  announcing  at  the  same 
time  that,  though  he  would  show  no  mercy  to  any  whom  he 
might  find  in  arms  against  the  king,  ho  was  authorised  to  pardon 


A.D.  1705.]      SUBSEQUENT   CAREER  OF   CAVALIER.        281 

all  who  submitted,  and  even  to  promise  them  permission  to  sell 
their  property,  and  to  quit  the  country.  For,  in  the  inhuman 
dictionary  of  Louis  perpetual  banishment  was  pardon,  and  con- 
fiscation indulgence.  It  was  a  very  limited  amnesty ;  but  when 
Villars  took  upon  himself  the  responsibility  of  enlarging  it  in 
some  instances,  it  succeeded.  Cavalier,  who  in  the  various  en- 
counters with  de  Broglie  and  Montrevel  had  displayed  remarkable 
talents  for  war,  recognised  his  master  in  Villars.  The  resources 
of  his  party  were  exhausted  ;  and,  when  he  and  the  division  under 
his  immediate  command  had  been  for  two  days  literally  without 
food,  he  listened  to  the  overtures  which  the  marshal  addressed 
to  him  personally,  and  consented  to  abandon  the  revolt,  and  return 
ft)  his  allegiance  on  being  assured  of  entire  pardon  and  honorable 
employment  in  the  king's  service  for  himself,  and  for  all  who 
chose  to  follow  his  guidance  and  example.  His  end  was  singular. 
He  received  a  colonel's  commission  in  the  royal  army,  and  served 
for  a  short  time  at  the  head  of  a  small  regiment  of  his  old  followers 
in  Alsace ;  but  the  French  officers  in  general  looked  coldly  on 
him :  and,  having  reason  to  suspect  that  Louis  had  not  forgotten 
his  rebellion,  and  was  still  resolved  to  chastise  it  at  some  future 
day,  he  resigned  his  command,  and  passed  over  to  England,  where 
he  obtained  a  commission  in  the  British  army  ;  and,  in  the  reign 
of  George  H.  died  a  general  officer  and  governor  of  Jersey.  Still, 
though  many  had  fled,  and  many  had  submitted,  the  principles  of 
the  Reformation  were  not  wholly  suppressed  in  France,  nor  was 
the  spirit  of  persecution  satiated.  We  have  already  seen  that  the 
bitter  animosities  which  divided  the  Jesuits  and  Jansenists  did 
not  prevent  the  latter  from  expressing  as  warm  an  approval  as  the 
former  of  the  revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes ;  and  so,  during 
the  greater  part  of  the  ensuing  century,  the  most  opposite  motives 
constantly  led  men  of  the  most  different  characters  to  agree  in  the 
most  active  and  relentless  hostility  towards  the  Huguenots.  The 
vitality  of  the  Protestants  resembled  the  vigour  of  Home  itself  in 
its  ancient  contest  with  Carthage,  when,  as  the  poet  represents 
Hannibal  complaining,  in  proportion  to  the  severity  of  each 
succeeding  disaster  was  the  proud  elasticity  with  which  she  rose 
from  the  ruin ;  and  so  before  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth 
century  their  numbers  were  again  estimated  to  exceed  two  mil- 
lions ;  while  the  perception  of  their  growth  stimulated  constantly 
renewed  exertions  to  repress  them.  And  it  mattered  little  to  them 
what  were  the  views  of  the  party  which  happened  to  be  in 
power.  More  than  once  the  idea  was  revived  of  establishing  an 
independent  Galilean  Church ;  and  the  more  eager  the  advocates 
of  such  a  step  were  for  its  accomplishment,  the  more  needful  did 
they  consider  it  to  show  that,  on  purely  spiritual  and  theologicid 


282  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1705. 

questions,  tliere  was  no  diflference  behveen  tlieir  views  and  those 
of  the  strictest  Papist.  And  no  proof  of  orthodoxy  could  be 
given  as  irresistible  as  the  persecution  of  all  who  disowned  any 
of  the  Roman  doctrines.  Dubois,  a  man  so  infamous  that  even 
the  regent,  shameless  as  he  was,  could  not  conceal  his  contempt 
for  him,  persecuted  in  order  to  obtain  a  cardinal's  hat.  St.-!Simon, 
than  whom  the  age  produced  no  more  thoroughly  well-meaning 
man,  and  who  himself  had  boldness  fearlessly  to  reprove  vice  even 
in  the  highest  places,  was  as  intolerant  as  the  most  servile  Jesuit, 
perverting  all  the  lessons  of  history  into  injunctions  of  persecution. 
Louis  XV.  himself,  while  surpassing  in  licentiousness  even  the 
infamous  example  of  his  predecessor,  and  while  in  every  act  of  his 
life  disowning  all  the  obligations  of  religion,  was  as  desirous  as 
his  great-grandfather  had  been  to  purchase  the  connivance  of  the 
priests  at  his  profligacy  by  sanctioning  the  hunting  down  of  men 
whose  lives  were  admitted  to  be  blameless,  and  who  had  long 
ceased  to  give  the  slightest  grounds  for  accusing  them  of  disloyalty. 
The  regent  indeed,  if  he  had  had  the  firmness  to  carry  out  his  own 
convictions  of  what  was  best  for  the  interests  of  the  country,  would 
not  only  have  put  a  stop  to  all  persecution,  but  would  have  en- 
deavoured to  bring  back  the  Huguenots  who  had  fled.  He  saw 
clearly  how  greatly  the  kingdom  had  suffered  from  the  flight  of  so 
many  of  its  producers  of  riches,  its  best  workmen,  and  projected 
the  establishment  of  a  Protestant  colony  at  Douai,  which  should 
be  allowed  the  free  exercise  of  its  religion.  Such  a  measure  he 
secretly  believed  to  be  favorable  to  his  own  interest  also,  since 
for  private  objects  he  was  anxious  for  the  friendship  of  George  I., 
and  justly  thought  that  no  circumstance  could  tend  so  much  to 
render  an  alliance  with  him  popular  among  the  English  people  as 
the  knowledge  of  his  showing  indulgent  toleration  to  their  fellow 
Protestants.  But  some  of  his  most  trusted  advisers  opposed  the 
idea  so  vehementlj'-,  that  he  abandoned  it.  The  old  laws  were 
suffered  to  remain  in  force ;  and,  throughout  the  reign  of  Louis 
XV.  the  fate  of  the  Huguenots,  in  the  different  parts  of  the  king- 
dom, depended  chiefly  on  the  disposition  of  the  governors  of  each 
province.  It  was  but  too  characteristic  of  the  tyrannical  narrow- 
mindedness  of  his  father  that,  of  all  those  great  officers,  the  most 
barbarous  was  the  Duke  of  Berw  the  son  of  James  II.  of  Eng- 
land and  Arabella  Churchill.  He  was  governor  of  Guienne  ;  and  as 
burning  detached  houses  and  surprising  small  bands  of  secret 
worshippers  was  a  process  too  slow  to  satisfy-  his  ferocious  bigotry,  he 
proposed  to  renew  the  horrors  of  8t.  Bartholomew,  and  to  march 
through  the  whole  province  at  the  head  of  his  troop  ^,  massacreing 
every  Huguenot  without  mercy,  and  thus  extinguishing  the  Re- 
formation in  that  beautiful  but  stubborn  region.     Such  a  proposal 


A.D.  1705.]  GRADUAL  CESSATION  OF  PEESECUTION.      283 

shocked  even  the  worthless  and  careless  Orleans ;  but  the  royal 
authority  was  too  weak  to  impose  much  restraint  on  the  governors 
of  distant  provinces ;  and  though  the  regent  enjoined  modera- 
tion, and  forbad  the  prosecution  of  any  but  the  preachers^  Berwick 
laid  hands  on  all  the  congregations  which  he  could  discover, 
and  compelled  the  obsequious  judges  at  Bordeaux  to  send  the 
entire  companies  to  the  galleys.  The  Duke  de  Richelieu,  the 
plunderer  of  Hanover,  was  as  merciless  in  Languedoc  as  Berwick 
had  been  in  Guienne.  But  by  the  last  ten  or  twelve  years  of  the 
reign,  the  Jesuits,  who  had  throughout  been  the  chief  instigators 
of  and  agents  in  persecution,  had  become  so  universally  unpopular 
that  their  exhortations  were  less  regarded  ;  some  recent  executions 
had  been  at  once  so  atrocious  in  their  barbarity,  and  so  absurd  in 
the  pretences  alleged  for  them,  as  to  attract  the  notice  of  Voltaire, 
who,  utterly  indifferent  to  religion  and  decency,  as  his  whole 
career  proved  him,  was  nevertheless  on  most  occasions  a  zealous 
and  enlightened  advocate  of  freedom  and  humanity ;  he  took  up 
the  cause  of  the  victims,  and  pursued  those  to  whom  they  owed 
their  death,  with  a  combination  of  invective  and  ridicule  which 
even  men  with  justice  and  reason  on  their  side  would  have  found 
it  hard  to  encounter  ;  and  which  the  oppressors  of  the  Huguenots 
found  so  irresistible  that,  from  that  time  forth  religious  prosecutions 
ceased ;  and  for  the  rest  of  the  life  of  Louis  XV.,  and  during  the 
entire  reign  of  Louis  XVL,  the  Huguenots  enjoyed  a  practical 
toleration ;  though  it  was  not  till  the  close  of  the  Revolution, 
and  the  promulgation  of  the  Cliarter,  b}'  Louis  XVIII.  that  reli- 
gious freedom  was  established  in  France  as  a  principle  of  the 
Constitution.^ 

*  The  authorities  for  this  chapter,  d'Anquetil ;  Memoirs  of  St.-Simon, 

besides  the  regular  French  Histories,  of  Villars,  of  Berwick  ;    Sir   James 

are  Voltaire  s*  Steele  de  Louis  XIV.,'  Stephen's     Lectures;   Madame    de 

^ Louis  XI V.  la  Conr  et  la  licgence,''  o^  FeVigne's  I^ettres,  &c. 


284  MODEKN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1532. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 
A.D.  1570—1697. 

HENRY,   Hichelieu,   and  Louvois  were   desirous,   as  French 
statesmen,  to  depress  the  House  of  Austria,  in  order  to  found 
the  pre-eminence  of  their  own  country  on  its  humiliation ;  but  for 
many  years  the  Empire  had  an  equally,  if  not  more  formidable, 
l\x>%^,..^^      enemy  on  its  eastern  side.     The  Turks,  always  anxious  to  extend 
r*       )      their  dominion  in  Europe,  even  before  they  had  vanquished  Con- 
"^  ^^*-v^  stantinople,  had  penetrated   into  Servia,  and  had  laid  siege  to 
Belgrade.     That  cit)',  long  the  continued  object  of  their  attacks, 
held  them  at  bay  with  admirable  valour  and  constancy  for  seventy 
years ;   but,   in  the   meantime,  they  had   penetrated   into  Styria, 
Illyria,  and  to  the  frontiers  of  Austria  itself,  and  by  the  beginning 
of  the  sixteenth  century  had  become  so  formidable  to  Christendom, 
p  "    that  the  Emperor  Maximilian  was  not  without  the  hope  that  the 

"^    0  feeling  of  common  danger  would  induce  all  the  chief  Christian 

,^jt3^      "     States  to  unite  under  his   leadership   in  a  crusade  against  the 
^  &*^  Infidel.     The  project  was  formally  sanctioned  by  the  Pope,  but, 
^^^vk*.'-»*7    before  any  steps  could  be  taken  to  carry  it  out,  Maximilian  died  ; 
/     and,  while  the  first  movements  of  the  Reformation  distracted  the 
1^  ^jLj  attention  of  all  the  Christian  princes,  the  animosities  which  arose 

'  between  the  new  Emperor  and  Francis  compelled  the  concentration 
t>^»7^i  ,  of  all  the  resources  of  the  Empire  on  that  contest.  Profiting  by 
/  these  distractions,  Solyman  the  Magnificent  at  last  effected  the 
reduction  of  Belgrade ;  and,  in  the  year  after  Charles  triumphed 
over  his  rival  at  Pavia,  the  irresistible  Sultan  inflicted  a  still  more 
decisive  defeat  on  Lewis,  king  of  Hungary,  at  Mohacz,  Lewis 
himself  being  slain,  and  many  of  the  chief  cities  and  most  im- 
portant fortresses  in  the  kingdom  being  among  the  fruits  of  the 
victory.  Charles's  brother,  Ferdinand,  who  by  an  old  settlement 
of  the  crown,  now  became  king  of  Hungary  and  Bohemia,  found 
that  he  had  succeeded  to  an  inheritance  of  war,  which  threatened 
ihe  very  heart  of  the  Empire  when,  three  years  later,  the  con- 
queror, pusliing  on,  invested  Vienna  itself.  But  the  reduction  of 
that  city  was  an  enterprise  beyond  his  power :  he  was  repulsed, 
with  no  trifling  loss;  while  the  danger  to  which  his  capital  had 


A.-D.  1545.]  AGGEESSIONS  OF  THE  TURKS.  285 

been  exposed  stimulated  Charles,  relieved  as  he  was  for  a  time 
from  all  fears  from  France,  to  exert  his  whole  strenj^th  to  deliver 
his  dominions  and  those  of  his  brother  from  future  attacks.  Rais- 
ing a  vast  army  of  above  100,000  men,  in  the  autumn  of  1632,  he 
drove  Solyman  back  to  Constantinople ;  and  the  Sultan,  sagacious 
enough  to  recognise  his  inability  to  cope  with  the  undivided  might 
of  such  a  sovereign,  waited  contentedly  till  a  renewal  of  hostilities 
between  the  Christian  princes  should  present  him  with  a  more 
favorable  opportunity  for  renewing  his  own  enterprises.  As  he 
foresaw,  he  had  not  long  to  wait.  Francis,  caring  far  less  for 
differences  of  faith  than  for  vengeance  on  the  Emperor,  even  sought 
his  alliance ;  and,  strengthened  by  the  support  of  such  a  con- 
federate, Solyman  again  bore  the  banner  of  the  Crescent  to  the 
banks  of  the  Danube,  overran  Hungary  almost  without  resistance, 
and  in  1545  had  the  singular  triumph  of  reducing  Ferdinand  to 
submit  to  hold  a  portion  of  his  kingdom  as  a  vassal  and  tributary 
of  his  throne,  and  to  leave  its  southern  provinces  in  his  hands. 
But  such  a  treaty  was  not  likely  to  last  longer  than  it  might  suit 
the  conqueror  to  observe  it.  Twenty  years  afterwards,  the  Sultan 
again  marched  against  Vienna ;  but,  being  delayed  by  the  resist- 
ance of  some  inferior  fortresses,  died  while  still  at  a  distance  from 
that  city.  His  death,  however,  produced  no  change  in  the  policy 
of  his  nation.  His  successor  Selim,  at  the  first  moment  of  his 
accession,  did  indeed  conclude  a  treaty  with  the  Emperor  Maxi- 
milian II.,  by  which  he  restored  to  him  some  considerable  districts 
of  Ilungar.y  which  his  father  had  held,  but  it  was  soon  seen  that 
any  expectations  of  his  general  moderation  which  were  founded  on 
this  transaction  were  delusive ;  and  that  the  new  Sultan's  sole 
object  was  to  gain  time  to  make  other  acquisitions  which  he  re- 
garded as  more  important  for  the  consolidation  of  his  dominions, 
and  consequently  for  future  warfare  in  any  direction. 

Solyman  had  not  limited  his  ambition  to  conquests  in  the  west.  ^JLa^    'd 
He  had  stretched  out  an  equally  aggressive  grasp  towards  the  ^     -    ^^ 
east ;  and,  almost  at  the  same  time  that  he  had  made  himself  '''^'y 
master  of  Belgrade,  he  had  expelled  the  Knights  of  St.  John  from  a 
lib  odes,  and  had  made  himself  master  of  that  island,  whose  mili-  C-v-v*^ . 
tary  importance  was  proved  by  the  stout  and  protracted  resistance  .    -^    i  J'^ 
that  the  small  and  unassisted  garrison  made  to  his  apparently  ^^      ^   2 
overwhelming  host.     Pursuing  his  policy,  Seiim  directed  his  first 
efforts  to  the  task  of  wresting  from  Venice  the  still  more  valuable 
island  of  Cyprus,  which  she  had  acquired,  by  a  strange  mixture  of 
violence  ancl  chicanery,  nearly  a  century  before,  but  of  which  her 
possession  had  been  confirmed  by  repeated  treaties,  and  to  which 
no  other  government  could  pretend  a  more  legitimate  claim.     But 
Venire  had  greatly  declined  in  power  since  she  first  became  its 


vt^c^ 


286  MODERN   HISTOEY.  [a.d.  1570. 

mistress.  The  fair  island,  wbicli  for  its  exquisite  and  varied 
beauty  the  poets  of  old  had  assigned  to  Venus  as  her  peculiar 
domain,  though  reft  of  the  protection  of  the  Queen  of  Love,  was 
still  rich  in  the  less  sentimental  attractions  of  vineyards,  olive 
gardens,  cornfields,  and  copper  mines  ;  and  full  of  resources  both 
Vf  -ji  for  commerce  and  war,  from  her  convenient  harbours  and  well- 
**  j\  armed  fortresses.  Selim  now  claimed  it  as  a  territory  whose 
situation  manifestly  pointed  it  out  as  belonging  of  right  to  the 
sovereign  of  Constantinople ;  and,  in  the  winter  of  1569,  declared 
war  against  Venice  without  alleging  any  ground  of  complaint 
against  the  Republic ;  and  at  once  began  to  equip  a  vast  armament 
whose  destination  was  announced  to  be  Nicosia,  the  capital  of  the 
island.  The  intelligence  excited  general  indignation,  but  equally 
general  consternation  in  Venice.   The  Queen  of  the  Adriatic,  still 

Sate  ia  state,  throned  on  her  hundred  isles  ;  ^ 

but  it  was  but  'a  dying  glory  that  smiled  over'  them;  and  she 
had  already  lost  much  of  the  power  which,  in  the  days  of  the 
Crusades,  had  led  all  Europe  voluntarily  to  own  her  supremacy  aa 
*  Mistress  of  the  Seas,^  and  had  given  her  doge  the  proud  oppor- 
tunity of  refusing  the  Imperial  crown,  and  the  dominion  over  Con- 
stantinople itself.^  The  last  century  had  been  an  age  of  constant 
war  with  the  Sultan,  and  of  almost  equally  unvarying  defeat, 
humiliation,  and  loss  of  territory.  There  had  been  times  when 
the  capital  itself  did  not  seem  safe  from  attack ;  and,  thirty  years 
before,  Solyman  had  stripped  her  of  her  last  remaining  strongholds 
in  the  Archipelago  and  on  the  mainland  of  the  Morea.     Even  to 

^  '^  **"  herself  it  was  plain  that  her  unassisted  strength  was  insufficient  to 
A  preserve  Cyprus,  the  most  valuable,  as  it  was  nearly  the  last,  of 

40t>^ a^tfr^^^y,  (jistant  settlements :  but  it  was  also  plain  that  other  powers 

I^T^  ^,were  almost  equally  interested  in  preventing  the  Infidel  from 
becoming  absolute  master  of  the  whole  of  the  Levant.     In  her 

^-C-^*  extremity  she  appealed  to  all  the  potentates  of  Christendom  for  aid ; 
and  her  appeal  was  supported  by  a  patron  who,  though  among  the 
weakest  of  princes  in  warlike  power,  had  still  a  potential  influence 
in  the  councils  of  many  mightier  states.  It  was  but  an  unpropj- 
tious  time  to  invite  the  kingdoms  of  the  west  to  an  arduous  war, 

7/  when  all  were  agitated  and  tm-nlBy  internaFdiVrsions ;  when  the 

States  which  made  up  the  German  Empire  were  all  regarding  one 
another  with  distrust  and  animosity ;  when  civil  war  had  for  ten 
years  been  raging  in  France ;  and  when  the  resources  of  Spain, 

'  Byron,  Childe  Harold,  iv,  1. 
2  Villehardouin,  quoted  by  Gibbon.  3  Gibbon,  chap.  Ixi. 


A.D.  1570.]      PHILIP  II.  UNITES  WITH  VENICE.  287 

great  as  lliey.  were,  were  already  taxed  to  the  utmost  by  the 
contest  with  the  Morescoes  in  the  Peninsula  and  the  revolt  of  the 
Netherlands.     From  Germany,  or  from  France,  no  aid  was  to  be 
obtained ;  but  with  Philip  deference  for  the  Romish  See  was  a  V^. 
powerful  principle ;  and,  when  the  envoy  sent  by  Pius  V.  to  urge  ^^^^•''*^*^ 
him  to   unite  in  a  League  which,  as  being  designed  to  curb  the  C^-i^JL 
encroachments  of  the  Infidel,  would   have  something  of  a  holy 
character,  arrived  at  the  Spanish  court,  he  unhesitatingly  gave  his  k>L««^   *. 
consent,  and,  narrow-minded  tyrant  as  his  general  career  showed   if  - 

him,  on  this  occasion  adopted   a   policy  at   once  farsighted  and   '-*-i''V'*i-A«. 
generous.  He  had  sagacity  to  perceive  that  no  power  was  as  deeply 
concerned  as  Spain  in  preventing  the  Ottoman  fleet  from  becoming 
supreme  in  the  Mediterranean  :  that,  if  a  stand  were  to  be  made 
against  such  a  danger,  it  could  never  be  made  with  such  a  probability  ^Ll>i;^ 
of  success  as  while  the  Venetians  were  both  willing  and  able  to  b 

unite  in  it :  and  that,  if  the  llepublic  were  stripped  of  her  trans-  X. 
marine    possessions,  her  power   of  resistance   would  be   greatly         **-j<'*'** 
abridged,  even  if  her  zeal  were  not  quenched  by  the  feeling  that  ^^^^^  '^ 
she  had  no  objects  of  her  own  to  fight  for.     The  character,  too,  of 
the  Champion  of  Christianity,  with  which  his  placing  himself  at 
the  head  of  the  confederacy  to  which  Pius  invited  him,  would 
invest  him,  was  not  without  its  attractions  for  his  mind ;  and, 
under  the  influence  of  these  feelings,  he  not  only  signified  his 
willingness  to  become  a  member  of  the  projected  League  against 
the  Infidel,  but  anticipated  the  discussion  of  the  necessary  arrange- 
ments, by  at  once  sending  a  powerful  fleet  to  sea,  under  the  com-  (\i^_,t_^^^ 
mand  of  the  great  Genoese,  Andrew  Doria,  at  that  time  the  most  J  . 

renowned  sea-captain  in  Europe.     Doria  was  speedily  joined  by  a  C^    A^^ 
Venetian  and  a  Roman  squadron  ;    but  at  Crete  their  combined  y 

fleets  were  met  by  intelligence  of  the  fall  of  Nicosia,  which  a  few 
days  before  had  been  stormed  by  the  Turks,  and  sacked  with  the 
most  atrocious  cruelty.     And  as  so  rapid  a  success  proved  the 
Turkish  force  to  be  stronger  than  had  been  supposed,  Doria  and 
his  colleagues  returned  home,  and  the  next  winter  was  devoted  to  .      ' 
the  making  of  more  extensive  preparations.     Philip  had  some  diffi-  ^^^-/ff^'^ 
culty  in  keeping  Venice  faithful  to  the  alliance,  though  it  had  been         ^         . 
originally  concluded  for  her  own  defence.    Always  treacherous,  she  (v^    h^ 
was  also  easily  intimidated,  and  was  now  so  dismayed  at  the  first  ^^^ 
success  of  the  enemy,  that  she  would  willingly  have  entered  into  a    •^••'''1** 
secret  negotiation  at  Constantinople ;  nor  was  it  till  she  found  her- 
self unable  to  make  separate  terms  with  the  enemy,  that  she  could 
resolve  to  put  forth  the  exertions  required  by  the  magnitude  of 
the  contest,  and  of  her  own  interests  which  were  at  stake  upon 
its  issue.     Philip,  on  the  other  hand,  was  only  the  more  convinced  \\XAjX^  jl^ 
by  the  fate  of  Nicosia  of  the  vital  necessity  of  at  once  arresting  ^ 


m.tA^    <^^- 


288  MODERN   HISTORY.  [a.d.  1571. 

the   furtlier  progress   of  the   conqueror.     And  his  resources   for 
prosecuting  the  next  campaign  were  increased ;  since  the  same 
autumn  which  saw  the  triumph  of  the  Infidel  in  Cyprus,  witnessed 
also  the  conquest  and  submission  of  the  Morescoes  in  his  own 
dominions;  and  he  could  now  employ  his  illegitimate  brother, 
pon  John  of  Austria,  to  whose  vigour  and  capacity  their  subju- 
^  CiM'*ik^'<*«»^a,tion  was  generally  attributed,  as  the  commander-in-chief  in  this 
-     ^^j^,^^^^^^  more  formidable  warfare.     It  was  a  politic  selection.     Young  as 
^^  he  was,  he  had  not   yet  seen  his  twenty-fourth  birthday,  Don 

tJ^^j^^'^f   John  had  already  won  not  only  a  splendid  renown,  but  universal 
•  popularity  by  his  union  of  chivalrous  gallantry  with  the  most 

engaging  affability  and  cordiality  of  manner.  And  his  appoint- 
ment at  once  excited  a  general  enthusiasm,  which  prompted  the 
most  celebrated  captains,  and  nobles  of  the  most  azure  blood,  to 
seek  to  serve  under  his  banner. 

The  force  to  be  placed  under  the  prince's  command  was  to  be 
worthy  of  such  a  leader.  Throughout  the  winter,  every  port  in 
Spain,  and  in  all  the  Spanish  dependencies,  in  Campania,  and 
Sicily  resounded  with  the  din  of  preparation.  Venice  was  not  less 
active ;  and  before  the  end  of  the  next  summer  an  armament  was 
assembled  to  await  his  arrival  at  Messina,  such  as  had  never  been 
seen  in  Europe  since  the  preachings  of  Peter  and  of  Bernard 
,^A4^^„_^  united  emperors  and  kings  in  the  attempt  to  wrest  the  sepulchre 
of  their  Lord  from  the  Saracens.  Ninety  royal  galleys,  with  sails 
and  oars,  answering  to  the  ships  of  the  line  of  more  modern  days, 
with  nearly  as  many  smaller  vessels,  were  the  Spanish  contingent. 
The  Venetian  galleys  were  even  more  numerous,  though  less 
strongly  built,  and  less  completely  equipped ;  and,  they  provided 
also  six  vessels  of  extraordinary  size,  called  goleazze,  each  armed 
with  forty  guns,  of  a  calibre  never  previously  seen,  on  the  execution 
to  be  done  by  which  they  placed  great  reliance.  The  substantial 
contribution  of  the  Pope  to  the  expedition  was  but  small :  he 
could  but  man  twelve  galleys,  which  were  lent  him  for  the  purpose 
*^ -Cm.  —  by  the  Venetians;  but  he  was  prodigal  of  those  spiritual  aids  and 
encouragements  which  were  supposed  to  fortify  every  portion  of 
it,  and  to  impart  redoubled  vigour  to  every  arm ;  every  individual 
of  the  mighty  host  was  protected  from  purgatory  and  hell  by  the 
Papal  blessing ;  a  nuncio,  sent  to  Messina  for  the  purpose, 
proclaimed  a  plenary  remission  of  sins  to  all  engaged ;  while  the 
chief  himself  was  honoured  with  the  special  gift  of  a  consecrated 
standard,  the  banner  of  the  Cross,  which  was  to  be  borne  at  his 
masthead,  and  which  was  to  secure  him  the  victory  in  every 
conflict. 

So  much  time  was  necessarily  consumed  in  the  equipment  of  so 
mighty  an  armament^  that  it  was  not  till  the  middle  of  September 


Y^*^ 


A.D.  1571.]         ,  THE  BATTLE   OF  LEPANTO.  289 

lo71  that  Don  John  quitted  the  Sicilian  harbour  to  seek  for  his  » 
foe.  Meanwhile  that  foe  had  not  been  idle.  The  Sultan  had  aug-  ^^  ^  "^^ 
mented  his  fleet  also,  till  it  exceeded  that  of  the  Christians  in 
number ;  and,  as  he  was  ready  for  action  first,  he  had  employed  it 
during  the  summer  in  ravaging  the  Venetian  territories  which  lay 
along  the  northern  coast  of  the  Adriatic.  It  had  j  ust  returned  to 
theJVIorea,Jaden  with  booty ;  and,  as  a  squadron  of  light  vessels 
which  Don  John  had  sent  out  for  intelligence  reported,  was  now 
lying  in  the  Gulf  of  Lepanto,  as  if  in  wait  to  fall  on  the  allies  as 
soon  as  they  should  appear  in  the  open  sea.  Don  John  determined 
to  anticipate  the  attack,  and  to  seek  his  enemy  where  he  lay,  never 
doubting  of  victory,  and  j  udging  that  the  narrowness  of  the  strait 
which  led  into  the  gulf  would  render  it  the  more  complete  by  pre- 
venting the  escape  of  any  disabled  vessels.  As  he  drew  near  the 
Greek  coast,  fresh  tidings  reached  him  to  add  fuel  to  his  courage. 
The  Turks  had  never  intermitted  their  operations  in  Cyprus : 
they  had  just  taken  Famagosta,  the  second  city  in  the  island, 
and  Mustapha,  their  victorious  general,  had  flayed  its  chief  com- 
mander, Bragadino,  alive;  and,  having  stuffed  his  skin,  had  sailed 
to  Constantinople,  with  the  horrid  trophy  dangling  at  his  yardarm, 
in  token  of  his  triumph.  A  Christian  knight  might  well  think  it 
a  pious  duty  to  chastise  to  extermination  a  band  of  monsters 
capable  of  aggravating  the  horrors  of  war  by  such  savage  bar- 
barity ;  and,  with  greater  eagerness  than  ever,  the  Christian  arma- 
ment pressed  onwards  to  the  battle. 

Day  had  scarcely  dawned  on  the  seventh  of  October  when  the 
leading  Spanish  vessels  entered  the  Gulf,  and  came  in  sight  of  the 
Turkish  fleet,  arrayed,  as  was  the  fashion  of  their  nation,  in  the  jTT^  V^^^^J 
form  of  a  half-moon,  and,  as  the  first  glance  revealed,  far  more''^^  ^'^vy'*^ 
numerous  and  powerful  than  previous  information  had  led  Don  fj^/*"^ 
John  to  expect.  Two  hundred  and  fifty  large  galleys,  with  a  pro- 
portionate number  of  smaller  craft,  matined,  including  soldiers,  by 
120,000  men,  presented  a  deep  line,  above  three  miles  in  length. 
Its  commander-in-chief  was  Ali  Pasha,  whose  comparative  youth 
rendered  him  more  accessible  to  feelings  of  humanity  than  was 
usual  among  his  countrymen ;  thougli  it  had  not  prevented  him 
from  acquiring  a  renown  equal  to  that  of  the  most  hardened 
veterans :  Sirocco,  the  viceroy  of  Egypt,  whose  more  mature  pru- 
dence was  designed  to  temper  the  ardour  of  his  leader,  commanded 
the  right  wing:  the  left  was  entrusted  to  Uluck  Ali,  Dey  or 
Prince  of  the  corsairs  who  had  made  Algiers  the  terror  of  the 
Mediterranean,  and,  as  such,  skilful,  fearless,  insatiable,  and  piti- 
less. The  Christian,  like  the  Turkish  fleet,  was  marshalled  in 
three  divisions.  Don  John  had  already  proved  himself  worthy  of 
his  post,  by  the  timely  judgment  with  which  he  had  arranged  his 
14 


\aA  A»-e-«o 


290  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1571. 

plan  of  battle.  Like  our  own  Nelson,  ages  afterwards,  at  the 
Nile,  he  had  furnished  every  one  of  his  captains  with  distinct  in- 
structions for  his  conduct,  and  for  the  placing  of  his  ship :  so  that 
each  had  had  time  to  consider  and  thoroughly  to  comprehend  the 
part  allotted  to  him.  He  himself  led  on  the  centre  :  Barbarigo, 
of  Venice,  commanded  the  left  wing :  Doria,  whose  life  had  been 
spent  in  conflict  with  the  African  pirates,  was  opposed  to  Uluck 
Ali,  on  the  right :  while  Don  Alvaro  de  Bazan,  marquis  of  Santa 
Cruz,  had  thirty-five  of  the  fastest  vessels  entrusted  to  him,  as  a 
squadron  of  reserve,  to  succour  any  part  of  the  line  that  might 
require  assistance.  The  whole  force  was  slightly  inferior  in 
number  to  the  Infidels.  The  galleys  did  not  exceed  210.  The 
crews,  including  29,000  soldiers,  were  fewer  by  10,000  than  those 
under  the  command  of  the  Pasha.  But  they  had  one  great  advan- 
tage ;  they  were  all  armed  with  arquebuses,  while  the  majority  of 
the  Turks  had  no  missile  weapons  but  bows  and  arrows  j  and,  slo  v 
and  irregular  as  the  discharge  of  fire-arms  was  in  those  days,  yet 
their  superiority  in  range  and  efficacy  was  more  than  sufficient,  so 
long  as  the  combatants  were  at  a  distance  from  each  other,  to 
counterbalance  the  disparity  of  numbers. 

Very  different  was  the  feeling  which  seemed  to  animate  the 
hostile  armaments  as  they  drew  near  to  each  other.  The  Moslems 
greeted  the  advance  of  the  allies  with  the  shrill  menacing  yells 
which  were  their  national  war-cry.  Don  John,  full  of  the  ardent 
devotion  which  was  one  of  the  principles  of  true  chivalry,  threw 
himself  on  his  knees,  and  offered  up  a  brief  prayer  to  the  Saviour, 
that  he  would  on  that  day  aid  his  people  against  those  who  scoffed 
JjL  PjLLJi  .^^  ^^^  name.  The  whole  crew  of  the  flagship,  the  Real,  followed 
^^^iiis  example  :  it  was  imitated  in  every  ship  of  the  fleet :  for  a  few 
moments  every  voice  but  that  of  prayer  was  hushed :  every  hand  was 
raised  to  heaven  in  supplication  :  and,  when  the  worshippers  rose 
from  their  knees,  they  perceived  that  their  orison  had  already 
found  favour  with  the  Almighty,  and  that  the  wind,  which  had 
hitherto  been  unfavorable,  had  changed  at  the  very  instant  ot 
their  prayer,  and  was  now  bearing  them  rapidly  down  upon  the 
wondering  enemy. 

As  soon  as  they  came  within  range  a  heavy  fire  was  opened 
upon  them  along  the  whole  of  the  Turkish  line ;  but  Don  John 
pressed  vigorously  forward  without  regarding  it,  trusting  to  make 
an  impression  on  the  enemy's  centre  by  resolute  hard  fighting, 
while  he  left  his  lieutenants  to  manoeuvre  on  the  wings.  There  the 
fortune  of  the  day  was  chequered,  and  for  some  time  equally 
balanced.  Sirocco,  on  the  right,  passing  between  the  northern  shore 
and  Barbarigo's  squadron,  turned  that  division,  placing  it  between 
two    foes;   Barbarigo  was    killed,  and   several  Venetian  galleys 


jfe'Vty*^^) 


A.D.  1571.]  THE  BATTLE  OF  LEPANTO.  291 

were  taken  or  sunk.  But,  when  Uluck  Ali  attempted  a  similar 
manoeuvre  on  the  left,  he  was  baffled  by  Doria ;  and  though  the 
gallant  Genoese  could  not  prevent  the  redoubted  corsair  from  cap- 
turing one  large  Maltese  galley,  and  from  sinking  more  than  one 
of  her  consorts,  he  fought  on  so  stoutly,  that  he  gained  time  for 
Santa  Cruz  to  come  to  his  aid  with  a  portion  of  the  reserve ;  and 
their  combined  exertions  speedily  restored  the  battle  in  that 
quarter,  retaking  the  prizes,  and  putting  Uluck  Ali  himself  to 
flight.  But  it  was  on  blows  to  be  dealt  in  the  centre  that  the 
fate  of  the  day  depended  ;  and  each  commander  felt  that  to  be  the 
case,  and  singled  out  the  other  as  the  one  antagonist  whose  over- 
throw would  at  once  crown  him  with  victory.  Scarcely  regarding 
what  was  taking  place  on  either  side,  they  drove  their  huge 
galleys  right  against  each  other  with  such  a  shock  that  disabled 
several  banks  of  oars  in  the  Il^al,  which  was  the  smaller  of  the 
two ;  and  then,  as  they  fell  on  board  one  another,  the  fiercest  con- 
flict of  tlie  day  began  ;  for  among  the  pasha's  crew  was  a  picked 
band  of  Janissaries,  armed  with  muskets,  like  the  prince's  body- 
guard ;  and  both  kept  up  an  incessant  fire,  though  it  was  soon 
seen  that  the  Spaniards  were  the  more  rapid  and  the  more  ac- 
curate marksmen.  Twice  the  Spaniards  tried  to  board:  twice 
they  were  repulsed  with  terrible  slaughter;  Don  John  himself 
being  slightly  wounded.  They  were  making  a  third  attempt,  and 
Ali  in  person  was  heading  those  who  were  striving  to  beat  them 
back,  when  a  musket-ball  struck  him  on  the  head.  His  fall  dis- 
heartened his  own  men,  while  it  redoubled  the  ardour  of  his 
assailants.  The  Spaniards  won  the  deck.  A  second  wound 
terminated  the  sufferings  and  exertions  of  the  pasha,  whom  Don 
John  would  gladly  have  saved.  His  standard,  a  sacred  banner, 
covered  all  over  with  texts  from  the  Koran  and  countless  repe- 
titions of  the  name  of  Allah  emblazoned  in  gold,  was  hauled  down 
from  his  masthead,  while  an  ensign  of  the  Cross  was  hoisted  in 
its  stead,  announcing  to  both  fleets  the  triumph  of  those  whose 
symbol  it  was,  and  striking  dismay  into  the  one,  while  it  rendered 
the  other  con 6  dent  and  irresistible.  The  Turkish  centre  was  now 
easily  broken.  The  Venetians,  who,  in  spite  of  the  death  of  their 
admiral,  had  fought  on  stubbornly, redoubled  their  efforts.  Sirocco's 
flagship  was  sunk,  and  he  himself  was  slain;  and  his  whole 
squadron  scattered  and  routed.  And,  when  the  battle  had  lasted 
four  hours,  no  portion  of  the  Infidel  fleet  was  unsubdued,  but  the 
squadron  of  the  Algerine,  who,  now  hoisting  all  sail,  fled  from  the 
Gulf;  and  though  Doria,  and  Santa  Cruz,  and  Don  John  himself 
pursued  him,  they  could  but  drive  a  few  of  his  vessels  on  shore, 
and  could  not  prevent  the  main  body,  consisting  of  about  40  galleys, 
from  passing  the  straits  in  safety.     But,  with  the  exception  of 


292  MODEKN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1571. 

that  squadron,  not  one  vessel  of  the  vast  Turkish  host  escaped. 

.  j^  130  galleys  surrendered  ;  eighty  w^ere  sunk  or  burnt ;  the  number 

****^  '^'^     of  the  slain  was  countless ;  the  prisoners  amounted  to  5,000  ;  and, 

^  a  prize  far  more  gratifying  than  any  number  of  Infidel  captives  or 

victims,  12,000  Christian  slaves,  who  had  been  chained  to  the 

oars  of  the  Moslem  galleys,  were  now  delivered  from  captivity  and 

bondage,  and  restored  to  their  homes. 

It  may  easily  be  supposed  that  the  intelligence  of  such  a  victory 
was  received  with  the  most  unbounded  exultation  in  every  country 
that  could  claim  a  share  in  it.     The  people  of  Messina  presented 
fi  the  victorious  prince   with   30,000   crowns,    (which  he  divided 

/V    tl»v>v)   ^™^°D  those  of  his  followers  who  had  been  wounded),  and  erected 
C^^v  a  bronze  statue  in  his  honour  at  the  entrance  of  their  harbour. 

/  -  The  Venetians  set  apart  the  anniversary  of  the  day  on  which  it 

was  won  as  a  solemn  festival  for  ever.  The  Pope,  though  avoid- 
ing the  blasphemy  with  which  his  successor  extolled  the  crime  of 
Clement,  was  excited  far  beyond  all  bounds  of  Apostolic  modera- 
tion, and  comparing  the  youthful  hero,  who  had  checked  the  pro- 
gress of  Mahometanism,  to  the  holy  Prophet  who  had  announced 
the  approach  of  the  Saviour,  exclaimed,  with  tears  of  rapture, 
^  There  was  a  man  sent  from  God  whose  name  was  John.'  The 
country  which  received  the  news  of  his  triumph  with  the  greatest 
moderation  was  Spain  itself.  Madrid  indeed  was  illuminated ; 
|.  f^J-  \  Philip  went  in  state  to  hear  mass  at  the  principal  cathedral,  and 
jVA-^^^TVa^*/  gave  a  prominent  place  in  his  gallery  to  a  picture  of  the  fight 
which  the  celebrated  Titian,  though  now  more  than  ninety  years 
of  age,  resumed  his  brush  to  paint.  But  in  his  heart,  the  king 
was  jealous  of  the  renown  which  his  brother  had  acquired;  and 
those  who  knew  the  court,  and  who  loved  Don  John,  sorrowfully 
foreboded  that  he  would  have  enjoyed  more  of  the  royal  favour, 
and  perhaps  of  the  royal  protection,  had  his  merit  and  popularity 
been  less  conspicuous.  Yet  Venice  did  not  at  the  moment  reap 
as  much  benefit  or  glory  from  the  victory  as  Spain.  Though  it 
,  had  so  broken  the  maritime  power  of  the  Sultan  that  her  terri- 

tories on  the  land  of  the  Adriatic  were  no  longer  liable  to  ravage, 
it  could  not  give  her  back  Cyprus.  But  to  Spain  it  at  once  trans- 
ferred the  renown  previously  enjoyed  by  the  Turkish  navy.  It 
established  the  fame  of  the  Spanish  sailors  as  invincible:  and  no 
one,  in  that  moment  of  triumph,  could  dream  that,  before  that 
generation  should  have  passed  away,  her  maritime  supremacy  would 
be  torn  from  her,  and  a  mightier  fleet  than  that  which  she  had  sent 
to  Lepanto  would  be  destroyed  by  a  nation  whose  sovereign  did 
not  yet  possess  a  single  score  of  ships  of  war. 

One  glory  indeed,  which  was  an  indirect  consequence  of  the 
great  battle  still  survives  to  her,  and  will  endure  as  long  as  the 


^At^wu*^ 


5/l«*i-. 


A.©.  1660.]  CERVANTES  IS  WOUNDED.  293 

admiration  of  genius  shall  exist  among  men.  As  a  few  years  before, 
a  wound  received  by  Ignacio  Loyola,  at  Pampeluna,  had  led  to 
the  foundation  of  the  Order  of  the  Jesuits,  so  now  a  shot  received  /^ 
in  the  hand  by  IVIiquel  de  Cervantes,  a  Spanish  gentleman,  which  -JUlA"^^^''^ 
disabled  him  from  following  the  profession  of  arras,  drove  him  to 
seek  a  livelihood  by  his  pen ;  and  to  give  to  the  world  the  immor- 
tal tale  of  Don  Quixote,  which  is  not  more  highly  esteemed  in  his 
native  land,  and  in  its  original  language,  than  it  is  in  every  other 
country  in  Europe,  though  in  the  form,  generally  so  little  favora- 
ble to  works  of  genius,  of  a  translation  :  every  nation  has  adopted 
it  as  its  own ;  and  the  severest  critics  have  pronounced  it  one  of 
the  few  books  which  every  one  wishes  to  be  longer. 

But,  heavy  as  was  the  blow  which  the  Turk  had  thus  received, 
he  was  not  yet  the  sick  man  that  those  who  covet  his  inheritance   C  *  j  . 

have  since  called  him.  He  had  not  been  so  disabled  by  it  as  to  ffhf^^*^ 
cease  to  be  a  dangerous  neighbour,  if  indeed  the  compulsion  to  f^  *^^.^, 
confine  his  principal  efforts  for  the  future  to  operations  on  land 
had  not  rendered  his  armies  more  formidable  than  ever.  His 
principal  enemy,  or,  it  would  be  more  correct  to  say,  the  chief 
object  of  his  attacks  was  the  Emperor ;  because,  as  the  Austrian 
dominions  all  along  their  southern  frontier  bordered  on  his  terri- 
tories, they  were  necessarily  the  most  exposed  to  his  aggression ; 
while  the  intrigues  and  commotions  which  for  many  years  agitated 
Hungary  and  Transylvania,  and  the  claims  of  different  usurpers 
and  pretenders  to  the  chief  authority  in  those  countries,  gave  him 
incessant  opportunities  of  interfering  in  their  affairs,  of  picking  or 
provoking  a  quarrel  with  the  Emperor.  It  is  a  shrewd  remark  of 
Montecuculi,  that  for  a  man  who  is  always  armed  opportunity  is 
never  bald,  but  has  always  a  forelock  by  which  she  can  be  grasped ; 
and  that  the  Turk  was  always  armed,  the  whole  constitution  of 
his  country  being  military.  The  consequence  was  that,  for  above 
a  century  after  Lepanto,  war,  constant  and  active,  or  intermittent 
and  languid,  kept  the  two  nations  in  a  continual  attitude  of 
mutual  hostility ;  in  which  the  Turks,  in  spite  of  the  intestine 
troubles,  which  during  the  earlier  part  of  the  seventeenth  century  ^  ^ 

distracted  their  empire,  gradually  gained  the  advantage,  at  one  /^^/a/<-<^^ 
time  even  establishing  such  a  superiority  that  they  again  com-    —  ^ 
pelled  the  Emperor  to  pay  tribute  for  some  of  the  Hungarian  pro-\}^   *-*'>^ 
viuces.     So  completely  indeed  was  enmity  recognised  as  the  sole  t  ^^_^  ^*     i 
relation  in  which  the  two  Empires  could  stand  to  each  other,  that  | 

even  the  treaties  which  they  occasionally  concluded  did  not  pro- 
fess to  establish  permanent  peace,  but  were  only  armistices,  or 
truces,  for  a  fixed  number  of  years,  the  fact  of  the  expiration  of 
which,  as  among  the  great  republics  of  old,  was  admitted  to  be 
a  sufficient  reason  for  the  renewal  of  war. 


294  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1660. 

For  many  years,  however,  no  events  occurred  of  sufficient  mag- 
nitude to  demand  any  particular  notice.  But  at  last,  in  1660,  a 
revival  of  civil  dissensions  in  Transylvania  led  to  the  renewal  of 
hostilities  on  a  greater  scale.  Ragotzky,  waiwode  of  that  princi- 
pality, and  prince  or  governor  of  several  of  the  eastern  provinces 
of  Hungary,  was  Idlled  in  battle  :  and  General  Kemeny,  who  was 
appointed  guardian  to  his  youthful  son,  proving  false  to  his  trust, 
deposed  his  lawful  sovereign  and  usurped  the  supreme  power, 
"Tland,  as  the  Emperor  was  the  admitted  sovereign  lord  of  his  Hun- 
'^  garian  possessions,  sought  and  obtained  his  sanction  to  the  usurpa- 
tion, as  prompted  and  ratified  by  the  free  choice  of  the  Transylva- 
nians  themselves.  Ragotzky's  family  appealed  to  the  Sultan  for 
protection.  The  fact  of  the  Emperor  supporting  Kemeny  was  suffi- 
cient to  determine  him  to  grant  it ;  and  as  the  vigour  of  the  grand 
vizier,  Kiupriuli,  had  by  this  time  completely  re-established  in- 
ternal tranquillity  throughout  the  Ottoman  dominions,  he  at  once 
sent  a  force  into  the  field,  which  he  had  reason  to  believe  would 
prove  irresistible.  In  the  spring  of  1661,  Kiupriuli  himself,  whose 
military  talents  were  supposed  to  be  fully  equal  to  his  civil  capa- 
city, invaded  Hungary  at  the  head  of  100,000  men,  expecting  to 
find  no  difficulty  in  overrunning  the  whole  country ;  but,  fortu- 
nately for  Christendom,  the  Emperor  had  in  his  service  at  this 
time  an  officer  whose  abilities  were  exactly  suited  to  the  emer- 
gency. Raymond,  count  of  Montecuculi,  was  a  Modenese  by 
birth ;  but,  as  that  petty  state  could  not  attord  him  the  opportuni- 
ties for  military  distinction  which  from  his  earliest  years  he  covet- 
ed, as  soon  as  he  amved  at  manhood  he  had  sought  employment 
in  the  Imperial  armies,  in  which  he  had  by  this  time  reached  the 
highest  rank.  A  diligent  student  of  the  classical  histories,  and  of 
the  campaigns  of  the  different  Greek  and  Roman  commanders,  he 
had  taken  Fabius  for  his  model ;  and  now,  on  receiving  the  ap- 
pointment of  commander-in-chief  of  the  army  on  the  Danube,  he 
joyfully  accepted  a  post  which  gave  him  the  opportunity  of  adapting 
the  arts  by  which  the  cautious  Roman  had  arrested  the  triumphs  of 
the  mighty  conqueror  of  Cannae  to  modern  warfare.  His  subsequent 
campaigns  against  Turenne  on  the  Rhine  seem  to  show  that  his 
genius  was  better  calculated  for  defensive  warfare  than  for  the 
conduct  of  aggressive  operations ;  but  few  men  have  had  a  greater 
demand  made  on  that  fertility  of  resource  and  fortitude  which  are 
required  to  make  a  stand  against  superior  forces,  than  his  present 
employment  imposed  on  Montecuculi.  For  the  army  which  was 
placed  under  his  orders  did  not  exceed  15,000  men :  the  promise 
of  reinforcements,  which  were  freely  made  to  him,  were  only  so 
many  hindrances  and  snares,  since  they  were  never  fulfilled : 
while,  to  add  to  his  difficulties,  the  Aulic  Council  of  War,  which 


A.D.  1C63.]    INTEEFEEENCE  OF  THE  AULIC  COUNCIL.     295 

sat  at  Vienna,  had  already  commenced  that  fatal  course  of  dic- 
tating to  its  generals  in  command  in  the  field  which,  in  different 
"wars,  has  been  the  cause  of  such  innumerable  calamities  to  the 
nation.  Yet,  in  the  three  campaigns  which  ensued,  he  never 
allowed  the  enemy  to  gain  any  important  advantage  over  him  ; 
and,  though  he  found  it  impossible  to  prevent  him  from  over- 
running some  districts,  and  capturing  several  towns  and  fortresses, 
yet  he  counterbalanced  these 'successes  by  more  than  one  acquisi- 
tion of  his  own,  and  by  inflicting  no  trifling  loss  on  the  Turks, 
through  the  skill  with  which  he  constantly  detained  them  in 
unfavorable  positions.  In  his  first  campaign,  taking  masterly 
advantage  of  the  march  of  their  main  body  into  Transylvania,  he 
drove  back  the  division  which  lay  in  front  of  him,  though 
larger  than  his  own  army,  beyond  the  Teiss :  and  delivered  the 
district  to  the  west  of  that  river  from  their  ravages.  The  next 
year,  though  at  its  very  .beginning  he  lost  his  ally  Kemeny,  who 
was  killed  in  a  trifling  skirmish  (his  death  being,  in  Montecuculi's 
opinion,  a  judgment  on  his  Calvinistic  belief  in  predestination),  he 
held  the  invaders  at  bay  throughout,  and  even  drove  them  to  attempt 
to  gain  their  ends  by  negotiation ;  which,  however,  had  his  advice 
been  taken,  would  never  have  been  entered  into.  But  it  was  not 
the  least  of  his  difficulties  that  the  prime  minister  at  Vienna, 
Prince  Portia,  was  credulous  enough  to  believe  in  the  possibility 
of  peace.  It  was  in  vain  that  the  general  assured  him  that  the 
Turk  aimed  at  nothing  less  than  '  the  monarchy  of  the  world ; ' 
and  that,  with  such  a  power,  '  a  good  war  was  to  be  preferred  to  a 
bad  peace.'  The  prince  was  bent  on  being  deluded ;  and,  trusting 
in  Kiupriuli's  sincerity,  in  the  autumn  of  1662  actually  detached 
some  of  the  best  troops  of  the  empire  into  Italy :  so  that  when,  at 
the  beginning  of  the  next  year,  a  Turkish  army  of  100,000  men 
crossed  the  Teiss,  under  Ali  Pasha,  Montecuculi  had  scarcely  6,000 
meu  available  to  oppose  to  them.  What  was  he  to  do  ?  In  his 
own  words,  He  protested,  he  obeyed,  he  sacrificed  himself.  He 
gave  up,  that  is  to  say,  all  his  hopes  of  increasing  his  reputation 
by  the  achievement  of  any  brilliant  exploit,  and  limited  his  ambi- 
tion to  that  of  saving  the  Empire,  and  of  maintaining  a  defensive 
position,  in  which,  as  he  was  well  aware,  the  consternation  with 
which  the  authorities  at  Vienna  regarded  the  advance  and  the 
strength  of  the  enemy  would  cause  the  slightest  mishap  to  be 
magnified  into  mortal  disaster,  for  '  Fear  is  the  microscope  for  all 
reverses,'  and  to  be  regarded  as  a  proof  of  his  own  incapacity. 
Yet,  out  of  these  discouraging  circumstances,  his  Fabian  tactics 
wrought  an  addition  to  his  renown.  He  took  up  a  position  at 
Altenburg,  a  small  town  between  Presburg  and  Raab,  where  the 
rivers  and  fortresses  around  prevented  the  enemy  from  either  sur- 


296  MODEKN  HISTOEY.  [ad.  1664. 

rounding  liim  or  ascertaining  his  strength ;  and  where  the  vicinity 
of  the  Danube  enabled  reinforcements  and  supplies  of  all  kinds  to 
be  forwarded  to  him  :  and  there  he  held  the  enemy  at  bay,  till,  in 
the  autumn,  he  fell  back  to  the  Isle  of  Schut ;  which,  in  his  judg- 
ment, was  a  still  more  favorable  position,  from  the  command 
which  it  gave  him  of  both  banks  of  the  river. 

He  was  thus  able  to  concert  and  combine  his  movements  with 
those  of  other  commanders,  who,  throughout  the  winter,  were  has- 
tening to  the  protection  of  the  capital ;  while  the  natural  advan- 
tages of  the  position  were  so  great  that,  even  when  the  enemy 
had  ascertained  the  weakness  of  his  force,  they  were  unable  to 
attack  it  with  advantage :  and  he  derived  some  encourage- 
ment from  seeing  how  little  the  grand  vizier  was  able  to  profit 
by  his  superiority  of  numbers.  He  had  reason  to  complain,  as 
in  his  Memoirs  he  does  complain,  that  the  Aulic  council  was  not 
more  judicious  than  the  vizier.  On  the  contrary,  the  members 
seemed  quite  unable  to  learn  from  experience ;  and  there  could 
hardly  be  a  greater  proof  of  their  incompetence  than  the  fact  that, 
inspite  of  his  own  extraordinary  success  in  baffling  the  enemy,  at 
the  opening  of  the  next  campaign  they  divided  his  command  ;  and, 
while  the  Turks  were  still  within  sight  of  Vienna  (for  the  Isle  of 
Schut  which  they  surrounded  is  barely  six  leagues  from  that 
city),  actually  detached  above  20,000  men  to  the  borders  of 
Styria.  But  the  commanders  of  that  force,  which  was  made  up 
of  troops  from  many  different  states,  quarrelled  among  themselves: 
their  disunion  ruined  all  their  operations,  and,  after  a  month  or 
two  had  been  wasted  in  continual  quarrels,  the  authorities  of 
Vienna  found  it  necessary  to  transfer  Montecuculi  to  the  command 
of  that  army,  that  he  might  restore  order  by  his  superior  authority. 
His  mere  arrival  at  head  quarters  was  sufficient,  since  all  deferred 
to  his  pre-eminent  talents.  And  he  had  reason  to  hope  for  a  more 
prosperous  issue  to  the  campaign,  since  he  had  hardly  joined  be- 
fore he  received  considerable  reinforcements  which  put  him  almost 
on  an  equality  in  point  of  numbers  with  the  enemy.  For  the 
danger  to  which  Vienna  had  been  exposed  in  the  preceding  winter 
had  roused  other  nations  to  exert  themselves  to  check  the  further 
progress  of  a  foe  who  seemed  to  threaten  all  Christendom.  The 
Pope,  with  most  of  the  Italian  princes,  and  the  king  of  Spain,  had 
sent  large  contributions  of  money,  and  supplies  of  various  kinds  ; 
while  the  king  of  France,  surmounting  his  habitual  jealousy  of  the 
Empire,  had  furnished  a  division  of  6,000  veteran  troops  under  the 
Marquis  de  la  Feuillade.  By  the  middle  of  July  Montecuculi  had 
60,000  men  under  his  banner,  a  force  not  very  inferior  in  number 
to  that  of  the  Pasha,  though  the  advantages  of  position  were  not 
now  on  his  side.    The  Turkish  commander-in-chief  was  Ali  Pftsha, 


A.D.  1664.]        THE  BATTLE  OF  ST.  GOTHAED.  297 

a  general  of  greater  skill  and  enterprise   than  Kiupriuli.      And  /f 
he   had  posted  his  army  on  rising  ground,  with  its  flanks  pro-  ^9»,aJJ^^^ 
tected  by  hills  and  woods,  while  those  who  had  commanded  the  ..«>. 

Imperialists  before  Montecuculi  arrived,  had  encamped  in  a  low  vn^Otk*: 
and  level  plain,  almost  wholly  within  range  of  the  Turkish 
batteries,  so  that  to  protect  his  men  from  the  pasha's  fire  he  was 
compelled  to  have  recourse  to  what  he  calls  a  new  device  in  war, 
and,  instead  of  erecting  redoubts,  to  cut  trenches  and  pits  to  shelter 
them.  During  the  latter  part  of  July  the  two  armies  were  facing 
one  another  on  opposite  sides  of  the  Raab,  a  river  which  falls  into 
the  Danube  at  the  town  of  the  same  name,  a  short  distance  below 
Presburg :  moving  up  and  down  its  banks,  and  manoeuvring,  the 
Turk,  with  the  object  of  crossing  the  river  at  some  of  its  numer- 
ous fords ;  the  Imperial  general,  with  the  resolution  to  prevent 
him.  The  last  days  of  the  month  were  passed  in  constant  skir- 
mishes varied  by  heavy  cannonades :  and  Montecuculi,  seeing  from 
the  pasha's  movements  that  he  was  resolved  no  longer  to  delay  a 
general  battle,  made  careful  and  novel  preparations  for  it ;  ming- 
ling companies  of  infantry  musketeers  with  his  cavalry,  and  issuing 
the  most  precise  orders  to  every  division  and  regiment,  especially 
instructing  both  musketeers  and  artillerymen  not  to  fire  all 
together,  but  line  after  line,  and  battery  after  battery,  so  that  the 
enemy  might  have  no  respite  j  enjoining  the  cavalry  not  to  un- 
cover the  infantry  by  a  pursuit  of  the  enemy  when  they  should  be 
put  to  flight  \  and  ordering,  on  pain  of  infamy  and  instant  death, 
that  no  one  should  quit  his  ranks  to  plunder.  It  indicates  a  curi- 
ous barbaric  peculiarity  in  the  Turkish  mode  of  fighting,  that  he 
thought  it  necessary  also  to  caution  his  men  not  to  be  disconcerted 
at  their  screams  and  yells.  And  having  thus  made  all  his  arrange- 
ments, he  waited  with  confidence  for  the  moment  of  testing  them 
in  action.  It  was  not  long  delayed ;  the  remissness  of  an  officer 
to  whom  the  guard  of  one  of  the  fords  had  been  entrusted,  en- 
abled Ali  to  pass  a  strong  detachment  across  the  river  near  the 
convent  of  St.  Gothard,  from  which  the  battle  which  ensued  has 
taken  its  name,  on  the  evening  of  the  thirty-first  j  other  squadrons 
crossed  before  daybreak  on  the  first  of  August,  and  by  nine 
o'clock  in  the  morning  the  main  body  had  descended  to  the  edge 
of  the  stream  at  a  point  where  it  was  unusually  narrow,  showing 
an  evident  intention  to  force  the  passage.  While  the  two  armies 
confronted  each  other,  an  incident  in  something  of  the  old  spirit 
of  chivalry  seemed  to  both  an  omen  of  the  coming  fortune  of  the 
day.  A  young  Turkish  officer  of  one  of  the  squadrons  which  had 
already  reached  Montecuculi's  side  of  the  river,  started  from  his 
ranks,  and  brandishing  his  scimitar,  defied  the  bravest  of  the 
Christian  knights  to  single  combat.     Unable  to  brook  the  insult, 


298  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.i>.  1664. 

a  knight  of  the  House  of  Lorraine  obtained  leave  of  his  commander 
to  accept  the  challenge,  and,  in  the  sight  of  both  armies,  unhorsed 
and  slew  his  antagonist,  and  led  away  his  charger,  an  Arab  of 
great  beauty,  in  triumph  as  a  trophy  of  his  victory. 

Not  daunted,  however,  by  this  evil  augury,  the  Turkish  regi- 
ments on  the  other  side  began  to  cross  the  river,  and  a  battle  of 
extreme  stubbornness  ensued.  Their  first  attack  was  directed 
against  the  Imperial  centre,  where  the  line  was  weakest,  both  in 
the  number  and  quality  of  the  troops,  which  were  but  newly 
enlisted,  and  two  or  three  regiments  were  broken  ;  but  Monte- 
cuculi  in  person  brought  up  some  of  his  veterans  to  their  sup- 
port, and  succeeded  in  rallying  them;  while  at  the  same  time 
he  sent  the  Marquis  of  Baden  round  with  some  fresh  battalions  to 
fall  on  the  flank  of  the  assailants.  The  marquis  executed  his  task 
with  brilliant  gallantry  and  success,  the  weight  of  his  charge 
forcing  the  battalions  on  which  he  fell  back  to  the  very  bank  of  the 
river.  And  presently  as  the  vizier  still  persisted  in  his  plan  of 
accumulating  the  whole  weight  of  his  attack  on  the  centre,  de  la 
Feuillade  brought  up  his  French  division  on  the  other  flank,  and 
dashing  among  the  Turks  with  all  the  impetuous  ardour  of  his 
nation,  made  a  terrible  havoc  among  their  dense  brigades,  dis- 
ordered as  they  were  by  this  new  attack  from  an  unexpected 
quarter.  But  the  brave  Modenese  had  met  with  a  worthy  antago- 
nist in  All.  While  the  battle  was  thus  raging  in  the  centre,  the 
pasha  conceived  the  plan  of  retaliating  Montecuculi's  manoeuvre 
on  himself;  and  he,  too,  detached  divisions  of  his  army  to  cross 
the  river  at  different  points  above  and  below  the  scene  of  action, 
and  to  outflank  the  Christians  in  their  turn.  It  was  a  bold  and 
well-imagined  step,  but  it  required  time ;  and  Montecuculi,  who 
at  once  divined  his  object,  calculated  that  he  had  time  to  win  the 
battle  before  it  could  take  effect.  Contenting  himself  with  send- 
ing some  weak  battalions  to  delay  the  passage  and  advance  of 
these  new  assailants,  he  collected  the  rest  of  his  army  into  the 
form  of  a  crescent,  and  brought  it  all  together  on  the  divisions 
which  were  still  engaged  in  their  attack  upon  his  centre,  confident 
in  his  power  to  crush  them  before  the  others  could  arrive  to  take 
part  in  the  conflict,  in  which  case  they  would  only  reach  the  field 
to  find  themselves  unsupported,  and  so  to  fall  easy  victims  to  the  vic- 
torious Austrians.  In  his  judgment  his  prospects  of  success  were 
the  greater,  that  his  army  was  composed  of  regiments  of  different 
countries,  whom  he  had  carefully  separated,  in  order  that  national 
emulation  should  inflame  their  courage.  And  it  did  appear  as 
if  the  French  on  the  left,  and  the  Suabians  in  the  centre,  and 
the  Lorrainers  on  the  right,  were  stimulated  to  more  than  their 
usual  daring  by  their  desire  to  make  the  victory  seem  to  be  won  by 


A.D.  1683.]  THE  EEVOLT   OF  TEKELI.  299 

their  individual  prowess.  Before  their  fierce,  generous  rivalry  the 
Turks  at  last  quailed,  were  thrown  into  disorder,  and  finally  were 
beaten  back  at  all  points,  retreating*  in  confusion  to  the  river,  in  the 
hope  of  putting  it  between  themselves  and  their  pursuers ;  but 
some  heavy  rain  which  had  fallen  had  raised  it  since  the  morning; 
many  regiments  missed  the  fords  and  were  drowned,  others,  seeing 
their  fate,  halted,  too  panic  stricken  to  make  any  further  resistance. 
And  the  victory  was  won.  The  slaughter  was  immense,  but  few 
prisoners  were  taken,  for  little  quarter  was  asked  or  given  :  the  fk  I 
booty,  too,  was  prodigious,  for  those  who  had  fallen  were  the  flower  v^^Vf^ 
of  the  Sultan's  army,  his  chosen  body-guard ;  and  their  uniforms 
and  their  arms,  splendid  with  gold  and  jewels,  were  alone  sufficient 
to  enrich  the  whole  Austrian  army.  So  decisive  was  the  victory, 
and  so  greatly  did  the  Turks  feel  their  means  of  carrying  on  the  war 
crippled  by  it,  that  they,  who  hitherto  had  been  the  arbiters  of 
peace,  granting  it  at  the  solicitation  of  those  they  had  conquered, 
were  now  reduced  to  sue  for  it ;  though  so  unskilfully  did  the 
Emperor's  ministers  use  their  success  that  they  did  not  so  much 
add  to  their  master's  strength  by  the  advantages  which  they 
secured  to  him  at  the  expense  of  the  enemy,  as  they  weakened 
him  by  alienating  further  a  most  important  section  of  his  own  sub- 
jects, the  Hungarians,  who  complained,  not  altogether  without 
reason,  that  their  interests  had  been  greatly  overlooked  in  many 
of  the  arrangements  for  the  future  defence  of  the  country,  of  which 

the  burden  would  fall  on   them,  while  the  chief  benefit  would  ^ 

accrue  to  Austria.  f^    \ 

Such  however  as  the  treaty  was,  it  was  like  its  predecessors,  ^^4nj^  ilh{^ 
only  a  twenty  years'  truce,  of  which  Leopold  endeavoured  to 
avail  himself  by  remodelling  the  military  system  of  the  Empire,- 
that,  in  the  renewal  of  war,  which  he  had  no  doubt  that  the 
Turks  would  recommence  as  soon  as  they  had  recovered  from  their 
late  defeat,  he  might  meet  the  emergency  with  improved  resources. 
He  lived  to  reap  the  benefit  himself  of  his  reforms  in  the  triumphs    )  ^ 

of  Zenta  and  Blenheyn  :  but  again  he  offended  th^Hungarians  by  J'ie'¥\^  ^ 
tll^'  alterations  wtich  he  introduced  into  their  constitutionTTSaking 
the  crown  of  that  kingdom  hereditary  by  his  own  sovereign  autho- 
rity, and  describing  this  change,  not  as  a  reform  in  the  interests  of 
the  whole  Empire,  but  as  a  punishment  of  the  Hungarians  for  the 
general  favour  which  they  had  shown  to  a  recent  conspiracy  set 
on  foot  by  some  of  their  principal  nobles,  who,  as  Leopold  believed, 
had  even  planned  his  own  assassination.  They  rose  in  afresh  and 
more  general  insurrection,  placing  themselves  under  the  leadership 
of  Emeric  Tekeli,  a  young  noble  of  great  courage  and  talent,  and 
inflamed  by  personal  injuries  to  desire  to  revenge  himself  on  the 
Emperor  who  had  confiscated  his  father's  estates  for  rebellion,  and 


^ 


300  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.«).  1G83. 

whose  tribunals  had  refused  hira  the  restoration  of  them.     He  was 
X  ^    joined  by  a  large  body  of  Protestants  also  from  several  provinces, 
yVljJUi/  J     "^hom  Leopold,  with  strange  impolicy,  just  at  this  time  exasperated 
by  instituting  a  severe  persecution  of  their  ministers  in  so  many 
districts  that  his  conduct  seemed  to  show  a  purpose  of  entirely 
suppressing  their  religion  throughout  the  Empire;  so  that  Leopold 
perceived  that  he  should  have  need  of  all  his  resources  to  crush 
,  ^   7^  him :  and,  with  this  feeling,  as  the  truce  of  1664  with  the  Porte 

ttw^    <^1— — Twas  in  the  point  of  expiring,  he  himself  condescended  to  solicit 
^      its  renewal.    If  he  expected  his  request  to  be  granted,  he  must 
ttAV^-*v      have  been  singularly  blind  to  all  the  recent  proceedings  of  the 
r        11  Turks;   who    for    several  years  had  been  constantly  infringing 

^^'^''^  •         different  provisions  of  the  treaty  in  a  manner  which  seemed  to 
'  indicate   a  desire  to  provoke  Austria  herself  into  annulling  it : 

while,  if  he  anticipated  a  refusal,  the  act  of  preferring  a  petition 
which  was  not  likely  to  be  granted,  was  in  itself  a  most  impolitic 
avowal  of  weakness.     As  such,  the  Sultan  looked  upon  it  as  an 
yy^/2^^iUiA^     encouragement  of  his  own  designs ;  and  was  so  far  from  consenting 
to  prolong  the  truce,  that,  even  before  it  expired,  he  concluded  an 
K»%y'<l'^»'**<^tlliance  with  the  Hungarian  rebels  ;  and  in  1683,  the  new'  grand 
^  vizier,  Cara  Mustapha,  the  nephew  of  Kiupriuli,  and  his  succes- 

sor both  in  his  civil  office  and  in  the  command  of  the  army, 
invaded  Hungary  with  a  larger  army  than  had  ever  before  been 
seen  in  its  plains  ;  crossed  the  Danube  at  Essek,  and  led  200,000 
men  to  attack  Vienna  itself.  Such  a  host  might  have  been  sup- 
wJ-^  CA  posed  to  be  irresistible.  For  the  utmost  force  which  was  at  Leopold's 
I  ■«—  '^  disposal  did  not  exceed  40,000  men  ;  but,  fortunately  their  coni- 
W»^  V<  mander,  the  Duke  of  Lorraine,  was  a  warrior  of  great  genius,  reso- 
lution and  energy,  and  he  speedily  placed  the  city  in  a  state  of 
defence  which  secured  it  against  any  sudden  assault.  He  even 
found  time  to  surprise  and  rout  Tekeli,  who  had  hoped  to  make  him- 
self master  of  Presburg:  and  then  returning  to  the  capital,  calmly 
waited  for  reinforcements  which,  he  hoped,  might  enable  him  to 
turn  the  tables  on  the  invader.  For,  at  the  first  intelligence  of 
the  league  between  the  Sultan  and  his  rebellious  subject,  Leopold 
had  made  treaties  of  alliance  with  the  Electors  of  Bavaria  and 
Saxony,  and  with  the  Polish  monarch,  John  Sobieski,  who,  having 
established  a  brilliant  reputation  by  the  deliverance  of  his  own 
country  from  the  Turks  through  the  great  victory  of  Choczira,  had 
subsequently  been  elected  king ;  and  who  now  promised  to  come 
'  of*  f*\^\j  to  the  aid  of  the  Emperor  against  an  enemy,  who,  if  he  should 
succeed  in  crushing  or  dismembering  the  Empire,  would  certainly 
renew  his  attacks  on  Sobieski's  own  dominions.  Forty  thousand 
men  were  the  force  which  he  agreed  to  furnish  ;  but  the  emer- 
gency was  too  pressing  for  him  to  wait  till  that  number  was  com- 


A.D.  1683.]  •     THE  BATTLE   OF  VIENNA.  301 

pleted,  for  Vienna  was  already  invested  on  three  sides,  and,  as 
soon  as  he  had  collected  3,000  cavalry,  he  quitted  Cracow,  and 
hastened  towards  Vienna,  leaving  orders  for  the  rest  of  his  army 
to  follow  him.  with  all  possible  speed.  At  the  beginning  of 
September  he  joined  the  gallant  Duke  of  Lon-aine;  for  the  next 
few  days  reinforcements  from  his  own  territories,  and  from  the 
different  German  States,  poured  in,  till  by  the  eleventh  the  two 
princes  found  themselves  at  the  head  of  nearly  80,000  men.  The 
disparity  of  numbers  was  still  very  great ;  but  they  learnt  that 
Cara  Mustapha  had  fixed  the  next  morning  for  the  storm  of  the 
city,  and  it  seemed  that  the  only  hope  of  safety  for  the  capital  of 
the  Empire  lay  in  their  co-operating  with  the  garrison,  and  falling 
on  the  rear  of  the  attacking  columns,  while  they  should  be  occu-  jr  ^ 
pied  by  the  assault  of  the  ramparts.  It  was  a  felicitous  idea ;  ^iftA  t 
prompted  partly  by  the  reliance  which  they  both  justly  placed 
on  the  vigour  and  skill  of  Count  Starenberg,  the  governor ;  and  he 
did  not  deceive  them.  lie  made  manful  head  against  the  over- 
whelming battalions  which  swarmed  up  to  the  gates ;  and,  while  the 
whole  efforts  of  the  besiegers  were  concentrated  on  the  foe  before 
them,  suddenly  Sobieski  and  the  duke  fell  on  their  rear ;  the  Turks 
were  surprised,  panic  stricken,  and  broken  in  a  moment.  What 
ensued  could  hardly  be  called  a  battle :  it  was  a  rout,  in  which  the 
Turks  lost  everything ;  all  their  artillery,  their  standards,  among 
which  was  a  sacred  ensign  reported  by  tradition  to  have  belonged 
to  Mahomet  himself;  all  the  supplies  of  money,  ammunition  and 
provisions  needful  for  so  prodigious  an  army ;  even  tiie  personal 
decorations  and  jewels  of  the  grand  vizier,  who  was  the  first  to 
set  the  example  of  flight,  and  never  stopped  till  he  had  put  the 
Haab  between  himself  and  his  conqueror.  Sobieski  wrote  to  his 
queen,  *  The  grand  vizier  has  left  me  his  heir,  and  I  inherit 
millions  of  ducats.  When  I  return  you  will  not  reproach  me  as  the 
wives  of  the  Tartars  reproach  their  husbands  :  ''  '  You  are  not  a 
man,  because  you  have  come  back  without  booty." '  To  the  Pope 
he  imitated  the  language,  as  he  flattered  himself  that  the  celerity 
of  h\i\  achievement  had  emulated  the  rapid  progress,  of  Caesar ; 
sending  him  the  banner  of  Mahomet,  which  had  been  among  his 
trophies,  and  the  brief  boast  Veni^  vidi,  vici,  as  the  explanation  of 
the  means  by  which  it  had  been  procured. 

In  strict  truth  the  Duke  of  Lorraine  had  contributed  as  much  as     -^ 
the  king,   or  even  more,  to  this  great  triumph ;  but  Sobieski's  Hf^  fk/\ 


rapid  march  had  fixed  the  eyes  of  Europe  mainly  on  himself,  and 
as  his  arrival  had  been  the  event  which  made  it  possible  to  fight 
the  battle,  it  was  to  him  that  the  principal  share  of  the  glory 
accrued  in  the  eyes  of  the  world.  The  Viennese  hailed  him  as 
their  deliverer ;  the  only  exception  to  the  warmth  with  which  ho 


302  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1687. 

•was  greeted  being  aflbrded  by  the  Emperor  himself,  who  conceived 
that  his  dignity  as  the  successor  of  the  Caesars  would  be  lowered 
if  he  should  condescend  to  receive  as  his  equal  one  whose  autho- 
rity depended  on  the  election  of  the  people,  and,  fearing  lest,  if  he 
himself  should  be  seated  on  his  Imperial  throne,  Sobieski  might 
expect  a  similar  honour,  insisted  on  meeting  his  deliverer  on  horse- 
back where,  as  he  conceived,  less  notice  would  be  taken  of  any 
breach  of  etiquette.  After  following  up  his  blow,  by  pursuing  the 
beaten  army,  across  the  Danube,  inflicting  a  defeat  on  them 
in  the  open  field,  expelling  them  from  Gran,  which  they  had 
held  ever  since  the  beginning  of  the  century,  and  finally  from 
Hungary  itself,  Sobieski  returned  to  his  own  country,  deeply  dis- 
gusted at  the  ungrateful  meanness  of  his  ally ;  and  thus  verifying 
a  remark  which  Montecuculi  had  recorded  in  his  Memoirs  several 
years  before,  that  the  performance  of  such  a  service  as  he  had 
done  to  the  Emperor  usually  leads  to  mutual  ill-will,  since  he 
who  has  conferred  the  benefit  naturally  looks  for  gratitude,  and  he 
who  has  received  it  is  more  mortified  at  having  needed  it  than 
thankful  for  his  deliverance  from  danger. 

But  the  victory  of  Sobieski  did  not  bring  peace  as  that  of 
Montecuculi  had  done.  The  war  continued  with  prodigious  exer- 
tions on  both  sides ;  the  Duke  of  LoiTaine  showing,  four  years 
afterwards,  that  he  needed  no  foreign  aid  to  enable  him  to  gather 
laurels  ;  when  on  the  same  field  of  Mohacz  which,  above  a  century 
and  a  half  before,  had  witnessed  the  triumph  of  Solyman,  he 
effaced  the  memory  of  Lewis's  disastrous  death  by  a  victory  so  com- 
plete, that  not  even  St.  Gothard  had  dealt  such  slaughter  among 
the  Turkish  ranks,  nor  had  the  rout  of  Vienna  enriched  the  con- 
querors with  such  ample  booty.  The  fortune  of  the  Infidel  was 
evidently  on  the  decline ;  .ind  every  reverse  that  his  arms  sus- 
tained encouraged  fresh  enemies  to  declare  against  him.  The 
Venetians  saw  the  opportunity  of  avenging  the  loss  of  Candia, 
and  overran  the  Morea;  the  Russians,  a  nation  just  beginning  to 
emerge  from  barbarism,  invaded  the  Crimea;  the  Poles  once 
more  descended  into  Hungary  ;  and  in  the  five  or  six  years  which 
followed  the  second  battle  of  Mohacz,  the  Porte  was  gradually 
si  ripped  of  all  the  acquisitions  which  had  been  won  by  a  century 
of  successful  warfare.  Disasters  under  such  a  government  as  that 
of  Turkey  often  produce  revolutions;  and  so  it  happened  in 
this  instance.  The  Sultan  revenged  himself  on  his  officers,  be- 
/  .  heading  his  grand  vizier,  though  married  to  his  own  daughter, 
^^^6^  and  condemning  several  of  the  chief  pashas  to  the  bowstring;  but 
^  the  nobles  wreaked  their  indignation  on  the  Sultan  himself;  de- 
^^V^T^^^"^  ^^^)  8,nd  placing  his  brother  Solyman  II.  on  the  throne. 
^dBut  still  the  Turks  gave  way  before  their  daily  increasing  enemies, 


A.-D.  1687.]  RISE  OF  PRINCE  EUGENE.  303 

till,  at  the  beginning  of  1695,  a  new  Sultan,  Mustapha  II.  (for 
Solyraan  had  died  within  two  years  of  his  accession),  resolved  to 
make  a  vigorous  effort  to  arrest  the  downfall  of  the  Mahometan 
power.     He  would  not  trust  his  viziers  or  pashas,  but  took  the 
command  of  his  army  in  person,  and,  at  the  first  opening  of  the 
spring,  crossed  the  Danube,  and  invaded  Hungary  with  above 
100,000  men.     In  his  first  two  campaigns  he  gained  some  not  un- 
important advantages  over  the  Imperial  army,  led  by  the  Elector  of 
Saxony ;  but  his  success  ruined  him.     The  Emperor  saw  the  ne-  (V,^ 
cessity  of  entrusting  the  command  to  a  new  general ;  and  had  the"^'  x^** 
discernment  to  select  for  the  post  a  young  officer,  who,  though  he/^ 
had  never  yet  enjoyed  a  chief  command,  had,  in  subordinate  situa-  ^6hl/lri 
tions,  given  more  than  one  proof  of  great  military  abilities.     Like 
Montecuculi,  he  was  a  foreigner ;  and  he  had  been,  it  might  almost      K^ 
be  said,  driven  into  the  service  of  the  Emperor  by  mortifica- 
tions inflicted  on  him  by  those  from  whom  he  originally  looked, 
as  he  reasonably  thought  that  he  had  a  right  to  look,  for  ad- 
vancement. 

Prince  Eugene  of  Savoy,  as  he  was  usually  called  from  the 
circumstance  of  liis  t'ather,  the  Comte  de  Soissons,  being  a  grand- 
son of  a  former  Duke  of  Savoy,  was  born  at  Paris,  in  1663 :  his 
mother  being  Olympia  Mancini,  one  of  Mazarin's  nieces,  whose 
charms  had  at  one  time  led  King  Louis  himself  to  contemplate 
sharing  his  throne  with  her.  At  Paris  he  was  bred  up  as  a  French 
noble ;  and,  not  being  the  eldest  son,  was  destined  by  his  family 
for  the  church,  though  he  himself  declared  his  preference  for  a 
military  life.  But  he  soon  found  that  in  neither  line  was  any 
patronage  or  favour  to  be  expected  by  him  in  France.  For  some 
reason  or  other,  Louis  had  conceived  a  personal  dislike  towards 
him;  though  not  often  witty,  he  found  a  subject  for  jesting  on 
the  prince's  delicate  complexion  and  light-hearted  disposition.  O  ^ 
Eugene,  he  said,  was  too  girl-like  for  a  soldier,  too  gallant  and  Ck.*^-i^ 
gay  for  a  churchman,  and  on  these  pleas  he  first  refused  him  a  Q^ 
troop  of  horse,  and  then  rejected  the  application  of  his  friends  for  ^»*-^ 
an  abbacy.  Few  jokes  have  been  more  dearly  paid  for.  Eugene 
quitted  France ;  Louvois,  who  also  regarded  him  with  ill-will,  con- 
gratulating himself  that  they  should  hear  no  more  of  him.  But 
the  great  secretary's  prophecy  was  falsified.  The  young  prince, 
full  of  indignation,  silently  made  a  vow  to  return  with  a  sword  in 
his  hand  ;  and  before  the  end  of  the  reign  France  had  bitter  cause 
to  acknowledge  that  he  had  kept  his  word.  He  crossed  over  to 
Germany,  and  entered  the  Imperial  service  as  an  officer  on  the  staff 
of  the  Duke  of  Lorraine,  in  time  to  witness  the  great  victory  of 
Vienna,  and  to  be  amused  by  the  pompous  uneasiness  with  which 
Leopold  returned  thanks  to  the  King  of  Poland  for  his  deliverance. 


304  MODERN  HISTOEY.  [a.d.  1687. 

The  campaijrns  which  ensued  were  a  good  school  for  a  young 
soldier ;  there  was  no  better  master  of  the  art  of  war  then  alive 
than  the  Duke  of  Lorraine;  and  Eugene  shewed  an  admirable 
aptitude  at  profiting  by  his  lessons.  He  not  only  learnt  how  to 
employ  the  different  kinds  of  troops,  cavalry,  infantry,  and 
artillery ;  but  he  also  acquired  an  insight  into  the  weaknesses  of 
the  Turkish  military  system,  and  conceived  a  great  contempt 
for  their  indecision  in  moments  of  difficulty,  their  slowness  in 
manoeuvres,  and  their  general  want  of  strategic  and  tactical  skill. 
In  many  of  the  subsequent  operations  of  the  next  few  years  he 
greatly  distinguished  himself;  he  commanded  a  regiment  of 
dragoons  at  Mohacz  ;  and  for  his  gallantry  on  that  day  was  re- 
commended to  the  special  favour  of  the  Emperor  by  the  duke 
himself.  A  year  or  two  afterwards  he  was  transferred  to  the 
north  of  Italy,  serving  in  conjunction  with  his  cousin,  the  Duke 
of  Savoy,  against  Catinat,  who  conceived  a  high  opinion  of  his 
abilities,  and  sent  such  a  report  of  them  to  Louis,  that  that 
monarch  tried  to  lure  him  back  to  his  service  by  the  offer  of  a 
marshal's  staff.  But  it  was  not  as  a  French  officer  that  Eugene 
was  resolved  to  carry  his  arms  into  France  ;  he  rejected  the  king's 
offer;  and,  in  the  summer  of  1697,  had  his  loyalty  to  the  Emperor 
rewarded  by  being  appointed,  to  retrieve  the  disasters  of  the  Saxon 
prince,  as  commander-in-chief  of  the  army  on  the  Danube. 

He  hastened  joyfully  to  the  scene  of  action.  His  force  was 
numerically  far  inferior  to  that  of  the  Sultan,  but  he  reckoned  on 
making  up  for  the  deficiency  by  the  promptitude  of  his  decision 
and  the  celerity  of  his  movements.  At  the  end  of  August  he 
joined  his  army  at  Zenta  on  the  Teiss,  a  fortress  about  fifty  miles 
above  Peterwaradin,  when  he  found  that  Mustapha  had  already 
taken  and  burnt  Titul ;  and  was  designing  to  cross  the  Teiss,  and 
descend  towards  the  Danube,  with  the  object  of  taking  imder  his 
command  another  division,  with  which  the  grand  vizier  was 
awaiting  him  in  Servia,  and  investing  Peterwaradin  itself.  Eugene 
resolved  to  prevent  his  advance  in  any  direction ;  acting,  while 
the  Sultan  was  preparing  to  act,  he  seized  the  bridges  over  the 
river,  and  saved  that  great  town.  The  Sultan,  baffled  in  his  first 
design,  brought  the  grand  vizier  up  to  Zenta,  with  the  intention 
of  attacking  Sezedin,  a  considerable  town  a  few  miles  higher  up 
the  Teiss ;  but  Eugene  thought  Sezedin  a  place  of  even  greater  im- 
portance than  Peterwaradin,  and  determined  rather  to  risk  a  battle 
than  abandon  it.  But  once  more  the  inherent  viciousness  of  the 
Imperial  system  threatened  to  neutralise  the  genius  of  its  general. 
Detaching  a  few  battalions  to  reinforce  the  garrison,  he  was  pre- 
paring to  attack  the  enemy  with  the  remainder,  when  he  received 
a  positive  injunction  from  the  Emperor  himself,  forbidding  him  to 


A.D.  1687.]  THE  EATTLE   OF  ZENTA.  305 

fight  under  any  circumstances.  Had  he  been  a  man  of  ordinary 
resolution,  the  enemy  would  have  been  saved  and  the  Empire 
ruined ;  but  his  loyalty  to  the  prince  whom  he  had  adopted  for 
his  sovereign  was  not  only  fervent,  but  sincere  and  disinterested. 
He  was  not  insensible  to  the  personal  risk  in  which  a  disregard  of 
BO  peremptory  a  command  might  involve  him ;  he  well  knew  the 
punctilious  narrow-mindedness  of  Leopold ;  but  he  also  felt  that  he, 
on  the  spot,  was  a  better  judge  than  the  whole  Aulic  council  could 
possibly  be  at  Vienna  of  the  chances  of  success,  and  of  what  was  due 
to  himself  and  to  the  army  which  he  commanded.  In  his  judg- 
ment, his  own  honour  and  the  safety  of  his  soldiers  depended  on 
his  disobeying  the  orders  he  had  received.  He  put  the  despatch 
in  his  pocket  J  and,  riding  towards  the  Teiss  to  reconnoitre  the 
enemy's  movements,  saw,  with  delight,  that  they  were  at  that 
moment  crossing  the  river;  that  one  or  two  divisions  had  already 
reached  his  side  of  the  stream,  and  that,  as  there  was  but  one 
narrow  bridge,  some  hours  would  elapse  before  their  whole  force 
could  be  reunited.  He  formed  his  plans  in  a  moment.  Galloping 
back  to  his  camp,  he  placed  himself  at  the  head  of  a  body  of 
cavalry,  and  fell  like  a  thunderbolt  on  some  Turkish  regiments 
which  were  slowly  disengaging  themselves  from  the  bridge,  and 
getting  into  order.  He  knew  (to  quote  his  own  description  of  his 
movements)  that  he  had  not  Catinat  to  deal  with,  and  therefore 
did  not  fear  to  venture  on  a  complicated  set  of  operations  which 
the  skilful  Frenchman  would  have  easily  disconcerted,  but  which 
were  quite  sufficient  to  bewilder  the  Turk.  While  advanc- 
ing himself,  he  ordered  the  commanders  of  his  wings  to  wheel 
round  upon  the  enemy  when  he  was  attacking  in  front,  so  as 
to  cut  off  their  retreat;  and  the  artillery  to  open  fire  on  the 
bridge  itself,  and  on  some  works  which  had  been  erected  for  its 
protection.  In  little  more  than  an  hour  the  battle  was  over. 
The  divisions  which  had  crossed  were  driven  back  in  headlong 
confusion  towards  the  bridge.  Their  comrades,  which  were 
on  the  bridge  hastening  to  join  them,  were  hampered  by  the  re- 
treating and  disordered  masses,  and  were  presently  blended  with 
them  in  inextricable  confusion ;  while  the  triumphant  Imperialists 
pressed  with  steady  resolution  on  the  whole  crowd.  In  front  of 
it,  and  on  it,  the  Turks  were  helplessly  slaughtered ;  thousands,  to 
escape  the  swords  of  the  Austrians,  threw  themselves  into  the 
river,  but  there  was  little  safety  in  so  rapid  a  stream  for  men 
encumbered  with  arms;  and  10,000  are  believed  to  have  been 
drowned  in  the  attempt.  20,000  fell  by  the  sword ;  and  4,000 
prisoners  were  living  trophies  of  the  victory.  When,  the  next 
day,  which  was  the  anniversary  of  the  battle  of  Vienna,  the  con- 


306  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1687. 

queror  reviewed  his  own  army,  he  found  that  his  triumph  had 
cost  him  less  than  1,000  men. 

But  it  had  nearly  cost  himself  the  whole  of  his  subsequent 
glory.  He  returned,  full  of  exultation,  to  Vienna;  not  to  be 
received  with  honour,  hut  to  be  put  under  arrest  for  disobedience 
of  the  Imperial  commands.  He  even  learnt  that  it  was  intended 
to  bring  him  before  a  court-martial,  and  that  not  only  his  com- 
mission, but  his  life,  was  in  danger.  But  others  heard  the  strange 
intelligence  as  well  as  he.  The  citizens  of  Vienna  rose  in  crowds, 
and  offered  to  rise  in  arms  to  protect  him  ;  and,  afraid  of  provoking 
a  general  insurrection,  and  perhaps  a  little  ashamed  of  having 
given  such  a  reception  to  one  whom  everyone  but  himself 
regarded  as  the  great  glory,  if  not  the  saviour,  of  the  Empire,  the 
Emperor  restored  him  his  sword,  and  replaced  him  in  his  command. 
Eugene,  however,  had  too  lively  a  sense  of  the  danger  to  which  he 
had  just  been  exposed  to  consent  to  resume  his  post,  except  on  the 
condition  of  being  left  to  conduct  his  operations  absolutely  at  his 
own  discretion  for  the  future :  but,  in  fact,  his  late  achievement 
had  put  an  end  to  the  war.  Zenta  had  not  only  humbled  the 
pride  of  the  Sultan,  but  had  inflicted  a  fatal  blow  on  his  strength. 
lie  sued  for  peace ;  and,  before  the  end  of  the  year,  a  treaty  was 
signed  at  Carlovitz,  which  though,  like  preceding  treaties,  in  name 
only  a  truce  for  a  fixed  period  was  a  severe  and  enduring  check 
to  the  aggressive  power  of  the  Porte.  The  Sultan  not  only  gave 
T^)  Transjji^gnia,  with  the  greater  part  of  the  districts  in  Hungary 
which  liad  furnished  the  pretexts  for  previous  wars,  but  he  made 
cessions  also  to  Russia,  to  Poland,  and  to  Venice.  The  attempt 
of  his  successor,  Achmet  III.,  to  retrieve  the  fortunes  of  his  house, 
only  led  to  his  suffering  at  the  hands  of  the  still  invincible  Eugene 
a  defeat  at  Peterwaradin,  hardly  less  decisive  than  that  of  Zenta. 
And  though,  in  the  hostilities  which  were  renewed  from  time  to 
time  throughout  the  century,  the  Sultan's  armies  achieved  more 
than  one  brilliant  success,  the  general  result  of  the  whole  warfare 
has  been  a  steady  falling  back  of  the  Infidel  before  Christian  civi- 
lisation ;  so  that  at  the  present  day  the  very  existence  of  the 
Turkish  Empire  as  an  independent  power  may  be  said  to  depend 
on  the  forbearance  or  the  policy  of  the  nations  which  for  two  cen- 
turies and  a  half  she  kept  in  a  state  of  continual  uneasiness  and 
alarm.  ^ 

1  The  authorities  on  which  the  Fhilip  II.,  Code's  House  of  Austria, 
author  has  chiefly  relied  for  the  and  the  Memoirs  of  Montecuculi  and 
preceding    chapter    Are    Prescott's     Prince  Eugene. 


A.D.  1688. J  VOLTAIRE   ON  LOUIS  XIV.  307 


CHAPTER  Xiy. 
A.D.  1688—1715. 

VOLTAIRE  has  called  the  year  1679,  which  witnessed  tho 
conclusion  of  the  ^ace  of  Kimeguen,  the  crowning  point  of 
Louis's  glory ;  while,  on  the  same  page,  he  admits  that  the 
country  in  general  did  not  permanently  acquiesce  in,  nor  adopt, 
the  surname  of  ^the  Great,'  which  the  city  of  Paris,  in  its  exulta- 
tion, formally  conferred  on  him.^  Certainly,  up  to  that  moment, 
his  reign  had  been  an  uninterrupted  series  of  triumphs  in  war  and 
diplomacy.  And  the  wars  in  which  he  had  hitherto  been  engaged, 
though  not  free  from  the  charge  of  unprovoked  aggression  for  the 
sole  object  of  territorial  aggrandisement,  were  not  more  unjusti- 
fiable than  many  others  which  have  been  waged  by  other  poten- 
tates without  exposing  them  to  any  peculiar  reproach.  History 
and  posterity  are  lenient  to  such  violations  of  strict  justice  and 
humanity.  But  his  successes  had  intoxicated  him.  They  had 
inflamed  his  natural  arrogance  till  he  had  become  imbued  with  a 
notion  that  the  elevation  which  he  had  attained  had  exalted  him , 
above  all  the  restraints  which  ordinary  sovereigns  acknowledge ;  \'**'**^^c^ 
and  the  foreign  policy  which  he  adopted,  and  the  wars  which  he 
carried  on  during  the  rest  of  his  reign,  show  not  only  the  wanton- 
ness of  his  ambition,  but  his  utter  faithlessness,  his  habitual  dis- 
regard of  treaties,  in  some  instances  the  malignant  revengefulness 
of  his  disposition,  his  merciless  cruelty,  and,  more  ignoble  than  all, 
his  personal  cowardice.  He  did  not  scruple  to  avow  that  his 
bombardment  of  Genoa  had  no  other  object  but  his  own  glory, 
that  he  might  avenge  on  the  republic  her  ancient  connection  with 
Spain.  In  the  same  spirit,  when  he  had  compelled  the  Algerinea 
to  release  their  Christian  captives,  he  remitted  the  Englishmen 
who  were  found  among  them  to  slavery,  to  revenge  himself  for  the 
check  which  the  Triple  Alliance  had  formerly  given  to  his  career 
of  victory;  and,  in  mere  headstrong  vain-gloriousness,  he  even 
quarrelled  with  and  insulted  the  Pope,  insisting  on  privileges  for 
his  ambassador  at  Rome,  which  the  Emperor  and  every  other  sove- 

*  Siecle  de  Louis  XI F,  c.  13. 


-•</*wi 


308  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1688. 

reign  in  Europe  had  renounced  ;  and  threatening  him  with  war, 
for  the  purpose  of  forcing  into  dioceses,  with  which  he  had  no  pre- 
tence to  interfere,  candidates  who,  by   the   constitution   of  the 
Romish  Church,  could  not  be  legally  appointed  to  them. 
I  .        f.  Indeed,  his  first  principle  seemed  to  be,  not  only  that  the  most 

*^'*"'^      established  rights  of  all  other  sovereigns  were  to  yield  to  his  will, 
-.  ^      but  that  princes  wh«)  could  not  bring  powerful  armies  into  the 

'"^'^  ^  field  had  no  rights  at  all.  In  revenge  for  the  disappointment  of 
one  of  his  schemes  for  the  extension  of  his  dominions,  he  even  kid- 
napped and  imprisoned  the  minister  of  a  foreign  state,  violating 
the  law  of  nations  in  his  person  in  a  manner  which,  till  the  days 
of  Napoleon,  had  no  parallel.  His  acquisitions  had  not  all  been 
made  by  force  of  arms.  He  had  purchased  the  great  city  of  Stras- 
burg  of  its  own  magistrates;  and  he  hoped,  by  the  same  means,  to 
acquire  the  important  fortress  of  Casal,  in  Piedmont,  of  which 
France  had  once  before  made  herself  mistress  during  his  father's 
reign,  but  which  had  since  been  restored  to  its  natural  sovereign, 
the  Duke  of  Mantua,  As  the  whole  province  was  a  fief  of  the 
Empire  none  of  its  towns  could  be  alienated  without  the  Emperor's 
consent.  But  the  duke,  a  profligate  and  necessitous  prince,  was 
willing  to  defraud  his  sovereign  lord  by  a  secret  sale ;  and  Louis 
if  he  could  by  any  means  once  obtain  possession  of  the  fortress,  did 
not  doubt  his  ability  to  keep  it.  The  price  was  agreed  upon ;  but 
before  the  cession  could  take  place,  the  duke's  minister,  Matthioli, 
though  he  himself  had  negotiated,  if  he  had  not  originally  sug- 
gested the  bargain,  through  negligence  or  treachery,  suffered  the 
secret  to  transpire ;  and  Leopold  at  once  sent  such  a  force  into  the 
neighbourhood  as  effectually  prevented  the  entrance  of  the  French 
garrison  to  which  Casal  was  to  have  been  surrendered.  Louis  was 
furious  at  being  thus  outwitted  by  acts  similar  to  his  own,  and  de- 
termined on  revenge,  liy  his  orders,  in  May  1078,  Matthioli  was 
lured  to  a  conference  with  some  French  officers,  and  was  there 
seized  and  thrown  into  a  dungeon  at  Pignerol.  Such  an  act  was 
as  unexampled  as  it  was  lawless :  and,  as  even  Louis  could  not 
venture  so  to  brave  public  opinion,  and  the  indignation  of  every 
statesman  and  sovereign  in  Europe,  as  to  avow  it,  he  endeavoured 
to  keep  his  arrest  secret  from  the  whole  world  :  and  the  means 
which  he  adopted  for  that  purpose  were  of  a  character  as  original 
and  singular  as  they  were  inhuman.  He  caused  to  be  made  for 
the  prisoner  a  mask  of  black  velvet,  which  he  was  never  permitted 
to  remove ;  so  that  even  his  gaolers  did  not  see  his  face.  In  pro- 
cess of  time,  M.  St.-Mars,  the  governor  of  Pignerol,  was  removed 
to  other  prison  fortresses,  being  finally  promoted  to  the  govern- 
ment of  the  Bastille ;  and  at  each  removal  the  unhappy  Matthioli 
was  also  removed,  that  he  might  always  remain  in  the  custody  of 


A.n.  1688.]         THE  ]VIAN  IN  THE  IRON  MASK. 


309 


the  only  man  to  whom  the  secret  was  necessarily  entrusted.  In 
the  records  of  the  great  state  prison  of  the  capital,  he  was  regis- 
tered under  the  name  of  Marchiali,  and  there,  without  ever  being 
indulged  with  the  slightest  relaxation  of  the  rigour  with  which  he 
was  treated,  he  was  confined  till  his  death,  in  1703.^ 

Duriijg  the  whole  period  which  elapsed  between  the  peace  of  / 
Nimeguen  and  the  rupture  of  that  treaty  in  1G88,  Louis  was  rest-  *'"*^'^*'^^ 
less  for  war,  and  constantly  making  little  attacks,  now  as  we  have  j^^ty.^ 
already  seen,  on  Genoa,  at  another  time  on  Holland,  once  even  on 
the  Pope,  from  whom  he  wrested  Avignon,  and  tlireatening  when 
he  was  not  fighting.     One  of  the  medals  which  at  this  time  he 
caused  to  be  struck  in  his  own  honour,  bore  the  boastful  inscription, 


^  The  question  who  this  prisoner 
was  (who,  from  a  misconception  of 
the  materials  of  which  his  mask  was 
made,  has  always  been  called  The 
Man  in  the  Iron  Mask, '  L'Homme 
ail  Masque  de  Fer'),  was  for  many 
years  shrouded  in  impenetrable  mys- 
tery. The  very  existence  of  such  a 
captive  was  known  but  to  few  in  his 
own  day  ;  and  it  was  mentioned  by 
no  French  writer  till,  in  1751,  Vol- 
taire published  his  lively  sketch  of 
the  age  of  Louis  XIV ,  many  years 
after  every  one  was  dead  who  could 
have  any  personal  knowledge  of  the 
subject.  It  is  remarkable  that,  in- 
clined as  Voltaire  was  to  any  state- 
ments which  could  give  point  or 
liveliness  to  his  narrative,  he  abstains 
from  expressing  any  opinion  on  the 
question  of  who  was  the  object  of  the 
strange  precautions  which  he  relates  ; 
and  contents  himself  with  remarking 
that,  at  the  time  he  was  imprisoned 
(which  he  mistakes  and  antedates  by 
nearlv  twenty  years),  no  person  of 
importance  disappeared  in  Europe. 
But  others  were  less  scrupulous  or 
less  judicious;  and  the  most  impro- 
bable and  even  impossible  conjectures 
were  hazarded  on  the  subject.  Some 
writers  suggested  that  the  victim  was 
a  Comte  de  Vermandois,  a  son,  or  a 
brother  of  Louis  XIV.,  who  cannot 
well  have  had  any  existence  at  all, 
since,  at  the  time  of  this  arrest,  there 
was  another  Comte  de  Vermandois,  a 
natural  son  of  Henry  IV.,  and  go- 
vernor of  Languedoc.  Others  named 
Fouquet,  the  disgraced  minister  of 
finance,  who,  several  years  before, 
had  indeed  been  thrown  into  prison 
at  Pignerol,  but  who,  it  was  equally 


certain,  died  in  that  fortress  in  the 
spring  of  1680.  A  third  candidate 
was  set  up  in  the  person  of  the  Duke 
of  Beaufort,  whom  we  have  had  occa- 
sion to  mention  as  prominent  in  the 
rebellion  of  the  Fronde,  and  who  was 
killed  at  Candia  in  1669,  while  serv- 
ing in  a  small  force  which  was  sent 
to  the  aid  of  the  Venetians.  One 
writer  even  pronounced  him  to  be  the 
Sultan  Mahomet  IV.,  who  was  not 
deposed  from  liis  throne  at  Constan- 
tinople till  1687.  And  another,  as  if 
to  outdo  all  rivals  in  the  liveliness  of 
his  imagination,  conceived  that  the 
Duke  of  Monmouth,  whose  execution 
the  citizens  of  London  believed  that 
they  witnessed  in  1685,  did  only  die 
by  proxy,  having  found  a  partisan  of 
sufficient  devotion  to  offer  himself  to 
the  executioner's  axe  in  his  stead, 
and  having  induced  James  to  father 
the  delusion  by  consenting  to  be 
transferred  to  this  secret  and  per- 
petual imjjrisonment  in  a  foreign 
land.  But,  since  Voltaire's  time, 
letters  of  Catinat,  the  officer  who 
arrested  Matthioli,  of  St.-Mars,  who 
had  the  uninterrupted  charge  of  him, 
and  of  Louvois,  under  whose  direc- 
tions they  both  acted,  have  been 
discovered  and  published  ;  and  the 
question  who  the  Man  in  the  Iron 
Mask  was,  which  was  long  as  per- 
plexing to  the  curious  as  the  identity 
of  the  English  writer  who  chos"  to 
mask  himself  as  the  author  of  Junius, 
is  now  cleared  up  with  as  much 
certainty.  He  who  doubts  that 
Francis  was  the  one,  and  Matthioli 
the  other,  may  equally  be  pronounced 
incapable  of  estimating  evidence. 


310  MODERN  HISTOEY.  [a.d.  1688. 

Nee  plurihus  impar,  to  intimate  that  he  considered  himself  a 
match  for  the  world  in  arms.  And  the  pretexts  on  which  he 
justified  his  declaration  of  war  against  the  Emperor  were  so  utterly 
trivial,  that  tliey  seemed  designed  to  show  that  in  reality  he' 
conceived  himself  to  be  placed  above  the  necessity  of  accounting 
to  the  world  for  his  actions,  and  that  his  own  will  and  caprice 
were  a  sufficient  law  to  himself  and  to  all.  He  complained  that 
the  Emperor  had  not  compelled  the  chapter  of  Cologne  to  yield  to 
is  dictates  on  the  subject  of  the  election  of  their  archbishop : 
that  the  Emperor's  brother-in-law  had  been  invested  by  the  Diet 
of  the  Empire  with  the  Palatinate,  to  which  he  was  unquestionably 
the  male  heir,  but  which  Louis  desired  to  have  transferred  to  his 
sister-in-law,  the  Duchess  of  Orleans,  who  was  also  sister  to  the 
last  elector;  and,  finally,  he  alleged  his  own  fears  that  the 
Emperor  intended  to  attack  him,  so  soon  as  he  should  have  made 
peace  with  the  Sultan.  According  to  St.-Simon  the  war,  though 
long  meditated,  was  at  last  precipitated  by  a  personal  quarrel 
between  Louis  and  Louvois,  who,  too  arrogant  and  unyielding  in 
his  temper  to  defer  even  to  his  sovereign,  differed  with  him  about 
the  size  of  a  window  in  the  palace  which  the  king  was  building 
at  the  Little  Trianon,  near  Versailles,  with  such  rudeness  and 
pertinacity,  that  Louis  was  provoked  into  the  most  vehement 
reproaches;  and  the  secretary,  conceiving  that  he  had  lost  his 
master's  favour,  hurried  on  the  war,  in  order  to  give  him  something 
more  important  than  windows  to  think  about,  and  to  render 
himself  once  more  indispensable. 

We  need  not  dwell  on  the  details  of  the  war ;  though,  almost 
as  soon  as  it  began,  our  own  country  was  involved  in  it,  from  the 
earnestness  with  which  Louis  espoused  the  cause  of  James,  who, 
before  the  end  of  the  same  year,  tied  from  his  kingdom,  and  left 
his  throne  to  his  son-in-law,  the  i^'reriC'h  king's  most  determined 
and  unwearied  enemy;  though  it  was  against  William  that  the 
fiercest  battles  of  the  whole  war  were  fought,  and  though  it  was 
not  concluded  without  his  being  formally  recognised  by  his  enemy 
as  King  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland.  But  one  or  two  incidents 
are  worth  recording  as  illustrative  of  the  personal  character  of 
Ivouis  himself,  and  of  the  extraordinary  pitch  of  servility  and 
adulation  at  which  even  those  of  his  subjects,  whose  offices  and 
employments  might  most  have  been  expected  to  place  them  above 
such  meanness,  had  arrived.  T^lip  Palatinate,  as  we  have  seen, 
had  been  one  of  the  ostensible  causes  of  the  war ;  that  rich  pro- 
vince was  the  first  object  of  the  French  invasion,  and  the  capture 
of  Philipsburg  was  the  first  success  that  crowned  the  French 
arms.  The  news  reached  Paris  on  the  first  of  November,  All 
Saints'  Day,  while  the  king  was  at  church.      Louvois,  eager  to 


%Aa*<X%%..^-^ 


A.D.  J.689.]       DESOLATION   OF  THE  PALATINATE.  311 

make  him  forget  the  wrangle  about  the  Trianon  window,  hastened 
into  the  church  and  up  to  the  royal  seat  with  the  news.  Louis 
stopped  the  preacher  in  the  middle  of  his  sermon,  with  his  own 
voice  announced  the  fall  of  the  fortress  to  the  congregation,  and 
offered  up  an  extemporaneous  prayer  of  thanks  for  the  achieve- 
ment. And  then  the  preacher,  being  allowed  to  resume  his 
sermon,  so  improved  the  occasion  with  a  description  of  the  visible 
favour  shown  by  the  Almighty  to  the  king,  as  was  equally  seen 
in  the  success  of  his  enterprises,  and  the  beauty  of  his  person,^ 
that  the  whole  congregation  was  dissolved  in  tears. 

Such  a  spectacle  might  excite  a  smile ;  but  the  next  exploits  of 
the  army  of  which  the  king  was  so  proud,  and  of  which  his  son, 
the   Dauphin,   was    the    nominal   commander,  though    the   real 
direction  of  the  operations  was  entrusted  to  the  Marshals  Duras  7l4<6*1^*^ 
and  Vauban,  filled  all  Europe  with  horror.    Furious  at  finding 
that  all  the  minor  German  States  ranged  themselves  on  the  side  of 
the  Emperor^E^at  the  King  of  ^pain  had  joined  the  alliance ;  and 
tE^at  his  own  treasury  was  so  exhausted  by  his  own  measureless 
prodigality,  that  it  was  not  without  the  greatest  difficulty  and  the 
most  ruinous  expedients  that  money  could  be  found  to  keep  on 
foot  the  enormous  force  of  300,000  men,  which  were  reckoned 
necessary  to  enable  the  country  to  ffice  such  a  host  of  enemies, 
Louis  resolved  to  revenge  himself  on  those  who  were  most  in  his  ^ 
power,  and  to  lay  waste  the  v/hole  of  that  fair  province  of  which.JrC4tAA/y 
his  recent  acquisition,  Philipsburg,  gave  him,  to  a  certain  extent,  "  ^ 

the  key.     In  the  last  war  Turenne  had  greatly  tarnished  his  fame  (t^jfjAmfk^ 
by  the  devastation  which  he  had  spread  through  the  Palatinate,  h    /i    j 
burning  unfortified  towns  and  villages,  carrying  off  the  crops,  with  l\  |  (^ 
the  flocks  and  herds,  and  destroying  all  tliat  he  could  not  remove ; 
though  he  justified  himself  bythe  necessities  of  his  military  position, 
as  the  commander  of  an  army  numerically  far  weaker  than  its  foes. 
But  the  worst  cruelties  which  the  great  marshal  had  committed 
were  mercy '^  compared  to  those  now  perpetrated  by  Duras,  in  com- 
pliance with  the  express  orders  of  the  monarch,  who  looked  upon 
himself  as  the  pattern  of  chivalry  and  refinement.     In  the  last 
days  of  the  Carnival,  while  spending  his  own  hours  in  revels  and 
luxur}',  he  issued  orders  to  Duras  to  turn  the  whole  puovince  into 
a  desert.     Voltaire  truly  remarks,  that  the  ferocity  of  the  com- 
mand was  not  more  conspicuous  than  its  impolicy,  since  it  was  an 

^  Madame  de  Sevigne,  under  date  incendie.    L'Europe  en  eut  horreur. 

November  3,  1668.  Les  officiers  qui  I'execut^rent  e'taient 

2  *  Les  flammes  dont  Turenne  avait  honteux  d'etre  les  instrumens  de  ces 

brule  deux  villes  et  vingt  villages  durcte's.' — Voltaire's  Siicle  de  Louis 

du  Palatinat  n'etaient  que  des  etin-  XIV,  c.  xvi. 
celles,  en  comjiaraison  de  ce  dernier 


312  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1690. 

invitation  to  his  enemies  to  treat  his  own  provinces  and  cities  in 
the  same  way.  But  Diiras  was  a  pitileaa-aoldler,  formed  to  carry 
out  the  injunctions  of  such  a  master.  The  Palatinate  was  a  fertile 
and  thickly  peopled  district.  In  the  whole  Empire  none  produced 
choicer  wines,  or  heavier  crops  of  corn,  and  half  a  million  of 
peasants  subsisted  on  the  wages  of  the  labour  requisite  to  cultivate 
and  gather  in  the  various  fruits  of  the  earth.  Suddenly,  and  be- 
fore the  severity  of  winter  was  abated,  notice  was  given  by  the 
marshal  that  within  three  days  all  must  quit  their  homes  and  seek 
another  country ;  that,  at  the  expiration  of  that  period  their 
houses  would  be  given  to  the  flames,  and  that  all  persons,  men 
and  women  alike,  who  should  persist  in  remaining  in  their  homes 
would  be  abandoned  to  the  mercy  of  the  soldiers.  And  the  savage 
announcement  was  carried  out  with  a  relentless  barbarity  which 
exceeded  even  the  threat.  At  the  end  of  the  three  days  farms, 
castles,  villages,  and  towns  were  set  on  lire.  The  crops,  just 
beginning  to  appear  above  ground,  were  ploughed  up ;  the  vines 
were  uprooted.  Many  of  the  cities,  Heidelberg,  Spires,  and 
Worms  were  not  only  important  from  their  size  and  wealth,  but 
venerable  also  from  many  an  historical  recollection :  they  were 
burnt  as  remorselessly  as  the  meanest  village.  Sometimes  ordi- 
nary conflagration  was  too  slow  for  the  impatience  of  the  destroyers, 
and  mines  were  excavated  to  blow  up  an  entire  town  by  a  single 
explosion.  The  population  fully  shared  in  the  destruction  which 
had  fallen  on  their  dwellings.  Driven  forth,  in  utter  destitution,  to 
seek  a  distant  shelter  in  other  provinces  at  the  most  inclement 
season  of  the  year,  the  greater  part  of  those  who  escaped  the 
violence  of  the  soldiers  perished  of  cold  or  famine  on  their  way. 
The  French  historians  themselves  admit  that  all  Europe  was 
struck  with  horror  at  such  an  unprecedented  atrocity.  But  such 
were  the  only  deeds  in  which  Duras  was  calculated  to  shine.  The 
Duke  of  Lorraine  took  Mayence  before  his  face  ;  and  it  was  only 
by  his  eagerness  in  acts  of  cruelty  that  he  was  able  to  preserve 
his  master's  favour. 

Again  we  may  forbear  a  relation  of  all  the  separate  events  and 
battles  of  this  war,  which  at  this  distance  of  time  can  have 
but  little  interest.  Catinat,  who  was  rapidly  rising  in  reputation, 
which,  however,  he  was  at  the  same  time  tarnishing  by  a  cruelty 
that  seemed  as  if  it  were  his  object  to  rival  Duras  in  the  king's 
goodwill,  gained  great  advantages  in  Piedmont,  and  made  himself 
master  of  Nice  :  a  town  which,  in  the  present  generation,  has  again 
come  under  the  power  of  France;  while  the  Due  de  Noailles 
achieved  even  greater  successes  in  Spain,  and  treated  the  in- 
habitants of  the  districts  through  which  his  army  passed  with 


A.D.  1693.]      LUXEMBOUEa  IN  THE  NETHERLANDS.      313 

Btill  greater  inhumanity,  acting,  as  Diiras  had  acted,  under  the 
express  orders  of  Louis  himself,  whose  relationship  to  the  king  oi 
Spain  seemed  to  make  him  the  more  determined  to  revenge  him- 
self on  him  and  on  his  people  for  their  disregard  of  his  commands. 
But  the  most  important  scene  of  actioji_^"w^s_tlie^J|^^etherl_a^^ 
where,  as  soon  as  his  victory  of  the  Boyne  had  ensured  the  sub- 
mission of  Ireland,  William  took  the  command  of  the  allied  army ; 
and,  though  greatly  inferior  to  the  French  commander-in-chief, 
the  Duke  of  Luxembourg,  in  military  skill,  yet  showed  so  un- 
daunted a  fortitude  amid  disasters,  and  such  indomitable  energy  in 
rallying  his  men  after  defeat,  as  prevented  the  duke  from  deriving 
any  important  results  from  his  most  brilliant  successes  in  the  field.  , 

When  a  king  commanded  the  hostile  armies,  Louis  thought  it 
consistent  with  his  dignity  to  appear  to  act  the  same  part.  In  his 
eyes  it  was  a  piece  of  kingly  policy  to  appropriate  to  himself  as 
much  as  possible  of  the  credit  of  the  successes  achieved  by  the 
genius  of  his  servants,  whether  ministers  in  the  cabinet  or  generals 
in  the  field.  And  in  pursuance  of  this  system,  he  accompanied 
Ijuxembourg's  army  while  it  was  occupied  in  sieges  which  he  could 
behold  at  a  safe  distance.  He  was  present  at  the  capture  of  Mons ; 
and,  after  the  fall  of  Namur,  he  deposited  the  choicest  of  the 
spoils  of  that  great  city  in  Notre  Dame,  with  great  state,  as  the 
trophies  of  a  triumph  which  he  himself  had  gained  over  his  un- 
wearied enemy.  But,  when  Luxembourg,  by  his  superior  general- 
ship, had  brought  the  British  king's  army  into  such  a  situation  in 
the  open  field  that  its  destruction  seemed  inevitable,  he  found  a 
pitched  battle  too  dangerous  an  experiment  for  his  master's  taste. 
In  the  campaign  of  1G93  a  decisive  victory  was  greatly  needed  to 
maintain  for  France  the  appearance  of  superiority  in  arms ;  for  the 
victory  of  Steinkirk  in  the  previous  autumn,  as  it  had  led  to  no 
results,  had  by  no  means  effaced  the  impression  made  on  Europe 
by  the  entire  destruction  of  Louis's  fleet  at  La  Hogue.  in  the  same 
year.  Accordingly,  great  exertions  had  been  made  to  increase 
the  army  in  the  Netherlands ;  and  they  had  been  attended  with 
such  success  that  in  May  Luxembourg  had  120,000  men  under  his  *W^  tws^ 
orders,  while  the  utmost  force  which  William  could  collect  to  ^ 
resist  him  did  not  exceed  70,000.  So  irresistible  did  the  French  ^»v%>  •  ' 
army  seem  that  Louis,  valorous  at  a  distance,  once  more  quitted  ^  O^X  X3 
Versailles  for  Flanders,  to  take  the  great  marshal,  as  he  wished  his  l^  r^^ 
subjects  to  think,  under  his  own  command;  to  cover  himself,  as 
even  the  most  courtly  among  them  did  not  conceal  that  they  did 
think,  with  lasting  disgrace.  To  bring  William  to  action,  Luxem- 
bourg threatened  Brussels  and  Liege,  and  his  demonstrations  had 
drawn  his  antagonist,  eager  to  save  such  important  cities,  into  a 
15 


314  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1693. 

position  from  which,  even  in  William's  own  opinion,  he  couid  not 
escape  without  a  miracle.^  And  it  was  with  amazement  and 
unspeakable  shame  that  when,  on  Louis's  arrival  in  the  camp,  he 
laid  before  him  his  own  scheme  for  the  campaign,  which  included 
an  instant  attack  upon  the  allied  army,  whose  disastrous  defeat 
was  absolutely  inevitable,  he  learnt  that  the  king  disapproved  of 
his  plan,  and  had  formed  a  different  design.  Louis  proposed  to 
send  the  Dauphin,  with  40,000  men  and  Marshal  Boufflers  under 
him,  to  the  Rhine,  and  to  return  himself  to  Versailles  without 
delay.  It  was  in  vain  that  Luxembourg  threw  himself  on  his 
knees  to  entreat  him  to  abandon  so  dishonourable  a  purpose  ; 
,  Louis  was  sufficiently  alarmed  to  be  resolute ;    he  returned  to 

Versailles,  detached  a  third  of  his  army  to  a  district  where  it 
could  effect  nothing,  and  left  Luxembourg  with  the  remainder  to 
prove  the  soundness  of  his  own  calculations,  and  the  groundless- 
ness of  his  royal  master's  most  ujjkingly  terror. 

A  victory  was  now  more  necessary  than  ever  to  appease  the 
discontent  and  indignation  which  were  universal.  The  very 
courtiers  and  fine  ladies,  who  had  followed  Louis  from  Versailles 
to  the  camp,  and  from  the  camp  back  to  his  secure  palace,  felt  his 
return  as  a  national  disgrace  ;  the  whole  army,  from  the  generals 
to  the  lowest  troopers,  gave  free  license  of  their  tongues  at  his 
expense.^  All  looked  to  the  marshal  to  efface  the  stigma  which 
the  king  had  brought  on  their  arms.  And  once  more  he  showed 
himself  a  leader  to  whom  the  national  honour  might  safely  be 
confided.  He  out-manoeuvred  William,  inducing  him  to  detach 
a  large  division  to  cover  Liege,  and  on  the  nineteenth  of  July 
attacked  him  with  a  force  by  more  than  one-half  larger  than  his 
own.  The  battle  which  ensued,  and  which  the  English  have 
named  after  Landen,  a  river  which  partly  covered  the  flauk  of  the 
allies,  but  to  which  the  French  have  given  the  name  of  Neerwinden, 
from  a  village  which  was  the  key  of  William's  position,  is  memo- 
*i^  rable  as  one  in  which  artillery  was  but  little  employed,  but  which 
fV^fJU^^  was  decided  in  close  combat  by  the  sabre  and  bayonet.^     It  was 

^XJ   yk  f^ 

"^^      ^  *  *  On  a  su  depuis  qu'il  (le  prince      Tout   ce   qui   revenait   des   ennemig 

d'Oran,<,'e   ecrivit   plusieurs   fois    au  n'e'taifc  guere  plus  scandaleux  que  ce 

princede  Vaudemoiit,  son  amiintime,  qui  se  disait  dans  les  arme'es,  dans 

qu'il  ^tait  perdu,  et  qu'il  n'y  avait  les  villes,  h  la  cour  memo  par  des 

que  par  un  miracle  qu'il  en  put  echap-  courtisans,  ordinairement  si  aises  de 

per.' — St.- Simon,  i.  95.  se  retrouver  a  Versailles,  mais  qui  se 

2  'L'etfet  de  cette  retraite  fut  in-  faisaient  honneur  d'en  etre  honteux.' 

croyable  jusque  parmi  les  soldats  et  — St.-Simon,  i.  99. 
meme  parmi  les  peuples.  Les  officiers  ^  It  was  the  first  general  action  in 

g^ndraux  ne    s'en    pouvaient   taire  Europe  in  wliich  the  attaclc  was  made 

entre  eux,  et  les  officiers  particuliers  by  the  bayonet  and  swonl  alone. — 

en    parlaient    tout    haut    avec  imo  Dalrymple's  Memoirs  of  Great  Bri- 

licence  qui  ne  put  etre  contcnue.  .  .  .  tain  and  Ireland,  iii.  6.  2. 


CU 


A.D.  1696.]        THE  BATTLE    OF  NEERWINDEN.  315 

memorable,  too,  for  the  personal  heroism  of  William  himself,  which 
he  never  displayed  more  brilliantly,  and  to  which  many  of  his 
regiments  were  principally  indebted  for  their  safe  retreat.  For 
the  victory  was  decisive.  The  slaughter,  as  in  a  combat  which, 
for  the  greater  part  of  a  summer's  day,  was  fought  hand  to  hand, 
was  enormous ;  and,  as  William's  position  had  been  very  strong, 
was  perhaps  as  great  in  the  French  as  in  the  allied  ranks.  But, 
at  last,  he  was  driven  back  at  every  point ;  and  Luxembourg  had 
never  more  fully  gained  the  title  of  upholsterer  of  Notre  Dame, 
which  his  admirers  had  given  him.  Eighty  captured  standards 
were  despatched  by  him  to  Paris  as  the  trophies  of  the  day,  and 
the  silent  condemnation  of  the  timid  king ;  and  the  artillery,  the 
ammunition,  and  the  baggage  of  the  defeated  army,  had  also 
become  his  prizes.  But  his  own  loss  had  been  above  10,000  men ; 
and  Louis,  who  could  not  fail  to  be  aware  of  the  feelings  which  he 
himself  had  excited,  confessed  to  himself  that  he  could  not  aiford 
many  such  victories,  and  began  to  feel,  and  to  express  a  wish  for 
peace. 

His  desire  was  increased  when  at    the  beginning  of  1695,  «i>»Au\a-w/ 
Luxembourg,   whose  health  had  long  been  declining,  died ;    and  ^ 
when  the  Duke  of  Maine,  his  chief  favourite  among  his  illegitimate  [jt^ . 
children,  being  sent  as  commander-in-chief  of  the  army,  proved 
himself  his  son  by  his  inheritance  of  his  fears ;  and  made  himself 
equally  the  byword  and  scorn  of  the  soldiery  whom  he  baulked  of 
an  expected  victory.     But,  in  truth,  though  Louis  still  had  valiant 
armies,  with  brave  and  skilful  generals,  the  other  resources  for  (J2uft^»»-».«/^vi 
carrying  on  war  were  beginning  to  fail.     The  distress  of  all  classes  a         ^ 
in  every  part  of  the  kingdom  was  universal.     The  king's  almost  oL»vtM 
ceaseless  wars  had  not  been  his  only  drain.     Ever  since  he  had 
arrived  at  manhood,  he  had  been  calling  on  his  ministers  to  find 
him  fresh  supplies  of  money  for  his   personal  expenditure,  his 
mistresses,    his    losses    at   the   gaming    table,    his    reviews,   his 
buildings,  public  and  private,  as  if  his  dominions  and  his  subjects 
were  one  vast  and  inexhaustible  mine.     The  disorderly  temper 
of  the  Parisians  had   given  him  a  dislike   for   the   capital  as  a 
residence,  and  at  Marly,  at  Versailles,  at  the  Trianon,  and  at  Fon- 
tainebleau,  new  palaces  were  constantly  arising,  or  old  ones  were 
being  enlarged,   each  surpassing  the  other  in  magnificence  and 
costliness  of  decoration,  as  well  as  in  those  appliances  of  modem 
ease  and  comfort  then  first  invented  and  introduced.     Contrivances 
for  warmth  in  the  winter,  for  ventilation  in  the  summer,  seemed 
to  equalise  the  seasons.      Nature  herself  was  subdued  to  mako 
gardens  and  parks  out  of  unwholesome  swamps,  rivers  were  diverted 
from  their  channels  to  supply  cascades  and  fountains ;  and  withiu 
the  palaces,  when  finished,  the  luxury  and  prodigality  of  which 


-^>^-*^K.C^ 


316  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1697. 

Louis  set  the  example,  outran  all  former  traditions  of  dissipation. 
The  very  courtiers  complained  of  the  uninterrupted  round  of  enter- 
tainments, which  wearied  by  endlessness  and  palled  by  their  mono- 
tony. Even  in  dress  the  king  contrived  to  spend  the  most 
enormous  sums;  among  his  tastes  was  a  fondness  for  jewellery 
and  trinkets,  and  his  expenditure  on  diamonds  alone  is  said  to 
have  amounted  in  the  course  of  his  reign  to  twenty  millions  of 
livres.  The  ingenuity  of  Colbert  himself  had  been  scarcely  able 
to  provide  funds  for  such  an  insane  extravagance ;  but  he  had  now 
been  dead  many  years,  and  Ids  successors  had  increased  the  bur- 
dens of  the  people  without  effecting  any  corresponding  increase 
of  the  revenue.  Even  before  the  end  of  the  former  war  the  general 
misery  of  every  class  but  the  highest,  had  surpassed  all  record  of 
the  sufferings  of  any  nation  in  modern  times.  A  short  time  before 
the  peace  of  Nimeguen,  the  celebrated  English  philosopher  John 
Locke  was  travelling  in  France,  and  kept  a  daily  journal  of  all  the 
occurrences  and  facts  which  seemed  to  him  most  worthy  of  atten- 
tion. He  records  that  even  the  vine-dressers  of  the  district  round 
Bordeaux,  the  best  paid  labourers  in  the  kingdom,  could  only  earn 
threepence  halfpenny  a  day  :  that  their  general  food  was  rye  and 
water;  that  it  was  only  on  very  rare  occasions  that  they  could 
procure  a  paunch  or  other  refuse  from  the  butcher's  shop.  In  the 
more  purely  agricultural  provinces,  the  condition  of  the  peasantry 
was  even  worse ;  and  the  distress  was  rapidly  increasing,  and  was 
spreading  upwards.  The  smaller  landed  gentry  were  suffering 
with  a  proportionate  severity:  numbers  of  their  country  houses 
were  falling  in  ruins  -,  and  even  the  castles  of  the  nobles,  though 
they  were  exempt  from  most  of  the  taxes,  equally  showed  signs  of 
poverty  and  decay.  Nor  was  the  destitution  confined  to  those 
who  depended  on  the  land.  Merchants,  shopkeepers,  and  artizans 
complained  that  their  profits  were  eaten  up  by  taxation.  Worst 
of  all  was  the  condition  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  towns  and 
parishes  of  the  frontier  provinces,  which  were  occupied  from  time 
to  time  by  parties  of  troops ;  for  the  soldiers  were  billeted  on  every 
householder,  and  even  those  who  never  saw  meat  on  their  own 
tables  were  compelled  to  furnish  every  trooper  with  three  meals 
of  meat  a  day.^  It  was  not  strange  that  some  provinces  broke 
into  open  insurrection  at  the  approach  of  the  tax-gatherer ;  nor 
that  the  population  itself  began  to  dwindle  away,  and  to  supply, 
for  the  reinforcement  of  the  army,  not  grown-up  men,  but  youths 
and  boys  unable  to  bear  the  fatigues  of  a  campaign. 

The  war,  therefore,  could  not  be  maintained ;  and,  as  on  the 

^  A  report  of  the  state  of  the  coun-      sliows  that  the  distress  had  greatly 
try  by  Vauhan  at  the  end  of  the  war      increased  since  Locke's  visit. 


A.D  1698.]  THE  PEACE   OF  RYSWICK.  317 

part  of  William  and  his  allies  it  had  throughout  been  only  a  war 

of  self-defence,  no  obstacle  was  raised  by  any  of  them  when,  in   -.  v^ 

the  spring  of  1607,  Louis  proposed  a  negotiation.     lie  had  endea-     |^i<  ♦^ 

voured  to  bring  about  peace  in  a  less  kingly  manner,  by  counten-  ^ 

ancing  at  least  one  of  the  Jacobite  conspiracies  for  the  assassination 

of  William  ;  but  the  plots  had  been  discovered,  his  agents  had  been 

hanged,  and  the  vigilance  of   the   English  government  was  too 

fully  awakened  to  tempt  others  to  renew  the  design.     A  formal 

reconciliation  was  now,  therefore,  the  only  resource.     And  in  the 

course  of  the  autumn,  a  treaty  of  peace  was  signed  at  Ryswick,  by^ 

which  he  gave  up  all  the  chief  acquisitions  which  he  had  made    4^  T**-**^ 

during  the  w.ir :  acknowledged  William  as  King  of  Great  Britain, 

and  pledged  his  honour  not  to  countenance  in  any  manner  any 

attempt  to  subvert  or  disturb  the  existing  government  in  these 

islands.     lie   could  hardly  avoid  feeling  these  conditions   as   a 

humiliation.     But,  though  it  had  been  in  some  degree  forced  on 

him  by  the  poverty  which  he  had  brought  on  the  kingdom,  he 

was  so  far  from  having  learned  moderation,  that  he  had  scarcely 


signed  the  treaty  when  he  began  to  amaze  Europe  with  a  scene  of 
extravagance  more  lavish  than  any  of  his  former  follies.  He  had 
the  soul,  not  of  a  king,  but  of  a  master  of  ceremonies.     He  could 


not  live  without  spectacles.     Even  in  the  first  year  of  the  war,  |^**"*^ 
when  the   attention  and  utmost  efforts  of  all  around  him  were 
concentrated  on  the  military  operations,  he  showed  at  least  equal 
earnestness  in  superintending  the  bringing  out  of   a  play.     At 
St.-Cyr,  near  Paris,  Madame  de  Maintenon  had   recently  esta- 
blished a  school  for  the  daughters  of  decayed  nobles.     Among  the  r    ■ 
different  branches  of  their  education  private  theatricals  had  been  ^XJUAA'Mk, 
established,  with  a  view  to  forming  their  taste  for  poetry  and  art ; 
and,  by  way  of  combining  the  study  of  theology  with  that  of  ordi- 
nary literature,   she  had  induced  Racine  to  promise  to  compose 
a  drama  on  some  sacred  subject.     The  fruit  of  this  semi-royal  CifVv 
mandate  was  the  tragedy  of  'Esther,'  in  which   the   imperious   ^M^K^^no 
ISIadame  de  Montespan  was  shadowed  under  the  name  of  the  proud  '      ^ 

Vashti ;  while  the  description  of  Esther,  by  whose  charms  she  had 
been    supplanted,  was   designed  as    a   delicate    compliment    to 
Madame  de  Maintenon  herself.     The  king  took  all  the  arrange- 
ments under  his  own  management ;  and  not  only  wrote  out  with      jt 
his  own  hand  the  names  of  those  who  were  to  be  allowed  the    If 
honour  of  witnessing  the  first  representation,  but,  on  the  appointed  V-^ 
evening,  actually  stationed  himself  at  the  door  of  the  saloon,  which  l/^*****^ 
had  been  fitted  up  as  a  theatre,  with  the  list  of  spectators  in  one    J     f\ 
hand  and  his  jewelled  cane  in  the  other,  letting  them  in  one  by    rt*^>*>«-i 
one,  and  himself  pointing  out  the  places  allotted  to  them. 
And,  as  if  on  purpose  to  show  that  the  distress  which  weighed 


818  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1698. 

down  every  class  of  his  subjects  affected  neither  his  own  purse  nor 
his  own  feelings,  he  made  the  re-establishment  of  peace  the  occa- 
sion of  a  display  more  costly  than  any  that  had  preceded  it.  As 
if  the  country  had  not  been  sated  with  the  reality  of  war,  at  the 
beginning  of  the  next  year  he  assembled  at  Compieofne  an  army  of 
00,000  men,  and  entertained  the  whole  court  with  a  series  of 
reviews  and  sham  fights,  nominally  for  the  instruction  of  his 
grandson,  the  young  Duke  of  Burgundy,  in  military  science ;  but 
in  reality  for  the  gratification  of  his  own  insatiable  taste  for  pomp 
and  splendid  wastefulness.  The  accomplished  courtier,  to  whose 
lively  pen  we  are  indebted  for  so  many  details  of  the  reign,  is 
absolutely  bewildered  in  attempting  to  describe  the  prodigal  mag- 
nificence of  which  he  was  the  witness.  His  memmy  is  confused 
by  the  recollection ;  the  very  language  refuses  to  supply  him  with 
epithets  of  adequate  variety  and  force.  It  was  '  gorgeous,'  it  was 
*  dazzling/  it  was  even  ^  frightful.' '  The  whole  of  the  royal 
equipages,  tents,  furniture,  and  even  plate,  were  new  for  the  occa- 
sion ;  and  every  noble,  every  officer  of  rank,  every  courtier,  was 
expected  to  vie  with  his  fellows  in  magnificence,  as  he  valued  the 
royal  favour,  and  hoped  to  be  admitted  again  at  Versailles.  For 
many  of  them  tents  were  not  sufficiently  splendid.  Wooden 
houses  were  erected,  and  furnished  in  a  style  surpassing  the  most 
splendid  hotels  of  the  capital.  Ranges  of  kitchens,  of  stables,  ot 
pantries,  of  washhouses,  formed  a  town  of  themselves.  Aqueducts, 
fifty  miles  long,  constructed  for  the  occasion,  brought  water  from 
the  Seine,  and  from  other  rivers  whose  character  stood  high  for 
the  salubrity  and  purity  of  their  waters.  All  the  forests  in  the 
kingdom  were  ransacked  for  game :  every  sea  that  washed  the 
coast  was  swept  for  its  fish :  and  every  road  was  blocked  up  by 
an  endless  train  of  couriers,  purveyors,  musicians,  play-actors, 
tailors,  dressmakers,  wigmakers,  upholsterers,  and,  above  all, 
money-lenders.  Every  day  brought  round  some  fresh  picture  of 
military  operations.  One  of  the  spectacles  was  a  siege  of  Com- 
piegne  itself.  It  was  fortified  for  the  occasion  with  all  the  inven- 
tions of  Vauban's  skill.  Ditches  and  moats  were  dug :  ramparts 
and  castles  were  raised :  guns  and  mortars  were  mounted :  and,  as 
soon  as  the  works  were  finished,  they  were  battered  down  again, 
with  all  the  grand  apparatus  of  breaching  batteries,  forlorn  hopes, 
and  storming  parties,  in  the  presence  of  the  king,  Madame  de 
Maintenon,  and  the  princesses  and  ladies  of  the  court;  whose 
satin  and  jewels  presented  a  striking  and  somewhat  ludicrous  con- 
trast to  the  roar  of  cannon,  the  flash  of  bayonets,  and  all  the  mimic 

1  *  Jamais  spectacle  si  ^clatant,  si  eblouissant,  il  le  faut  dire  si  effrav- 
hnt.'—St.-Siiiion,  ii.  202. 


G;>-«2i 


h.n.  1698.1  THE  PARTITION  TREATY.  319 

pageantry  of  war.  After  several  weeks  of  operations  of  this 
costly  kind,  the  exhibition  ended  with  a  grand  sham  fight,  the 
arrangements  of  which,  however,  in  professional  eyes  were  some- 
what disconcerted  by  the  unwillingness  of  General  Rose,  who 
commanded  one  division,  to  be  defeated,  under  the  eyes  of  the 
ladies,  by  Marshal  Boufflers,  who  led  the  force  to  which  victory 
had  been  preassigned :  but  his  scruples  only  increased  the  mirth. 
The  next  day  the  king  returned  to  Versailles,  highly  pleased  with 
himself  and  with  the  show.     The  officers  who  had  contributed  to  Jf)  f  j 

it  were  less  gratified.  In  spite  of  the  presents  which  Louis  dis-  wu/lx^An 
tributed  among  them,  there  was  hardly  one  who  had  not  been 
ruined  by  the  expenditure  which  had  been  forced  upon  him.  The 
expenses,  too,  which  had  fallen  on  the  royal  treasury,  as  was  gene- 
rally computed,  had  exceeded  one  of  Luxembourg's  campaigns; 
and,  if  Louis  could  congratulate  himself  on  the  display  of  his 
magnificence  and  power,  few  of  his  subjects  who  had  borne  part 
in  it  could  remember  it  without  bitter  and  enduring  distress. 

He  had  scarcely  returned  to  Versailles,  when  he  concluded  a 
second  treaty  with  William,  which,  as  he  never  intended  to  keep 
it,  he  must  have  foreseen  would  produce  a  renewal  of  European 
war.  It  Ijas  been  mentioned  that,  on  his  marriage  with  the  A 
Infanta,  he  had  renounced  for  himself  and  all  his  descendants  all  >^V^^v^^( 
claim  to  any  portion  of  the  Spanish  dominions,  under  any  circum- 
stances. His  father,  on  his  marriage,  had  made  a  similar  renun- 
ciation ;  as,  in  fact,  had  every  sovereign  who,  since  the  beginning 
of  the  centurj--,  had  married  a  Spanish  princess,  with  the  exception 
of  the  present  Emperor  Leopold,  and  his  father  Ferdinand  III. 
Of  Ferdinand  no  such  stipulation  had  ever  been  required;  and 
that  which  Leopold  himself  had  published  had  never  been  legally 
ratified  by  the  Spanish  Cortes,  and  was  invalidated  by  the  omis- 
sion of  that  formality.  In  the  opinion  of  the  Spanish  lawyers, 
therefore,  Leopold  himself,  as  inheriting  from  his  mother,  or  his 
children  by  his  first  empress,^  the  Infanta  Margaret,  were  the 
heirs  to  the  reigning  King  of  Spain,  Charles  II.,  who  had  neither 
children,  brothers,  nor  uncles  :  and,  if  Leopold's  renunciation  were 
invalid,  .is  it  certainly  was,  the  grandson  and  representative  of 
Margaret,  the  Electoral  Prince  of  Bavaria,  had  manifestly  the 
preferable  claim. 


The  object  of  the  different  renunciations  was  evident.     TheO) 
Spanish  Cortes,  remembering  the  position  of  comparative  insig-  «' CI-aa*^> 

6/. 


J  Leopold   had  had   three   wives.  Joseph  T.  and  Charles  VI.,  who  suc- 

The  [nfanta  Margaret  had  only  left  cessively     succeeded    him     on     the 

one  d/vughter,  wife  of  the  Elector  of  Imperial  throne,  but  who  could  have 

Bavaria  ;  his    second    wife  had  no  no  title  to  that  of  Spain,  except  from 

children.    His  third,  daughter  of  the  his  mother. 
Elector  Palatine,  was  the  mother  of 


320  MODEEN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1098. 

nificance  which  their  country  had  occupied  after  Charles  V.  was 
seated  on  the  Imperial  throne,  were  not  inclined  to  see  her  again 
connected  in  the  same  way  with  the  Empire  or  with  France.  And 
the  other  nations  of  Europe  were  even  more  interested  in  prevent- 
ing the  sovereign  of  either  of  those  countries  from  obtaining  such 
a  predominance  on  the  Continent  as  must  arise  from  the  addition 
of  the  Spanish  crown  to  that  which  he  already  wore.  But  it  was 
one  thing  to  procure  such  renunciations ;  another  to  be  able  to 
enforce  them.  Many  years  before,  Louis  and  Leopold  had  come 
to  an  agreement  to  set  aside  all  such  deeds,  and,  on  Charles's 
death,  to  divide  the  whole  of  the  Spanish  dominions  between 
themselves.^  And,  if  Charles  had  died  while  his  namesake  or 
James  had  been  on  the  British  throne,  in  all  probability  this 
arrangement  would  have  been  carried  out.  But  there  was  no 
chance  of  William  standing  by  and  quietly  looking  on  while  his 
neighbours'  power  was  augmented  in  so  dangerous  a  degree.  And 
Louis  was  so  far  humbled  by  the  late  war  as  to  recognise  the 
necessity  of  consulting  and  co-operating  with  him,  and  to  propose 
that  they  should  take  the  settlement  of  the  Spanish  succession 
into  their  own  hands ;  and  should  compel  the  assent  of  the  other 
powers  to  Europe,  including  the  Emperor,  to  whatever  arrange- 
ments they  might  decide  on.  Undoubtedly,  of  his  own  free  choice 
William  would  not  have  permitted  any  augmentation  of  the 
French  territories.  But  he  was  by  no  means  inclined  to  plunge 
again  into  war  to  prevent  it.  For,  in  truth,  so  greatly  had  the  mis- 
government  of  his  kingdom  in  the  period  between  the  Restora- 
tion and  his  own  accession  reduced  the  resources  of  England,  that 
the  peace  of  Byswick  had  been  little  less  necessary  for  him  than 
for  France.  And  being  unsurpassed  for  his  knowledge  of  foreign 
politics,  and  at  all  times  a  man  of  shrewd  practical  sense  as  well 
as  of  diplomatic  ability,  he  was  convinced  that,  after  the  death  of 
Charles,  the  maintenance  of  the  Spanish  empire  in  its  integrity, 
widely  scattered  as  were  its  different  dependencies,  would  prove 
7  ^  ,  an  impossibility.  A  partition  treaty,  therefore,  was  drawn  up  by 
>yi-Cf/i,t^'*^'  ^^"^  ^^^  ^^^^  French  secretary  of  state,  which  provided  that  the 
Prince  of  Bavaria  should  become  king  of  Spain,  with  her  Ameri- 
"Tfnr  settlement^^nd  the  Netherlands ;  but  that  he  should  cede  the 
Duchy  of  Milan  to  the  Archduke  Charles,  Leopold's  second  son,  to 
whom  his  father  and  his  elder  brother  were  willing  to  transfer 
tlieir  own  claims  j   while  Naples,  Sicily,  the  islands  on  the  coast 

^  ^Q&'Ki^Q.i,  Succession dC Espagncy  but     their    meaning      was     never 

ii.  40let6eq.    There  are  allusions  to  thoroughly  understood    before    the 

this  treaty  in   the  Memoirs  of  De  publication  of  this  work  of  M.Mignet, 

8oru,  who,  as   foreign   secretary  of  which  is  founded  on  original  docu- 

France,  negotiated  the  first  treaty ;  ments  previously  imknown. 


A.D.  1700.]        DEATH  OF  CHARLES  OF  SPAIN.  321 

of  Tuscany,  and  the  small  frontier  province  of  G  uipuiscoa  should 
be  annexed  to  the  French  monarchy. 

But  the  success  of  such  an  arrangement  depended  in  ita  being 
kept  secret  till  the  moment  for  acting  on  it  should  arrive  ;  and  it 
was  not  kept  secret.  It  reached  the  ears  of  Charles  himself,  who, 
though  the  most  imbecile  and  helpless  of  human  beings,  had  feel- 
ing enough  to  resent  the  act  of  foreigners  in  thus  taking  upon 
themselves  to  dismember  his  dominions,  without  even  paying  him 
the  empty  compliment  of  consulting  him  on  the  subject,  and 
intelligence  enough  to  feel  assured  of  the  support  of  his  Spanish 
subjects  in  attempting  to  disconcert  it.  He  instantly  drew  up  a 
will,  by  which  he  bequeathed  the  whole  of  his  dominions  to  the 
Prince  of  Bavaria.  But,  as  if  fortune  ^  had  chosen  that  particular 
moment  to  baffle  the  schemes  of  the  rival  cabinets,  the  will  had 
hardly  been  signed,  when  the  prince,  to  whom  it  bequeathed  this 
rich  inheritance,  died :  and  the  French  and  English  diplomatists 
had  to  make  a  new  treaty,  and  the  Spaniard,  whom  they  continued 
to  treat  as  a  nonentity,  a  new  will.  Louis  and  William  now 
allotted  the  Spanish  monarchy  to  the  Archduke  Charles :  while 
the  Duchy  of  Milan,  which  that  prince  was  to  have  had,  was  to 
be  added  to  France's  share  of  the  spoil.  But  Charles  liked  this 
treaty  as  little  as  its  predecessor ;  he  was  resolved  to  prevent  any 
division  whatever  of  his  dominions;  and,  though  he  liked  the 
House  of  Bourbon  less  than  that  of  Austria,  he  thought  Louis  so 
much  more  able  to  prevent  the  partition  than  Leopold,  that,  on 
making  his  new  will,  he  left  the  undivided  sovereignty  to  Philip, 
duke  of  Anjou,  the  second  son  of  the  Dauphin;  to  whom  his 
elder  brother,  the  Duke  of  Burgundy,  as  heir  to  the  French  crown, 
willingly  ceded  his  own  pretensions.  He  had  scarcely  signed  it, 
when,  in  November  1700,  he  died :  and  Louis,  utterly  disregard- 
ing the  renunciation  which  he  himself  had  made  on  his  marriage, 
and  the  second  partition  treaty,  the  ink  of  which  was  scarcely  dry, 
at  once  acknowledged  Charles's  right  to  dispose  of  his  dominions, 
which  was  by  no  means  clear,  accepted  for  his  grandson  the 
splendid  legacy  which  had  been  thus  bequeathed  to  him,  formally 
acknowledged  him  as  King  of  Spain  by  the  title  of  Philip  V.,  and 
sent  him  to  the  frontier,  accompanied  by  his  brother  and  a  splendid 
train  of  nobles,  who  only  took  leave  of  him  when  he  crossed  the 
Pyrenees  to  make  his  formal  entry  into  his  kingdom. 

Such  a  violation  of  his  engagements  would  clearly  have  justified 

1  Fortuna,  saevo  la^ta  negotio,  et 

Ludum  insolentem  ludere  pertinax. 

— II -)r.  iii.  29,  thus  translated  by  Drj'den  : — 

Fortune,  that  with  malicious  joy, 
Does  man,  her  slave,  opprtss. 


322  MODEEN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1702. 

William  in  declaring  war ;  and,  in  fact,  when  the  question  of  the 
acceptance  of  the  will  was  discussed  in  the  French  council,  his 
ablest  ministers  distinctly  warned  Louis  that  such  a  step  would 
inevitably  rekindle  a  general  war  in  Europe.  But  they  were 
mistaken.  The  English  government  at  the  moment  was  greatly 
weakened  by  party  divisions,  caused  partly  by  William's  impolitic 
and  ostentatious  preference  of  foreigners ;  while  William  himself 
felt  that  his  health,  which  had  always  been  delicate,  was  breaking. 
He  was  unequal  to  the  fatigues  of  a  campaign,  even  if  the  nation 
should  be  inclined  to  support  him  in  the  renewal  of  war,  a  dis- 
position which,  he  could  not  conceal  from  himself,  it  was  not 
likely  to  entertain.  He  therefore,  after  a  short  deliberation, 
recognised  Philip:  and  Louis  might  have  enjoyed  peace  for  the 
remainder  of  his  reign,  with  all  the  addition  to  his  renown  which 
his  success  in  placing  his  grandson  on  so  magnificent  a  throne 
had  manifestly  given  him,  if  his  incurable  faithlessness  had  not 
led  him  to  offer  William  a  second  insult,  which  the  whole 
English  nation  looked  upon  as  still  more  injurious  to  itself.  In 
the  autumn  of  the  next  year  James  II.  died  at  St. -Germain  ;  and 
Louis,  disregarding  the  solemn  engagement  into  which  he  had 
entered  at  Ryswick,  instantly  caused  his  son  to  be  proclaimed  King 
of  England  under  the  title  of  James  HI.  If,  as  it  is  probable,  the 
acquiescence  of  the  English  government  in  his  disregard  of  the 
Treaty  of  Partition  had  led  him  to  suppose  that  it  would  be  equally 
supine  on  this  occasion,  he  was  speedily  undeceived.  The  bulk  ot 
the  English  people,  not  at  any  time  in  the  habit  of  taking  any  deep 
interest  in  foreign  politics,  cared  little  whether  the  French  monarch 
gave  a  sovereign  to  Spain ;  but  that  he  should  presume  to  give 
one  to  England,  and  that  one  whom  the  nation  had  already 
formally  rejected,  was  an  intolerable  act  of  presumption.  Louis 
had  done  the  very  last  thing  that  he  would  have  desired  to  do, 
and  what  probably  nothing  else  could  have  done,  he  had  reunited 
the  whole  English  people  in  support  of  the  king  of  their  choice. 
A  new  parliament  eagerly  voted  for  war.  A  treaty  of  alliance  with 
the  Emperor  and  Holland  was  instantly  concluded  ;  and  prepara- 
tions for  a  vigorous  prosecution  of  hostilities  by  land  and  sea  were 
set  on  foot,  which  were  in  no  degree  relaxed  when,  in  the  spring 
of  the  next  year,  William  himself  died. 

How  long  and  stubbornly  contested  was  the, war  which  ensued  ; 
how  full  of  disaster  by  land  and  sea  to  France,  and  of  personal 
humiliation  to  Louis  himself,  we  need  not  dilate  upon  here.  The 
triumphs  of  Marlborough  and  Peterborough,  of  Eooke  and  Howe, 
belong  to  the  history  of  our  own  country  rather  than  to  the  annals 
of  France.  For  above  ten  years  defeat  after  defeat  fell  on  the 
French  armies  :  no  change  of  generals,  no  superiority  of  numbers, 


A.D.  1713.]  DEATH  OF  THE  EMPEROR.  323 

could  arrest  the  steady  progress  of  the  greatest  general  who,  up  to 
that  time,  had  ever  wielded  the  truncheon  of  command  :  no  gleam 
of  success  shone  upon  the  French  arms,  with  the  exception  of 
some  advantages  on  a  smaller  scale  gained  by  the  dukes  of  JBerwick 
and  Vendome  in  Spain  itself,  which,  though  the  prize  of  the  con- 
test, was  not  the  field  on  which  the  contest  was  to  be  decided ; 
till  at  last  the  frontier  of  France  itself  was  no  longer  inviolable, 
and,  for  the  first  time  since  the  days  of  the  League,  a  foreign 
invader  planted  his  standards  on  her  soil.  Accident  alone,  the 
unforeseen  death  of  Joseph,  who,  in  1711,  when  only  thirty-two 
years  of  age,  fell  a  victim  to  small-pox,  gave  Louis  an  appearance 
of  having  gained  some  of  the  objects  for  which  he  had  engaged  in 
the  war.  As  Charles,  whom  the  allies  had  been  labouring  to  place 
on  the  throne  of  Spain,  succeeded  his  brother  as  Emperor,  it  became 
evident  that  the  peace  of  Europe  would  be  more  endangered  by 
the  renewal  of  the  union  of  the  Imperial  and  Spanish  crowns  on 
one  head,  than  by  the  mere  relationship  of  the  French  and  Spanish 
kings.  And,  under  the  influence  of  this  feeling,  the  English 
ministers,  who  had  the  principal  share  in  the  negotiations  of  the 
Peace  of  Utrecht,  which  closed  the  war,  consented  to  leave  Louis's 
grandson  fhilip  in  possession  of  the  principal  part  of  the  in- 
heritance which  Charles  II.  had  bequeathed  to  him.^  But  though 
the  pride  of  the  French  nation  was  thus,  in  some  degree,  saved, 
the  acquisition  of  a  portion  of  the  old  Spanish  empire  by  a  French 
prince  was  but  a  poor  compensation  for  Blenheim  and  Ramillies 
aud  Oudenarde ;  for  the  loss  of  the  frontier  fortresses  which  she 
was  compelled  to  restore  to  Holland ;  and  for  the  settlements  in 
North  America  which  she  ceded  to  England. 

Louis  was  an  old  man  when  he  signed  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht. 
He  had  been  seventy  years  on  the  throne.  But  he  still  retained 
considerable  vigour  of  constitution  and  activity  of  body.  He  was 
still  able  to  spend  hours  on  horseback  in  the  stag-hunts,  which 
had  always  been  among  his  most  favourite  pastimes ;  and  the 
courtiers  still  proclaimed  that  the  aim  with  which  he  brought 
down  the  game  was  as  true  as  ever.  Unhappily,  he  preserved  in 
an  equal  degree  the  fierce  intolerance  with  which  Madame  de 
Maintenon  and  the  Jesuits  had  inspired  him,  and  which  was  shar- 
pened by  a  greater  impatience  than  ever  of  any  conduct  which 
seemed  to  disregard  his  claims  to  universal  deference  and  obedience. 
Even  while  the  whole  attention  of  the  nation  was  concentrated  on 
the  war  of  succession,  he  could  find  time  aud  energy  for  persecu- 


^  Philip  obtained  Spain  and  the  of  Naples,  and  the  Netherlands,  to 
American  settlements ;  but  was  forced  the  Emperor,  and  Sicily  to  the  Duke 
to  give  up  the  Milanese,  the  kingdom     of  Savoy. 


324  MODEEN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1713. 

lion.  Because  F^nelon,  arclibishop  of  Cambrai,  one  of  the  most 
eminent  prelates  that  had  ever  adorned  the  Galilean  Church,  and 
whom  he  had  himself  selected  to  be  the  tutor  of  his  most  promising 
grandson,  the  Duke  of  Burgundy,  had  defended  the  intentions, 
though  not  the  language,  of  a  Madame  de  Guyon,  in  whom  grief  for 
the  loss  of  her  husband  had  bred  an  impulsive  devotion  which  had 
rather  unhinged  her  reason,  but  whose  gentle  disposition  and  effusive 
sentiment  had  attracted  a  number  of  followers,  who  called  them- 
selves the  Quietists,  he  banished  Fenelon  to  his  diocese,  deprived 
all  his  relations  who  had  posts  about  the  court  of  their  offices, 
and  even  compelled  the  parliament  of  Dijon  to  condemn  a  priest, 
who  had  advocated  some  of  the  Quietist  opinions,  to  the  stake ; 
and  then,  as  if  excited  by  his  victory  over  the  old  archbishop,  he 
proceeded  to  renew  his  efforts  for  the  suppression  of  Jansenism,  ot 
which  he  seems  to  have  looked  on  Quietism  as  a  sort  of  offshoot ; 
though,  in  fact,  there  was  not  the  slightest  resemblance  between 
the  doctrines  of  the  two  sects,  beyond  the  circumstance  that  both 
regarded  religion  as  a  deep  feeling  influencing  the  heart  and  con- 
duct rather  than  as  an  affair  of  mere  ceremonious  formality.  But 
the  alarm  of  the  Jesuits  had  been  revived  and  increased  by  the 
reputation  and  influence  which  a  new  Jansenist  preacher.  Father 
Quesnel,  had  recently  acquired ;  and  they  at.  last  succeeded  in 
inducing  the  Pope  to  identify  himself  with  their  party.  Clement 
XI.  issued  a  Bull  condemning  the  five  propositions  (as  they  were 
called)  of  Jansen ;  and  Louis  ordered  all  the  inmates  of  Port- 
Royal  to  sign  a  document  declaring  their  acceptance  of  and  sub- 
mission to  the  Bull ;  and,  on  their  refusal,  commanded  the  total 
destruction  of  the  convent,  rasing  the  buildings  to  the  ground, 
and  even  causing  their  cemetery  to  be  dug  up,  and  the  ashes  of 
the  holy  men  and  women  of  old,  who  had  been  buried  there,  to 
be  scattered  to  the  air. 

It  was  one  of  his  last  acts  of  tyranny.  The  last  years  of  his 
life  were  clouded  in  an  extraordinary  degree  by  domestic  calamities. 
Ilia  legitimate  descendants  were  very  few :  of  his  sons  the 
Dauphin  alone  had  grown  up  to  manhood ;  and  besides  Philip, 
who,  as  we  have  seen,  had  already  become  king  of  Spain,  he  had 
only  two  grandsons,  the  Dukes  of  Burgundy  and  Berri.  They,  how- 
ever, were  regarded  with  general  affection  throughout  the  kingdom, 
as  princes  of  virtue,  amiable  dispositions,  and  general  promise  ; 
but  in  the  last  years  of  the  reign  they  were  carried  off,  one  after 
the  other,  with  strange  and  melancholy  rapidity.  The  smallpox 
had  for  some  years  raged  in  Paris  with  extraordinary  virulence, 
and  had  been  especially  fatal  among  the  higher  classes ;  many  of 
the  nobles,  and,  among  them,  some  of  the  ministers,  were  carried 
off.     In  1700  Louis's  cousin,  the  Prince  de  Cond^,  died  of  it;  he 


A.D.  1715.]  DEATH  OF  LOUIS  XIV.  325 

was  followed  by  his  son,  the  Dute  de  Bourbon.  Within  the  next 
two  years  the  Dauphin,  his  eldest  son  the  Duke  of  Burgundy,  and 
that  prince's  eldest  son,  the  heir  of  the  monarchy,  became  its 
victims.  And  in  1714  the  Duke  of  Berri  perished  more  miserably 
than  any  of  his  relations,  if,  as  was  almost  universally  believed, 
he  was  poisoned  by  his  wife,  the  daughter  of  his  cousin,  the  Duke 
of  Orleans  ;  a  woman  whose  open  defiance  of  all  decency  and  noto- 
rious infamy  of  character  had  caused  frequent  and  open  quarrels 
between  himself  and  her,  and  had  led  him  more  than  once  to 
threaten  her  with  confinement  in  a  convent. 

Louis  showed  very  little  feeling  for  any  of  these  losses.  When 
his  son  died  he  was  seized  with  a  sudden  fit  of  such  unseasonable 
economy  that  he  even  grudged  him  a  decent  funeral,  ordering  his 
coffin  to  be  conveyed  to  St.-Denis  in  one  of  his  ordinary  carriages, 
undistinguished  by  any  mark  of  mourning.  And  the  death  of  the 
Duke  of  Berri  he  seemed  even  to  regard  with  satisfaction,  in  the 
hope  that,  if  the  young  Duke  of  Anjou,  the  sole  surviving  son  of 
the  Duke  of  Burgundy,  who  was  a  very  sickly  infant,  should  also 
die,  he  might  be  able  to  secure  the  succession  to  the  throne  for 
the  Duke  of  Maine,  his  chief  favourite  among  his  natural  children. 
But  if  more  heartless  than  ever,  he  was  also  growing  more  super- 
stitious. He  began  to  regard  the  deaths  of  those  so  much  younger 
as  omens  of  his  own  approaching  end  ,*  and  his  fears  had  a  natural 
tendency  to  realise  themselves.  In  the  spring  of  1715  those  in 
attendance  on  him  began  to  remark  a  change  in  his  appearance : 
from  that  time  his  strength  rapidly  decayed ;  by  the  middle  of 
August  he  was  known  to  be  dying  ;  and  rarely  has  the  death-bed 
of  a  sovereign  presented  a  more  melancholy  or  more  instructive 
lesson.  He  had  never  had  the  art  of  making  friends  ;  his  palace 
was,  indeed,  still  thronged  with  courtiers,  but  no  word  of  respect 
or  sympathy  for  the  dying  man  was  heard  from  their  lips,  but  only 
questions  of  curiosity  as  to  the  possible  duration  of  his  life  and 
the  contents  of  his  will.  His  family  stood  around ;  but  they  too 
thought  only  of  themselves.  Even  his  wife  and  his  son  had  no 
desire  but  that  he  should  have  strength  enough  to  add  a  codicil  or 
two  in  their  favour,  and  before  his  death  the  lady  left  him  alto- 
gether. She  had  not  been  pleased  at  his  telling  her  that  the 
greatest  comfort  which  he  had  in  leaving  her  was  the  reflection 
that,  at  her  age,  she  might  be  expected  soon  to  rejoin  him.  And 
she  apparently  resolved  to  show  him  that,  in  her  opinion,  since 
they  were  so  soon  to  meet  in  heaven,  they  might  afford  for  the 
future  to  dispense  with  each  other's  society  on  earth.  Once  he 
sent  a  messenger  to  beg  her  to  return  to  him  ;  she  came  for  a  few 
hours,  but  again  quitted  him ;  and  her  cold  ingratitude  seemed  to 
affect  him  more  than  his  bodily  sufferings,  severe  aa  they  often 


326  MODEEN  HISTORY.  [a-b.  1715. 

were.     Those,  however,  he  bore  with  great  fortitude  and  equani- 
mity. 

Nothinj?  in  life 
Became  him  like  the  leaving  it. 

He  reproved  some  of  the  courtiers  whom  he  saw  weeping,  or 
pretending  to  weep,  with  the  question  whether  they  had  ever 
regarded  him  as  immortal.  He  sent  for  his  gi'eat-grandson,  who, 
though  a  child  only  five  years  old,  had  now  become  his  heir ;  and 
tried,  by  good  advice,  to  render  him  sensible  of  the  duties  of  the 
grand  position  which  was  about  to  devolve  on  him :  warning  him 
against  following  his  own  example,  in  fondness  for  war  and  for 
magnificent  buildings ;  and  urging  him  to  encourage  a  reverence 
for  religion  and  virtue  among  his  people.  And  on  the  first  of  Sep- 
tember he  died. 

We  have  seen  that  Louis  was  extravagantly  overrated,  or  rather 
flattered,  in  his  own  day  ;  when  the  city  of  Paris,  by  a  formal 
vote,  conferred  on  him  the  title  of  '  The  Great,'  and  when  that 
title  was  confirmed  by  the  obsequious  adulation  of  poets,  annalists, 
orators,  and  even  preachers.  We  have  seen  also  that  the  very 
next  generation  annulled  the  flattery  ;  since  Voltaire  bears  witness 
that  in  the  next  reign  he  was  no  longer  spoken  of  with  any  such 
addition.  And  Voltaire's  contemporaries  were  in  this  wiser  and 
juster  than  their  fathers,  since  certainly  there  have  been  very  few 
sovereigns  not  only  less  entitled  to  the  admiration  of  posterity,  but 
in  greater  need  of  its  most  indulgent  construction,  if  they  are  to  be 
regarded  with  any  feelings  save  those  of  detestation  and  contempt. 
Indeed,  before  the  close  of  his  own  reign  all  the  popularity  with 
which  the  successes  of  his  earlier  days  had  invested  him  had  been 
entirely  extinguished :  and  the  intelligence  of  his  death  was  re- 
ceived with  undissembled  joy  by  the  people  in  general,  who  traced 
the  terrible  distress  under  which  they  had  long  groaned  to  his 
inordinate  extravagance,  and  still  more  wanton  and  boundless 
ambition,  and  who  well  knew  that  he  had  never  shown  any  feel- 
ing for  their  misery,  nor  ever  made  any  efibrt  to  relieve  it.  It 
may  be  admitted  that  he  was  endowed  by  nature  with  fair 
abilities  ;  that  he  gradually  improved  them  in  some  points  by  an 
industrious  attention  to  the  details  of  business,  of  which  his 
grandfather  Henry  had  indeed  set  him  the  example,  but  which, 
nevertheless,  sovereigns  had  not  usually  practised  ;  and  that  the 
fruit  of  this  diligence  was  beneficially  seen  in  the  sanction  and 
support  which  he  gave  to  the  measures,  by  which  his  different 
mJhisters,  and  especially  Colbert,  sought  to  develop  and  augment 
the  resources  of  the  countiy,  to  facilitate  the  internal  communica- 
tion between  different  provinces,  and  to  encourage  domestic  trade 
and  foreign  commerce.     Nor  has  it  ever  been  questioned  that  he 


A.D.  1715.]  CHARACTER  OF  LOUIS.  327 

excelled  in  grace  and  dignity  of  manner,  in  that  art  of  dealing 
with  others  which  is  called  tact,  and  in  that  sort  of  kingly  elo- 
quence which  is  displayed  in  neat  and  appropriate  speeches.  But 
of  any  more  substantial  good  qualities  he  was  utterly  destitute. 
The  obligations  of  honour  and  good  faith  he  systematically  re- 
pudiated.' To  his  most  faithful  servants  and  ministers  he  wjis 
capricious  and  ungrateful.  As  a  persecutor  of  those  of  his  sub- 
jects who  differed  from  him  in  religion  he  was  as  inhuman  as  his 
predecessor  Francis  or  as  Philip  of  Spain ;  while,  for  any  parallel 
to  the  deliberate  ferocity  with  which  he  ordered  the  devastation 
of  the  countries  with  which  he  was  at  war,  we  must  go  back 
to  the  exploits  of  the  half-civilised  Attila  or  Genseric.  Though 
continually  forcing  his  neighbours  into  war  by  the  most  unpro- 
voked aggressions,  he  was  himself  so  far  from  being  animated 
with  the  spirit  of  chivalrous  enterprise  that  he  was  devoid  even 
of  that  animal  courage  which  is  an  especial  attribute  of  his  country- 
men in  general.  In  his  private  life  he  was  profligate  and  licentious, 
beyond  even  the  foulest  traditions  of  his  ancestors.  Nor  can  it 
be  said  that  Tiis  vices  were  degrading  only  to  himself.  They  had 
the  most  fatal  influence  on  the  nation  at  large,  accelerating  the 
demoralisation  of  all  classes  which  had  indeed  been  long  at  work,  but 
which  had  never  proceeded  with  such  giant  strides  as  during  this 
reign ;  when,  as  one  keen  observer  remarks,^  it  began  to  aflect  the 
language  itself,  and  the  very  term  which  hitherto  had  implied 
virtuous  integrity  ^  came  to  mean  nothing  better  than  an  unpol- 
ished unsuspicious  fool. 

The  military  triumphs,  which  at  the  time  of  the  Treaty  of 
Nimeguen  won  the  admiration  of  the  Parisians,  were  more  than 
effficed  by  the  long  train  of  defeats  which  his  armies  sustained 
from  Marlborough  and  Eugene  in  the  "War  of  the  Succession ; 
a  war  which,  as  we  have  seen,  was  brought  on  by  his  deliberate 
and  shameless  violation  of  his  most  recent  engagements.  But 
one  glory  which  distinguished  his  reign  cannot  be  taken  from  it, 
and  it  is  that  which  makes  his  age  a  conspicuous  and  honorable 
landmark  in  the  history  of  the  nation.  It  was  the  period  in 
which  France  founded  and  established  her  claim  to  that  eminence 
in  literature  and  science  for  which  she  has  ever  since  been  so 
honorably  distinguished.  According  to  Voltaire,  it  was  now  that 
for  the   first   time   the   language   became  settled,*   through  the 

1  In  a  long  paper  of  instructions  are  drawn. — 3feinnires  historiques. 

which,  in  his  advanced  years,  he  drew  ^  Essai  sur    V Etahlissement   mo- 

up  for  the  instruction  of  his  grand-  narchique  de   Louis  XIV,   p.    174. 

son,  as  his  heir,  he  speaks  of  treaties  (Lemontez). 

as  only  meant  to  be  broken,  and  to  ^  '  Ilonnete  homme.' 

be  observed  the  less  in  exact  proper-  *  Steele  de  Louis  XIV,  c.  32,  37. 
Aon  to  the  strictness  in  which  they 


328  MODERN  HISTOEY.  [a.d.  1715. 

purity  of  style  and  delicacy  of  taste  which  were  displayed  by 
Pascal ;  and  which,  as  forming  a  standard  by  which  to  measure 
all  subsequent  compositions,  make  the  Provincial  Letters  more 
memorable  than  even  the  exuberance  of  their  wit,  the  keenness  of 
their  logic,  or  the  loftiness  of  the  feeling  which  animates  them. 
And  Pascal  had  hardly  closed  his  career  when  writers  of  every 
class  arose,  by  the  variety  of  their  labours,  to  give  a  further 
development  to  the  powers  and  a  further  exhibition  of  the  riches 
of  the  language.  Corneille,  indeed,  had  laid  the  foundation  of 
his  fame  by  the  Cid  in  the  previous  reign ;  but  Racine,  who  be- 
longs wholly  to  this  age,  at  least  equalled  him  in  poetical  genius, 
and  in  the  general  opinion  of  his  countrymen,  surpassed  him  in 
the  delineation  of  the  passions  to  which  tragedy  owes  its  power  : 
as  a  comic  dramatist,  Moliere  has  perhaps  no  superior  in  any 
country,  except  ourown  Shakspeare :  as,  in  somewhat  kindred 
classes  of  composition,  Le  Sage  stands  high  in  the  first  class  of 
novelists,  and  Boileau  is  still  the  keenest  of  modern  satirists. 
No  great  historian  as  yet  came  forward ;  but  we  shall  look  in  vain 
in  any  other  country  or  in  any  other  period  of  French  literature  for 
Memoir  writers,  whose  works  are  adorned  with  wit,  animation, 
and  even  candour  and  honesty,  equal  to  those  which  attract  and 
fascinate  the  reader  in  the  works  of  Madame  de  Motteville, 
Madame  de  Montpensier,  de  E-etz,  and  St.-Simon.  While  the 
name  of  Madame  de  Sevigne  has  become  almost  proverbial  for 
that  combination  of  tenderness  of  feeling,  correctness  of  judgment, 
sprightliness  of  wit,  and  liveliness  of  description,  with  which  she 
almost  daily  transmitted  to  her  distant  friends  alike  the  news  of 
the  whims,  the  changing  fashions  and  intrigues  of  the  court,  and 
of  the  weightier  transactions  which  affected  the  ministry  and  the 
kingdom.  Of  late  years  France  can  boast  of  but  few  distingui- 
shed students  of  the  ancient  languages  ;  but  the  reign  of  which  we 
are  speaking  produced  Mabillon,  Montfaucon,  llollin,  and  Madame 
Dacier,  who  maintain  even  in  our  own  day  a  just  claim  to  the 
attention  and  gratitude  of  classical  scholars.  While,  in  the  less 
flowery  but  more  fruitful  paths  of  science,  Pascal,  pre-eminent 
as  a  mathematician,  before  he  attained  his  wider  fame  as  a  contro- 
versialist ;  Malebranche,  the  first  French  metaphysician  ;  de  L'Isle 
the  first  scientific  geographer ;  Vauban  still  the  most  celebrated 
of  military  engineers ;  and  Kiquet,  whose  great  canal  of  Langue- 
doc,  of  which  he  was  both  the  projector  and  the  constructor,  is 
unapproached  by  any  similar  work  in  Europe,  all  belong  entirely 
to  this  age.  It  must  be  added,  that  most  of  these  great  men  were 
stimulated  to  the  highest  exertion  of  their  genius  by  the  judicious 
encouragement  of  royal  favour  which,  if  originally  stimulated  and 
set  in  acti'^a  by  Colbert,  was,  after  his  death,  still  steadily  dis- 


A.D.  1715.]  CHAEACTER   OF  THE  AGE.  329 

played  towards  all  worthy  objects  by  the  king's  spontaneous 
munificence.  We  may  not,  indeed,  allow  that  Louis  was,  in  any 
sense  of  the  word,  a  great  king ;  but  it  certainly  cannot  be  denied 
that  his  reign,  the  longest  that  has  ever  been  granted  to  any 
monarch,  was  a  great  age.^ 

*  The  authorities  for  the  preceding  Simon,     Villara,    Berwick,    Prince 

chapter,  besides  the  rej^ular  Histories  Eugene,  the   Lettres  of  Madame  de 

of  France,  are   Voltaire's  Steele  de  Sevign^,      ind    Stephen's     Lecture 

Louis  XI  Vt  the  3Iemoires  of  St.-  xxiii. 


330  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1682. 


CHAPTER    Xy. 
A.D.  1682  —  1725. 

IN  a  former  chapter  it  has  been  mentioned  that,  shortly  after  the 
Duke  of  Lorraine's  victory  of  Mohacz,  a  Russian  army  invaded 
the  Crimea,  and  that,  ten  years  later,  Russia  became  a  party  to 
the  peace  of  Carlowitz.  Though  her  influence  on  the  arrange- 
ments  then  concluded  was  small,  her  accession  to  the  treaty  has  an 
importance  of  its  own,  since  it  marks  the  introduction  among  the 
nations  of  Christendom  of  a  people  destined  from  that  time  forth 
to  play  a  considerable,  sometimes  even  a  leading  part  in  the 
affairs  of  Europe  and  of  the  world ;  and  its  rise  and  power  are  so 
wholly  the  work  of  one  extraordinary  man,  that  a  few  pages  may 
be  well  employed  in  the  endeavour  to  give  some  idea  of  his  prin- 
cipal actions  and  of  his  character.  Not,  indeed,  that  his  country 
had  not  been  previously  in  some  degree  known  to  the  Western 
nations.  As  early  as  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.  an  attempt  to  dis- 
cover a  northern  passage  to  India  had  led  an  English  ship  to 
Archangel,  from  which  some  hardy  explorers  had  penetrated  to 
Moscow.  And,  in  the  next  generation,  the  Czar  of  Muscovy,  for 
such  was  then  the  name  of  the  country  and  the  title  of  its  sove- 
reign, sent  embassies  successively  to  Mary  and  Elizabeth ;  the 
first  to  establish  a  trade  with  a  kingdom  which  had  already  a 
reputation  for  wealth  and  enterprise,  the  second  to  beg  for  an 
English  wife.  Both  queens  cordially  entered  into  the  first  object: 
and  Elizabeth  would  willingly  have  aided  the  Czar  to  obtain  his 
second  wish  ;  but  so  destitute  of  all  humane  civilisation  was  the 
Muscovite  nation  understood  to  be,  that  no  English  lady  could  be 
found  to  listen  to  his  suit,  though  a  crown  was  to  be  the  price  ot 
her  compliance. 

But,  in  the  middle  of  the  next  century,  the  throne  devolved  on  a 
prince  named  Alexis,  who,  though  insensible  or  indifferent  to  the 
want  of  civilisation  which  prevailed  among  his  subjects,  had  a 
Avarlike  spirit  which  prompted  him  to  desire  to  extend  his  own 
power.  He  ventured  to  defy  the  Turks,  though  they  had  wrested 
more  than  one  town  and  province  from  his  neighbour,  the  King  of 
Poland ;  and  he  even  planned  the  formation  of  a  league  with  the 


A.D.  1682.]      ACCESSION   OF  PETEK  THE  GREAT.  331 

Pope  and  those  sovereigns  whom  the  Court  of  Rome  could  chiefly 
influence,  which  should  have  for  its  object  the  stripping  the  Sultan 
of  all  his  recent  conquests  in  Europe.  But  an  early  death  pre- 
vented him  from  carrying  out  his  designs:  his  eldest  son  and 
successor,  Feodor,  died  after  a  reign  too  brief  to  allow  him  to 
form  any  projects  of  conquest ;  his  second  son,  Ivan,  was  imbecile 
from  his  birth  ;  and  his  third  son,  Peter,  the  child  of  a  second 
marriage,  to  whom,  in  consequence  of  Ivan's  incapacity,  Feodor 
bequeathed  his  dominions,  was,  at  his  accession,  only  ten  years  of 
age.  So  young  a  child  was  at  first,  of  course,  a  sovereign  only  in 
name.  And  it  was  not  without  a  sharp  struggle  and  a  display  of 
decision  and  resolution  very  rare  in  a  youth  that  he  eventually 
established  himself  in  real  authority.  Ivan  had  a  sister,  Sophia,  a 
woman  of  great  ambition  and  of  no  inconsiderable  talent,  who 
conceived  the  idea  of  profiting  by  Peter's  tender  age  to  make  her- 
self mistress  of  the  government.  By  liberal  gifts  and  promises,  she 
gained  over  the  Strelitzes,  an  unruly  and  ferocious  brigade,  who, 
however,  were  the  only  organised  force  of  the  Empire ;  and,  claim- 
ing to  exercise  the  supreme  authority  in  the  name  of  Ivan,  who, 
as  she  represented  the  matter,  had  been  unjustly  and  causelessly 
passed  over,  she  stimulated  them  to  an  insurrection,  in  which  all 
the  maternal  relations  of  the  young  Peter  were  cruelly  massacred  j 
and  at  the  end  of  which  she  herself  was  formally  proclaimed  by 
them  regent  of  the  Empire.  As  such  she  reigned  with  absolute 
power  for  seven  years.  But,  as  Peter  grew  up,  she  began  to  per- 
ceive that  he  would  not  long  acquiesce  in  being  thus  superseded  ; 
and  the  steps  which  she  took  to  secure  herself  in  her  usurpation 
ruined  her.  "When  he  had  reached  the  age  of  seventeen,  she 
engaged  a  division  of  the  Strelitzes  to  seize  him,  undoubtedly  with 
the  intention  that  his  death  should  follow  his  arrest.  But  her 
plot  was  betrayed  to  the  young  Czar,  who  turned  her  design 
against  herself.  He  took  refuge  in  a  convent :  called  the  chief 
boyards  or  nobles  of  the  land  around  him,  and  gained  over  the 
principal  officers  of  the  Strelitzes  themselves.  Sophia  was  arrested, 
with  her  chief  advisers  and  partisans  :  they  were  executed,  she  was 
sent  to  a  convent ;  and  from  June  1689  we  may  date  the  real  begin- 
ning of  a  reign  as  glorious  to  the  sovereign  and  as  beneficial  to  the 
subject  as  any  recorded  in  history. 

Even  the  exultation  natural  to  one  who  thus  suddenly  found 
himself  emancipated  from  control,  and  possessed  of  unlimited 
authority,  did  not  dazzle  Peter's  sober  practical  intellect.  He  had 
already  formed  a  high  and  just  estimate  of  the  duties  of  such  a 
position  as  he  had  attained,  and  of  the  qualifications  necessary  for 
their  performance  ;  and,  what  is  rarer  still,  he  had  taken  a  correct 
measure  of  the  degree  in  which  he  himself  was  deficient  in  those 


332  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1682. 

qualifications.  Sophia  had  purposely  neglected  his  education,  and 
had  even  done  her  best  to  corrupt  his  mind  by  encouraging  him  in 
habits  of  self-indulgence  ;  so  that  he  was  as  yet  ignorant  of  every- 
thing beyond  the  merest  rudiments  of  Icnowledge.  But  he  was 
aware  and  ashamed  of  his  ignorance.  He  was  equally  aware,  and 
equally  ashamed,  of  the  degraded  condition  of  his  people,  who,  in 
the  greater  part  of  his  wide  dominions,  were  in  a  state  of  semi-bar- 
barism, and  who  were  nowhere  far  elevated  above  it.  And  he  was 
resolved  to  remove  this  stigma  from  them  and  from  himself.  He 
was  ambitious  with  an  honorable  ambition  :  with  the  desire  of 
ruling  over  a  civilised  and  improving  people,  instead  of  over  a 
horde  of  debased  barbarians  contented  in  their  debasement.  And 
he  felt  that  the  education  which  he  desired  to  spread  must  begin 
at  home  :  that  he  must  instruct  himself  first,  and  lead  his  subjects 
to  appreciate  and  desire  instruction  by  the  contemplation  of  his 
own  example.  History  furnishes  many  other  instances  of  self- 
educated  men ;  but  not  one  of  a  man  who  set  about  to  educate 
himself  with  a  nobler  object. 

The  nations  of  western  Europe  of  which  he  as  yet  knew  most 
were  the  Germans  and  the  Dutch.  On  a  portion  of  his  frontier 
the  Germans  were  his  neighbours,  and  many  of  their  manufactures 
had  found  their  way  into  the  Muscovite  towns.  Dutch  vessels  had 
for  some  time  carried  on  a  traffic  in  the  Baltic ;  and  his  own  father 
had  induced  some  shipbuilders  of  Amsterdam  to  build  him  some 
small  sailing-boats  suited  for  the  navigation  of  the  Volga.  But 
Peter  was  resolved  to  have  manufactories,  dockyards,  and  work- 
men of  his  own  ;  and  with  that  view  he  applied  himself,  in  the  first 
instance,  to  learn  the  languages  of  those  two  countries,  with  the 
intention  of  visiting  them  when  he  should  have  enabled  himself  to 
communicate  with  the  inhabitants,  and  when  he  should  have 
established  his  power  at  home  on  so  secure  a  foundation  that  it 
should  not  be  liable  to  be  overthrown  in  his  absence.  For  nothing 
in  him  was  more  remarkable  than  the  patience  (so  different  from 
the  usual  impetuosity  alike  of  ignorance  and  of  despotic  power) 
with  which  he  allowed  sufficient  time  for  his  different  under- 
takings. It  was  indispensable  that,  before  he  quitted  his  kingdom, 
though 'for  ever  so  short  a  time,  he  should  organise  a  force  capable 
of  curbing  the  Strelitzes ;  and  he  proceeded  \^  n'ais^  i;.xvn  I'ep^i^enta^ 
one  commanded  by  General  Gordon,  a  Scotch  officer,  and  composed 
wholly  of  foreigners,  and  in  great  part  of  Protestant  refugees, 
whom  the  revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes  had  driven  from 
France  ;  the  other  of  native  Muscovites,  with  veteran  soldiers  for 
the  commanders,  and  a  number  of  young  nobles  for  subalterns ;  in 
which,  to  inculcate  discipline  and  subordination  on  every  class  of 
his  subjects,  he  himself  served  for  a  few  weeks  as  a  drummer-boy^ 


L.B,  1682.]  THE  CAPTURE   OF  AZOV.  333 

then  as  a  private  soldier,  and  was  successively  promoted  to  a  ser- 
geant's halbert,  and  to  a  lieutenant's  commission  ;  and  it  was  not 
less  characteristic  of  his  temper,  both  in  its  severity  and  its  disdain 
of  everything  unreal,  that  he  disciplined  his  recruits  for  war,  not 
by  peaceful  parades,  reviews  and  sham  fights,  but  by  actual  con- 
flict, in  which  the  different  divisions  fired  upon  and  charged  one 
another,  so  that  new  levies  were  required  to  fill  up  the  chasms  in 
the  ranks  caused  by  this  unexampled  system  of  training.  But 
even  more  than  to  the  task  of  raising  an  efficient  army  was  his 
attention  directed  to  becoming  the  master  of  a  powerful  fleet.  It 
was  a  fancy  adopted  in  spite  of  the  greatest  natural  obstacles  ;  for 
his  only  coast  was  that  which  was  washed  by  the  Arctic  Ocean, 
and  icebound  for  the  greater  part  of  the  year.  The  provinces 
which  fringed  the  Baltic  belonged  to  Sweden ;  and  though  the 
Don,  which  ran  through  his  territory,  did  fall  into  the  Sea  of  Azov, 
yet  Azov  itself,  the  town  at  the  mouth  of  that  great  river,  belonged 
to  the  Sultan.  But  one  prominent  feature  of  his  character  was 
indomitable  obstinacy.  Forming  his  designs  with  great  delibera- 
tion, he  never  relinquished  them  nor  allowed  any  difficulties  to 
damp  his  zeal  for  their  accomplishment.  And  thus,  throughout 
his  life,  nothing  could  change  his  resolution  to  make  the  Muscovites 
a  maritime  people,  though  not  even  in  Archangel,  his  only  port, 
was  there  a  single  Muscovite  vessel.  And  he  even  delayed  his 
project  of  foreign  travel,  in  order  to  lay  the  foundations  of  his  naval 
power.  He  attacked  Azov,  in  the  hope  of  thus  obtaining  an 
entrance  to  the  Mediterranean.  It  was  gallantly  defended  by  its 
governor,  Jacob,  a  native  of  Dantzic,  who,  for  some  quarrel  with 
his  superior  officers,  had  renounced  his  country  and  his  religion, 
and,  becoming  a  Mussulman,  had  obtained  promotion  in  the  Turkish 
army.  Peter  was  beaten  off,  and  forced  to  raise  the  siege.  He 
returned  the  next  year,  bringing  with  him  a  reinforcement  of 
engineers  and  artillerymen,  whom  he  had  obtained  from  the  Em- 
peror and  the  Elector  of  Brandenburgh ;  and,  at  the  same  time 
sending  a  flotilla  of  boats  down  the  river,  which,  to  his  great 
delight,  defeated  a  small  Turkish  squadron,  and  captured  some 
of  the  Turkish  caiques. 

Cut  off  from  its  supplies  by  this  success  Azov  fell :  and  Peter 
having  now,  as  he  flattered  himself,  secured  a  place  which  labour 
and  skill  might  form  into  a  sufficient  harbour  for  large  ships, 
and  which  had  a  direct  communication  with  the  Mediterranean, 
delayed  no  longer  to  carry  out  the  remainder  of  his  plans,  by 
visiting  the  countries  where  naval  architecture  was  brought  to  the 
highest  perfection,  and  maritime  science  was  best  understood, 
that  he  might  learn  everything  that  related  to  ships  and  sailors 
himself,  and  so  be  able  to  superintend  the  preparation  of  a  fleet. 


334  MODERN  HISTOBY.  [a.d.  1697. 

and  the  organization,  and  equipment  of  the  crews  with  the  pre- 
cision of  practical  and  personal  knowledge. 

At  the  same  time,  while  thus  fixing  his  own  mind  on  nothing 
hut  what  was  real  and  substantial,  he  could  see  that  show  and  pomp 
were  necessary  to  produce  an  impression  on  the  multitude ;  and 
to  inspire  the  people  in  general  with  a  martial  ardour,  and  to 
excite  them  to  look  forward  to  his  return  as  the  harbinger  of 
fresh  yictories,  he  resolved,  after  the  fashion  of  the  ancient 
Romans,  to  celebrate  his  return  to  Moscow,  by  a  triumph  for  the 
conquest  of  Azov.  He  entered  the  city  in  a  magnificent  proces- 
sion, the  crews  of  the  flotilla  which  had  captured  the  galleys  lead- 
ing the  way,  the  soldiers  who  had  invested  the  city  following ;  the 
prisoners  bringing  up  the  rear,  while,  to  complete  the  resemblance 
of  the  ceremony  to  the  scenes  which  the  Capitol  had  witnessed  in 
ancient  times,  Jacob,  the  governor,  to  whom  as  a  deserter  from 
his  prince's  service,  and  a  renegade  from  his  faith,  he  refused 
to  allow  the  rights  of  honorable  warfare,  was,  at  the  end  of  the 
ceremony,  removed  from  the  car  in  which  he  had  been  conveyed, 
and  hung  in  the  sight  of  his  fellow  prisoners.  And  even  this 
pageant,  the  ever-vigilant  Czar,  made  at  the  same  time  a  vehicle 
for  inculcating  the  principle  of  due  subordination.  He  did  not  take 
the  post  of  honour  to  himself.  In  a  military  procession  he  was 
still  but  a  lieutenant;  and  while  the  generals  rode  proudly 
through  the  streets  on  splendidly  caparisoned  chargers ;  he 
marched  in  their  train  among  the  subalterns,  noticeable  for  nothing 
but  the  strange  humility,  which  made  the  lord  of  all  exchange 
his  royal  dignity  for  his  military  rank. 

Having  made  careful  and  judicious  arrangements  for  the  tran- 
quillity of  his  dominions,  the  repression  of  any  attempt  at  insur- 
rection, and  the  orderly  conduct  of  the  administration  during  his 
absence,  in  the  summer  of  1697  he  quitted  his  capital  fcr 
Amsterdam ;  travelling  incognito,  not  as  p:inces  usually  under- 
stand the  word  when  they  relieve  their  hosts  and  themselves  of 
some  of  the  burdens  of  etiquette  by  the  assumption  of  some  title 
of  inferior  nobility,  which  is  recognised  just  as  often  as  con- 
venience dictates  ;  but  taking  on  him  not  only  the  name,  but  the 
habits  and  toils  of  a  common  artizan.  He  called  himself  Pierre 
Michaeloff;  and  establishing  himself  in  a  cottage  at  Sardam,  where 
was  the  principal  Dutch  dockyard,  he  worked  as  hard  as  any 
earner  of  ordinary  wages,  in  the  blacksmith's  forge,  in  the  saw- 
mills, in  the  rope  walk,  till  he  could  make  every  part  of  a  ship 
hull,  masts,  sails,  and  cordage  with  his  own  hands.  His  fellow 
workmen,  to  whom  his  rank  was  no  secret,  though  they  only 
called  him  Peterhas  or  Master  Peter,  were  delighted  at  the 
honour  done  to  their  criift,  and  to  themselves,  for  he  lived  amono 


A.D.  1698.]  HE  VISITS  ENGLAND.  335 

them  on  a  footing  of  perfect  equality  ;  but  some  ambassadors  who 
came  from  this  country  were  less  delighted  when,  on  seeking  an 
interview  with  him,  they  found  that  he  insisted  on  receiving  them 
at  the  mast-head  of  a  vessel  to  which  he  was  putting  the  finishing 
touches. 

From  Holland,  at  the  beginning  of  the  next  year,  he  crossed 
over  to  England ;  having  already  made  the  acquaintance  of  the 
king  himself  during  the  negotiations  which  had  preceded  the 
Treaty  of  Ilyswick :  William,  who  never  lost  an  opportunity  of 
forming  foreign  alliances,  receiving  him  with  as  much  honour  as 
was  consistent  with  the  concealment  of  his  rank,  though  he  did 
not  come  to  this  country  as  an  artisan,  but  as  a  private  gentleman 
travelling  for  information.  A  royal  yacht,  escorted  by  two  men- 
of-war,  was  sent  to  Ilelvoetsluys  for  his  conveyance,  and  Say's 
Court,  the  residence  of  the  celebrated  Evelyn,  was  fixed  for  his 
use,  because  it  joined  Deptford  Dockyard  ;  for  the  study  of  mari- 
time matters  was  still  his  darling  object,  though  his  chief  atten- 
tion was  now  directed  to  the  management  of  vessels  rather  than 
to  their  construction,  and  day  after  day  he  might  be  seen  in  com- 
pany with  the  surveyor  of  the  navy,  Sir  Anthony  Deane,  sailing  a 
small  yacht  in  the  Thames,  or  rowing  a  wherry  with  his  own 
hands.  He  was  greatly  delighted  when  William  made  him  a 
present  of  a  man-of-war,  which  he  learnt  how  to  steer.  And  when 
for  his  amusement,  a  naval  sham-fight  between  two  squadrons  of 
six  sail  of  the  line  was  exhibited  at  Spithead,  his  admiration  of 
what  he  saw  was  so  great  that  he  told  Admiral  Mitchell,  who  had 
been  the  commander-in-chief,  that  he  looked  upon  a  British 
admiral  as  one  with  whom  a  Czar  of  Muscovy  might  gladly  ex- 
change conditions.  The  sailors  were  naturally  flattered  by  his 
esteem  of  their  profession,  and  repaid  it  by  an  enthusiastic  wel- 
come whenever  he  appeared  amongst  them;  but  with  other 
classes  he  was  less  popular.  Quakers  he  pronounced  useless 
citizens  of  any  country^  since  they  would  not  bear  arms ;  lawyers 
he  regarded  with  still  greater  disfavour,  marvelling  at  the  number 
whom  he  saw  in  Westminster  Hall,  and  declaring  that  there  were 
but  two  in  all  Russia,  and  that  he  thought  of  hanging  one  of 
them  on  his  return ;  and  they  repaid  his  disapproval  with  ridicule 
of  his  uncouth  manners,  and  gluttony  :  while  Bishop  Burnet  dis- 
paraged his  abilities  because  he  seemed  indifferent  to  religion,  or 
at  least  to  controversy.  His  landlord  liked  him  least  of  all,  for 
Evelyn  was  nice  about  his  furniture,  and  especially  proud  of  his 
garden,  which  had  no  equal  in  England,  but  Peter  tore  up  his 
trim  alleys,  broke  through  his  holly  hedges ;  and  the  habits  of 
himself  and  of  all  his  suite  were,  as  Evelyn's  servants  reported 
to  him,  so  '  right  nasty,'  that  the  destruction  they  wrought  in  the 


336  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1682. 

house  was  worse  than  their  devastation  of  the  grounds.  And, 
after  their  departure,  the  treasury  was  put  to  a  considerable  ex- 
pense to  repair  the  damage  inflicted  on  the  whole  property  by  the 
unseemly  foulness  of  its  royal  occupant. 

By  magnificent  offers,  which,  however,  it  is  said,  were  so  little 
fulfilled,  that  those  who  had  relied  on  them  found  afterwards  that 
they  could  neither  obtain  their  pay,  nor  permission  to  leave  the 
country,  he  induced  a  number  of  Englishmen  to  return  with  him 
to  Kussia ;  chiefly  selecting  those  who  were  skilled  in  different 
branches  of  the  sailors'  or  shipbuilders'  arts,  but  not  neglecting 
practitioners  of  other  useful  arts,  especially  mechanics  and  surgery, 
both  of  which  he  himself  had  studied  with  some  success,  so  as  to 
become  a  proficient  in  bleeding  and  tooth-drawing,  which,  after 
his  return,  he  occasionally  practised,  to  the  annoyance  of  those 
whom  he  compelled  to  be  his  patients.  From  England,  he  had 
proposed  to  cross  over  to  France ;  but  Louis,  for  some  reason 
which  is  not  easy  to  be  explained,  excused  himself  from  receiving 
him ; '  Leopold,  on  the  other  hand,  entertained  him  with  splendid 
hospitality  at  Vienna ;  and  the  Pope  expressed  great  eagerness 
that  he  should  visit  him  at  Rome ;  hoping  thus  to  effect  an  union 
between  the  Greek  and  the  Romish  Churches.  But  while  he  was 
still  in  the  Austrian  capital,  intelligence  reached  him  which  com- 
pelled him  to  hasten  back  to  Moscow. 

His  subjects  were  so  far  from  sharing  his  admiration  for  the 
civilisation  of  foreign  countries,  that  the  Strelitzes  looked  upon  it 
as  an  insult  j  while  the  priests  regarded  the  mere  act  of  travelling 
in  them  as  a  crime.  Of  this  superstitious  illiberality,  the  parti- 
sans of  Sophia,  who  had  become  more  numerous  during  her 
brother's  absence,  took  advantage.  Peter  had  requited  the  favours 
of  William  and  his  ministers  by  relaxing  the  ancient  prohibition 
against  the  importation  of  tobacco,  which  was  already  a  profitable 
branch  of  British  trade,  but  which  the  Muscovite  clergy  pro- 
denounced  to  be  condemned  by  our  Lord  himself,  as  that  which 
filed  a  man  by  coming  out  of  his  mouth.  Such  a  dispensation 
with  the  precepts  of  their  religion  in  one  point  seemed  to  their 
narrow  superstition  an  indication  of  hostility  to  the  religion  itself : 
and  politicians,  priests,  and  Strelitzes  rose  in  revolt  to  depose  the 
dangerous  reformer,  and  to  replace  Sophia  on  the  throne.  Peter 
had  reason  to  hasten  his  return  home ;  but  before  he  reached 
Moscow,  General  Gordon  had  already  quelled  the  insurrection, 
and  the  Czar  had  only  to  chastise  the  guilty,  which  he  did  with 
the  most  merciless  severity.  Many  w^ere  broken  on  the  wheel ; 
some,   even  women,  who  had  been  privy  to  the    treason,  were 

1  St.- Simon,  p.  101,  cd.  1829. 


A.D.  1699.]      SUPPRESSION   OF  THE  STRELITZES.  33/ 

buried  alive.  Sophia  herself  was  punished  by  the  erection  of  a 
gallows  in  front  of  her  own  windows,  on  which  many  of  her 
friends  suffered :  and  it  was  not  till  two  thousand  had  been  put  to 
death  that  his  fury  abated,  and  he  consented  to  pardon  the  rest, 
drafting  them  into  different  regiments,  and  abolishing  the  very 
name  of  Strelitz. 

It  may  be  that  he  was  not  in  his  heart  sorry  for  the  opportunity 
which  had  thus  been  afJbrded  him  of  teaching  all  his  subjects  the 
danger  of  resistance  to  his  will ;  for  he  had  never  disguised  from 
himself  the  reluctance  with  which  they  would  accept  his  reforms, 
and  reforms  of  all  kinds  he  was  resolved  to  introduce.  But,  after 
80  terrible  an  example  of  severity,  he  had  no  fear  of  meeting  any 
further  opposition  ;  and  he  now  proceeded  with  great  rapidity  in 
the  work  which  he  had  proposed  to  himself.  The  principal  prelates 
had  constantly  arrogated  to  themselves  privileges  inconsistent  with 
the  imperial  authority,  and  which  at  times  had  even  been  proved 
to  be  dangerous  to  it.  He  now  compelled  the  whole  body  of  the 
clergy  to  acknowledge  his  supremacy,  not  only  as  sovereign  of  the 
state,  but  as  head  of  the  Church,  by  an  oath  which  Voltaire  cha- 
racterises as  even  more  stringent  than  that  which  vested  the  same 
power  in  the  king  of  England.  The  whole  population  had  hitherto 
worn  long  garments  trailing  to  the  ground,  with  huge  loose 
breeches,  which  were  a  hindrance  to  vigorous  exertion  or  rapidity 
of  movement,  and  long  unsightly  beards,  to  all  of  which  they  clung, 
as  marking  the  di^erence  between  themselves  and  other  nations. 
But,  as  he  was  determined  to  extinguish  that  difference,  he  wisely 
concluded  that  the  first  step  was  to  efface  the  signs  of  it,  and  issued 
an  edict  commanding  all  men  to  adopt  the  dress  of  western  Europe 
and  to  shave  their  chins ;  though  so  deeply-rooted  were  their  old 
barbarian  prejudices  in  the  minds  of  the  people  that  several  years 
elapsed  before  general  obedience  was  paid  to  this  part  of  the  edict, 
even  in  spite  of  a  heavy  tax  which  was  imposed  on  all  who  neg- 
lected compliance.  But  even  those  most  bigoted  to  these  old 
fashions  could  not  long  shut  their  eyes  to  the  beneficial  effects 
which  began  to  flow  from  his  other  measures.  Schools  were 
founded  in  all  the  chief  towns  of  the  Empire.  Hospitals  were 
established  and  provided  with  able  physicians.  Printing-presses 
were  erected  and  set  to  work,  and  scholars  were  employed  to 
translate  into  Russian  the  most  celebrated  and  useful  works  which 
existed  in  other  languages.  He  even  condescended  to  interest 
himself  in  matters  which  no  legislator  had  ever  before  thought 
worthy  of  his  attention  :  encouraging  his  nobles  to  give  parties  and 
balls,  in  order  to  promote  social  intercourse  and  politeness  of 
manners,  and  exciting  the  ladies  to  vie  with  one  another  in  the 
adoption  of  French  fashions  of  dress.  Nothing  seemed  to  him 
16 


338  MODERN  HISTOEY.  Ta.d.  1609. 

"beneath  his  notit^e  which  could  tend  in  any  way  to  refine  the 
manners  of  his  people.  And  perhaps  one  measure  which  he 
adopted  to  implant  in  them  a  feeling  of  self-respect,  which  he 
wisely  judged  to  be  indispensable  to  making  others  respect  them, 
though  apparently  trifling,  argues  as  wise  a  magnanimity  as  any 
other.  His  predecessors  had  required  all  who  approached  them  to 
speak  of  themselves  as  slaves  of  the  throne  ;  he  abolished  the  usage, 
and  substituted  the  title  of  subjects,  hoping  that  the  western  ele- 
vation of  feeling  and  refinement  of  sentiment  would  be  gradually 
implanted  in  their  hearts  by  their  use  of  the  same  style  by  which 
a  Frenchman  described  his  relation  to  the  monarch  on  whom  he 
had  conferred  the  title  of  '  the  Great,'  or  the  Briton  his  towards  the 
prince  whom  his  own  vote  had  contributed  to  place  on  the  throne. 

And  with  care  equal  to  if  not  greater  than  that  which  he 
bestowed  on  other  objects  did  he  labour  on  the  formation  and 
organisation  of  his  army :  which,  indeed,  was  indispensable  to  his 
acquisition  of  a  powerful  fleet,  since  it  was  only  by  conquest  that 
he  could  acquire  maritime  provinces  and  harbours.  During  his 
visit  to  Vienna  he  had  paid  particular  attention  to  the  system 
adopted  in  the  Austrian  army,  which  the  recent  achievements  of 
the  Duke  of  Lorraine  and  Prince  Eugene  had  caused  to  be 
regarded  as  equal  even  to  the  French.  In  every  province  regi- 
ments were  raised  and  drilled  after  the  Austrian  method  ;  while 
the  Czar  himself  traversed  his  kingdom  to  and  fro  with  unwearied 
diligence ;  stimulating  the  commanders  everywhere  to  carry  out 
his  orders  by  the  vigilance  of  his  personal  inspection ;  but,  with 
judicious  forbearance,  abstaining  from  any  interference  with 
their  authority,  and  speaking  of  himself  as  a  subaltern  whose 
hopes  of  promotion  depended,  like  the  prospects  of  any  other 
soldier,  on  the  distinction  which  he  might  obtain  by  his  good 
conduct,  and  on  the  approbation  of  his  superiors. 

By  the  end  of  the  century  he  had  collected  a  force  but  little 
short  of  100,000  men ;  one  which  no  potentate  in  Europe  could  at 
that  time  outnumber.  And  he  was  eager  to  test  their  prowess 
by  measuring  them  against  a  foreign  enemy.  A  monarch  who 
has  this  ambition  can  easily  find  an  object  of  attack;  and  just 
at  this  moment  circumstances  seemed  to  invite  him  to  a  war 
which,  while,  if  successful,  it  would  give  him  the  sea  coast  which, 
above  all  acquisitions,  he  coveted,  would  also  wear  the  appearance 
of  being  undertaken  not  in  a  spirit  of  wanton  aggression,  but  for 
the  legitimate  purpose  of  recovering  territories  which  had  been 
wrested  from  Muscovy,  and  its  allies,  by  conquerors  of  former 
generations.  The  most  powerful  of  the  Northern  nations  was 
Sweden ;  whose  kings,  ever  since  the  time  of  the  great  Gustavus, 
had  been  constantly  extending  their  dominions  on  the  southern 


A.D.  1700.]  ACCESSION  OF  CHAELES  XII.  339 

side  of  the  Baltic ;  till  they  had  gradually  become  masters  of  the 
whole  of  the  Baltic  coast.  Charles  XL,  the  third  in  succes- 
sion from  Gustavus,  had  beeen  especially  successful,  conquering 
and  annexing  all  the  maritime  provinces  which  lay  between  the 
.icquisitions  of  Gustavus  and  Finland  ;  and  earning  for  himself  so 
widespread  and  honorable  a  renown  that  William  and  Louis  had 
agreed  to  accept  him  as  the  umpire  by  whose  impartial  arbitration 
they  should  terminate  their  long  and  sanguinary  quarrel.  But,  in 
the  midst  of  the  negotiations  at  Ryswick,  he  died  :  his  son,  who 
succeeded  him  on  the  throne,  was  a  boy  only  fifteen  years  of 
age;  and  it  was  not  strange  that  those  who  envied  or  feared 
Sweden  should  see  in  his  youth  an  opportunity  for  reducing  his 
power.  The  greater  part  of  the  Swedish  acquisitions  had  been 
made  at  the  expense  of  Poland ;  and  the  conduct  of  the  Swedish 
monarchs  had  not  been  such  as  to  dispose  the  inhabitants 
of  the  conquered  provinces  to  acquiesce  in  their  yoke.  On 
the  contrary,  they  had  ostentatiously  trampled  on  the  ancient 
privileges  of  the  people  :  and  when,  a  few  years  before  the  death 
of  Charles  XL,  Patkul,  a  noble  of  Livonia,  was  sent,  with  six 
other  deputies,  from  Riga  to  Stockholm,  to  remonstrate  against 
the  treatment  to  which  his  countrymen  were  exposed,  the  only 
answer  which  he  received  was  the  imprisonment  of  his  colleagues, 
and  a  sentence  of  death  against  himself.  He  escaped  before  it 
could  be  executed;  and,  having  now  injuries  of  his  own,  as  well 
as  of  his  native  land,  to  revenge,  bided  his  time  till  he  could  find 
an  opportunity  to  make  the  common  oppressor  repent  of  his 
tyranny. 

A  year  or  two  before  the  death  of  Charles  XL,  Augustus  the 
Elector  of  Saxony  had  been  elected  King  of  Poland ;  and  to  his 
court  Patkul  now  repaired,  to  point  out  to  him  how  easy  the 
youth  and  inexperience  of  Charles  XII.  must  render  the  task  of 
recovering  Livonia.  Peter,  on  his  return  from  Vienna,  had  already 
had  an  interview  with  Augustus,  in  which  the  same  project  had 
been  discussed.  A  formal  treaty  of  alliance  between  the  two 
princes  was  speedily  concluded,  and  strengthened  by  the  accession 
of  the  King  of  Denmark ;  and  in  the  spring  of  the  year  1700  the 
confederate  sovereigns  declared  war  against  Sweden,  and  began  a 
campaign  which  they  flattered  themselves  would  be  short  and 
triumphant,  by  attacking  Charles  at  three  points  at  once.  The 
Danes  overran  Holstein,  whose  duke  was  married  to  Charles's 
sister ;  Augustus  laid  siege  to  Riga ;  and  Peter,  with  an  army  of 
60,000  or  70,000  men,  invested  Narva,  a  town  of  the  small  pro- 
vince of  Ingria,  which  had  a  peculiar  value  in  his  eyes  from  the 
excellence  of  its  harbour. 

They  might  have  been  pardoned  for  thinking  their  combination 


340  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1700. 

irresistible,  for  the  whole  force  at  Charles's  disposal  did  not 
exceed  30,000  men ;  an  inferiority  in  numbers  for  which  the  ex- 
perience of  the  most  skilful  veteran  could  not  have  been  expected  to 
compensate.  But  there  was  nothing-  boyish  about  Charles,  except 
his  years.  In  many  respects  he  was  not  unlike  Peter  himself.  He 
rese:nbled  him  even  in  the  difficulties  which  at  first  opposed 
themselves  to  the  exercise  of  his  lawful  authority ;  for,  as  Sophia 
had  tried  to  usurp  the  power  which  belonged  to  the  Czar,  so 
the  dowager  queen,  Edvige  Eleanor,  to  whom  the  regency  of 
Sweden  had  been  bequeathed  by  Charles  XL,  was  eager  to  pro- 
long her  period  of  rule ;  and  it  was  not  without  a  struggle  that 
she  was  at  last  compelled  to  resign  it.  Charles  resembled  Peter, 
too,  in  some  features  of  his  disposition.  Young  as  he  was,  he  had 
a  resolute  unswerving  will,  irrepressible  energy,  and  dauntless 
courage.  He  was  equally  full  of  ambition ;  but  the  glory  which 
he  coveted  was  not  that  of  a  reformer  and  legislator,  but  that  of  a 
conqueror.  Alexander  the  Great  was  the  hero  whom  he  took  for 
his  model,  declaring,  while  still  a  child,  that  though  the  Mace- 
donian had  died  at  the  age  of  thirty-two,  he  had  lived  long 
enough  since  he  had  conquered  kingdoms.  And  it  was  not  per- 
haps without  a  secret  satisfaction  that  he  now  found  himself  in  a 
position  which  called  upon  him  to  emulate  his  prowess  by  con- 
tending against  overpowering  odds.  He  declared  to  his  council 
that,  while  he  would  never  have  begun  an  unjust  war,  he  was 
resolved  never  to  terminate  a  just  one,  but  by  the  destruction  of 
all  his  enemies.  And,  undismayed  by  the  confederacy  which  had 
been  formed  against  him,  he  took  his  measures  to  encounter  it 
with  as  great  calmness  as  if  he  had  long  been  habituated  to  con- 
front danger,  and  as  thorough  a  skill  as  if  he  had  been  accustomed 
to  command  armies  and  to  plan  campaigns.  He  proposed  to 
relieve  Holstein  by  attacking  Copenhagen  itself:  a  design  which 
his  most  trusted  adviser.  General  Renschild,  pronounced  worthy  of 
tlie  most  matured  judgment  of  the  great  Gustavus  ;  and  carried 
out  his  descent  on  Zealand,  with  such  vigour,  that  Frederic  IV., 
to  save  his  capital,  was  compelled  to  solicit  peace  on  condition  of 
desisting  from  hostilities  against  Holstein,  and  of  reimbursing  its 
duke  all  the  expense  to  which  he  had  been  put.  Augustus  was 
forced  to  raise  the  siege  of  Riga ;  and,  at  the  end  of  three  months, 
Charles  had  no  enemy  left  to  contend  with,  but  the  Czar. 

Peter,  however,  was  sufficiently  formidable  by  himself.  As  has 
been  already  said,  he  had  sixty  or  seventy  thousand  men  under 
the  walls  of  Narva ;  the  fortifications  of  which  were  so  weak  and 
ill- constructed,  and  the  garrison  so  inadequate,  that  it  seemed 
inconceivable  how  the  governor,  count  Hoorn,  had  been  able  to 
maintain  the  defence  for  a  single  week.     And  for  Charles,  with 


A.D.  1700.]  THE  SIEGE  OF  NARVA.  341 

20,000  men,  which  was  all  that  he  could  spare,  to  undertake  to 
compel  an  army  so  superior  in  numbers  to  raise  the  siege  seemed 
an  enterprise  of  insane  rashness.'  Yet  he  not  only  undertook  it, 
but  succeeded.  He  was  aware  that  the  difference  between  the  two 
armies  was  in  reality  far  less  than  it  appeared  to  be.  The  Swedes 
had  never  forgotten  the  tactics  which  they  had  learned  from  the 
great  warrior  who  had  won  the  victories  of  Leipsic  and  Lutzen ;  and 
Charles's  force,  though  small,  had  no  superior  in  Europe  for  disci- 
pline and  steadiness;  while  a  great  portion  of  the  Muscovite  host 
was  little  better  than  a  rabble.  Many  of  the  soldiers  had  bows 
and  arrows,  instead  of  muskets.  Not  a  few  had  neither  swords 
nor  pikes ;  but  wielded  heavy  clubs,  as  their  only  weapons  of 
offence ;  and  though  the  different  batteries  numbered  150  cannons, 
the  whole  army  could  not  furnish  one  trained  artilleryman.  The 
only  troops  really  worthy  of  the  name  of  soldiers  were  a  battalion  of 
12,000  French  refugees,  which  an  officer,  named  Le  Fort,  whom 
the  Czar  had  long  distinguished  with  peculiar  confidence,  had  levied 
and  trained ;  and  a  brigade  of  18,000  men,  into  which  the  sur- 
vivors of  the  old  Strelitz  regiment  had  been  drafted.  The  dis- 
parity, therefore,  between  the  two  armies  was  not  really  so  great 
as  at  first  sight  it  appeared  to  be :  though  had  the  whole  Musco- 
vite host  been  equal  to  Le  Fort's  brigade,  it  would  not  have 
affected  Charles's  resolution  to  attack  it !  The  operations  against 
Copenhagen  were  the  first  occasion  on  which  he  had  been  under 
fire ;  and,  as  he  heard  the  musket  balls  whistle  around  him,  he 
had  declared  that  theirs  for  the  future  should  be  his  only  music : 
his  victory  over  the  Danes  had  naturally  increased  his  confidence  j 
and,  in  a  military  point  of  view,  the  preservation  of  Narva  was  an 
object  for  which  it  was  worth  while  to  run  some  risk.  Peter  had 
already  been  six  weeks  in  front  of  it  when,  on  the  fifteenth  of 
November,  Charles  landed  in  the  Gulf  of  Riga  with  16,000 
infantry,  and  about  4,000  cavalry.  And,  as  he  had  no  reason  to 
suppose  that  Hoorn,  with  all  his  resolution,  and  all  his  skill,  could 
be  able  to  hold  out  much  longer,  he  at  once  pressed  on  his  march 

^  Voltaire  himself,  to   whose  la-  estimated  the  number  who  fell  in  the 

borious  accuracy  Mr.  Barrow  bears  action  at  about  6,000,  besides  a  great 

cordial  testimony,  admits  that  there  number  who  were  drowned,  and  those 

is  great  uncertainty  as  to  the  strength  who    escaped  and  rejoined   him    at 

of  the  Russian  army  at  the  battle  of  Novgorod  at  nearly  23,000  ;  while  it 

Narva.     Some  documents  which  had  seems  certain  that  Charles  believed 

been  sent  to  him,  as  he  says,  reduced  his  prisoners  to  be  nearly  four  times 

the  number  to  60,000,  and  some  even  as  numerous  as  his  own  entire  force, 

to   40,000.      But  he   adds,   that  all  General  Gordon's  estimate  of  34,000, 

contemporary    narratives  fix  it   at  as  the  entire  strength  of  the  Russians 

100,000.     I  have  stated  the  strength  on  the  day  of  battle,  seems  quite  in- 

of  the  besieging  army  at  from  60,000  ,  admissible, 
to    70,000,    because    Peter    himself 


342  MODEEN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1700. 

towards  Narva  with  extraordinary  celerity.  He  himself  was 
with  his  advanced  guard,  of  9.000  men ;  and  that  division,  urged 
on  hy  his  impetuosity,  so  outstripped  the  rest  of  the  army,  that  it 
was  utterly  unsupported  when,  after  a  fortnight's  march,  he  found 
himself  in  front  of  the  besieger's  outposts.  Without  a  moment's 
delay,  he  attacked  them  ;  and  his  haste  of  itself  contributed  to  his 
victory.  Some  of  his  officers  did  remonstrate  against  the  audacity 
of  launching  a  single  division,  almost  destitute  of  artillery,  against 
a  whole  army  whose  front  bristled  with  150  guns  ;  and  their  ap- 
prehensions might  have  communicated  themselves  to  the  main 
body  if  time  had  been  allowed  for  them  to  spread.  But  neither 
had  the  Swedes  leisure  to  think  of  their  danger,  nor  the  enemy  to 
perceive  by  how  small  a  force  they  were  assaulted  ;  the  front  line 
of  the  Russians  fled  without  striking  a  blow  ;  the  second  line  was 
uncovered  and  thrown  into  confusion  by  their  flight;  and  fell 
back  in  almost  equal  disorder  on  the  third  line  ;  and  soon  the  three 
lines,  in  one  disorganised  mass,  were  forced  back  on  the  camp, 
which  the  Czar  had  protected  with  some  slight  entrenchments,  to 
protect  the  main  body  against  the  sallies  of  the  garrison  :  but  which 
was  not  large  enough  to  allow  space  for  the  movements  of  so  large 
a  force  as  was  now  crowded  within  it.  Charles,  as  he  pressed  on 
to  the  attack  of  the  main  body  with  greater  vigour  than  ever, 
pointed  out  to  his  officers  that  the  Russian  superiority  in  numbers 
would  now  prove  a  weakness  to  them  ,•  and  he  had  advantages, 
also,  of  which  he  was  not  aware.  Peter  himself  was  not  with 
his  army ;  regarding  the  immediate  fall  of  the  town  as  inevitable, 
he  had  gone  down  to  some  of  the  inland  provinces,  to  bring  up 
fresh  levies  which  should  enable  him  to  extend  his  conquests,  and 
the  officers  whom  he  had  left  in  command  were  jealous  of  each 
other:  the  Duke  de  Croi,  a  Fleming  by  birth,  was  the  commander- 
in-chief;  and,  as  a  foreigner,  the  Russian  princes  refused  to  obey 
him ;  while  the  French  and  German  officers  showed  a  still  greater 
disdain  for  their  Russian  colleagues  ;  and  could  by  no  means  be 
brought  to  act  in  concert  with  them.  It  was  mid-day  on  the 
thirtieth  of  November  when  Charles  came  in  sight  of  the  Russian 
entrenchments.  Almost  at  the  same  moment  a  heavy  snowstorm 
came  on  driving  in  the  face  of  the  Russians,  so  that  they  did  not 
see  their  assailants,  till  they  were  close  upon  them.  The  attack 
could  not  have  been  made  under  circumstances  of  greater  advan- 
tage. Yet  so  great  was  the  skill  of  individual  captains,  and  so 
Btubborn  the  courage  of  some  of  the  Russian  brigades,  that  for  a 
time  the  conflict  was  stubborn,  and  the  issue  apparently  doubtful. 
Charles  himself  was  slightly  wounded,  and  had  two  horses  killed 
under  him ;  but  he  paid  no  attention  to  his  hurt,  and  steadily 
pressed  forward.     His  musketeers  fired  much  more  rapidly  than 


A.D.  1700.]  THE  BATTLE  OF  NAEVA.  343 

even  Le  Fort's  Frenchmen ;  and  two  field  batteries  of  ten  guns, 
(they  were  all  that  he  had)  were  served  so  far  more  elFectively 
than  the  Russian  cannon  that  they  presently  succeeded  in  making 
a  small  breach  in  the  entrenchments  of  the  camp.  Small  as  it 
was,  it  w\is  sufficient  for  the  Swedes,  who,  levelling  their  bayonets, 
forced  tlieir  way  in :  and  the  fight  was  over.  The  Russians  were 
brave,  but  they  had  no  discipline  which  could  enable  them  to 
resist  a  foe  which  had  made  itself  master  of  their  defences,  and 
was  now  among  them ;  they  fled  in  wild  confusion ;  the  foreign 
brigades,  dreading  their  exasperated  jealousy  far  more  than  the 
disciplined  hostility  of  the  conqueror,  laid  down  their  arms  ;  and 
soon  Charles  had  nothing  left  to  do,  but  to  pursue  the  fugitives. 
The  slaughter  was  not  great ;  the  number  of  those  who  fell  in  the 
battle  did  not  exceed  6,000,  though  many  more  were  drowned  in 
the  river  Narva,  the  wooden  bridge  over  which  broke  down  with 
the  weight  of  the  dense  crowd  which  was  hurrying  across  it,  in  the 
hope  of  finding  safety  on  the  other  bank.  But  the  prisoners  were 
numerous  beyond  example  ;  so  far  exceeding  the  whole  army  of 
their  conquerors,  that  Charles  found  himself  unable  to  detain 
them ;  and,  contenting  himself  with  sending  the  generals,  and  a 
few  others  of  the  highest  rank,  to  Stockholm,  set  the  rest  at 
liberty.  The  whole  of  the  Russian  artillery,  and  supplies  also  fell 
into  his  hands,  while  his  own  loss  in  the  battle  had  not  exceeded 
1,200  men. 

Yet  great  as  the  victory  had  been,  it  wholly  failed  to  daunt 
Peter,  or  to  abate  his  resolution  to  render  Russia  a  great  military 
and  naval  power.  He  even  looked  on  the  defeat  of  his  troops  as  a 
salutary  lesson,  indispensable  as  a  part  of  their  education.  In  his 
opinion  he  could  afford  to  be  patient.  He  knew,  he  said,  that  the 
Swedes  would  still  for  many  years  be  invincible  ;  but  in  time  they 
would  teach  him  how  to  beat  them  :  and  he  persevered  in  the 
levy  and  organisation  of  fresh  brigades.  He  stripped  the  churches 
of  their  bells  to  furnish  metal  for  new  cannon ;  he  procured  fresh 
officers  from  Germany  :  he  built  a  squadron  of  ships  in  Lake 
Peipus,  which  communicates  with  the  Narva,  superintending 
their  equipment  with  his  own  eyes,  and  training  the  sailors,  of 
whom  he  brought  up  many  companies  from  Azov,  with  the  dis- 
cipline which  he  had  learned  in  England.  And  at  the  same  time 
he  did  not  relax  in  his  labours  for  the  internal  improvement  of  his 
Empire  ;  for  the  extension  of  its  resources  and  the  civilisation  of 
the  people.  Canals  were  commenced  to  join  the  Don  and  the 
Volga,  and,  in  connection  with  the  different  rivers  which  water 
the  northern  provinces,  to  connect  both  the  Euxine  and  the 
Caspian  Seas  with  the  Baltic.  In  some  districts  manufactories 
for  cloth  and  other  stuff's,  for  w^hich  Russia  had  hitherto  been 


344  MOBEEN  HISTORY.  [a.b.  1704 

dependent  on  Germany,  were  established ;  workshops  for  different 
trades,  and  foundries  for  brass  and  iron  were  opened  :  in  some, 
mines  were  excavated ;  into  others  sheep  and  shepherds  were  im- 
ported. Everywhere  schools  were  endowed,  and  printing  presses 
were  erected.  Nor  was  he  content  with  merely  issuing  his  orders ; 
month  after  month  he  traversed  the  Empire  from  north  to  south, 
giving  his  untiring  personal  inspection  to  the  execution  of  the 
details  of  every  improvement ;  and  so  discerning  and  judicious  was 
his  superintendence,  so  perfect  was  the  intelligence  of  all  the 
most  important  arts  which  he  had  acquired  during  his  foreign 
travels,  and  so  docile  were  his  people,  that  in  a  shorter  time  th.an 
could  have  been  expected  he  began  to  reap  some  fruit  from  his 
labours.  In  less  than  fifteen  months  after  the  rout  of  Narva  a 
division  of  Russians  defeated  a  Swedish  brigade,  and  captured  its 
standards :  and  in  the  years  1702  and  1703  the  Russian  squadrons 
fought  more  than  one  action  with  the  Swedish  admirals,  in  which 
the  advantage  was  not  always  on  the  side  of  the  older  sailors. 

Not  indeed  that  the  Russians  were  as  yet  a  match  for  the 
Swedes  when  the  numbers  were  equal ;  much  less  when  the  latter 
were  under  the  command  of  their  king.  But  Charles,  whose 
movements  were  more  guided  by  resentment  than  policy,  had, 
after  his  victory  at  Narva,  led  his  army  back  to  overrun  Courland 
and  some  of  the  other  Polish  provinces,  being  resolved  to  chastise 
A  ugustus  for  his  alliance  with  the  Czar,  by  stripping  him  of  the 
Polish  crown.  Poland  was  a  country  whose  constitution  ensured 
its  being  a  constant  prey  to  faction  ;  and  a  decisive  victory  which 
Charles  obtained  over  the  troops  of  Augustus  on  the  Duna  was 
quite  sufficient  to  raise  and  animate  a  party  prepared  to  depose 
their  unsuccessful  sovereign,  and  to  transfer  their  allegiance  to  any 
one  whom  the  conqueror  might  elect.  In  the  summer  of  1704,  a 
diet,  held  at  Warsaw,  formally  declared  Augustus  to  have  forfeited 
the  crown,  which  they  conferred  on  Stanislaus  Leczinski,  a 
young  man  distinguished  by  the  noblest  birth  and  by  eminent 
personal  attractions  and  accomplishments.  It  was  to  no  purpose 
that  Augustus,  who  was  not  only  brave  but  skilful,  raised  an 
army  in  Saxony  to  maintain  his  rights,  and  by  a  well  concerted 
and  admirably  executed  march  upon  Warsaw,  not  only  drove  his 
rival  from  his  capital,  but  very  nearly  succeeded  in  taking  him 
prisoner.  His  temporary  success  only  aggravated  his  misfortunes. 
Charles,  on  hearing  of  his  exploit,  instantly  turned  back,  marching 
with  such  celerity  that  he  overtook  the  Saxon  army  on  its  way 
back  to  its  own  country  before  its  general  had  the  least  suspicion 
of  his  approach,  gave  it  a  decisive  defeat  on  the  Oder;  and  com- 
pelled the  unfortunate  king  to  ratify  his  own  dethronement  by  a 


A.D.  1704.]  PETER  TAKES  NAEVA.  345 

formal  abdication.  It  is  painful  to  the  liistorian  to  be  forced  to 
add,  that  he  sullied  his  triumph  by  compelling  Augustus  to  sur- 
render Patkul,  to  whose  original  exertions  for  the  freedom  of 
Livonia  Charles  justly  attributed  the  formation  of  the  confederacy 
against  him  ;  but  who,  according  to  the  law  of  nations,  was  pro- 
tected by  his  character  of  Russian  ambassador,  in  which  capacity 
he  was  at  the  time  residing  at  the  Saxon  court.  Augustus  strove 
hard  to  resist  a  surrender  which  would  have  been  disgraceful  to 
him  had  it  not  been  unavoidable:  and,  when  he  was  at  last  com- 
pelled to  give  him  up,  he  pleaded  earnestly  with  the  conqueror 
for  mercy  to  the  prisoner;  but  Charles  was  implacable  in  his  re- 
sentment, and  the  unhappy  Livonian  was  put  to  death  with  the 
most  inhuman  tortures  for  the  sole  crime  of  having  laboured  in- 
effectually for  the  deliverance  of  his  country. 

The  degradation  of  his  principal  ally  was  a  severe  blow  to  the 
Czar  J  while  it  placed  Charles  at  the  pinnacle  of  gloiy,  making 
other  potentates  treat  him  as  if  he  were  almost  as  invincible  as  he 
fancied  himself.  The  Queen  of  England  and  the  King  of  France, 
now  fiercely  engaged  against  one  another  in  the  long  and  bloody 
war  of  the  Succession,  equally  courted  his  alliance,  as  one  that 
could  not  fail  to  be  decisive  of  the  contest :  the  great  conqueror  of 
Blenheim  himself  repairing  to  his  court,  in  the  hope  by  his  unrivalled 
address  at  least  to  prevent  his  declaring  for  our  enemies ;  while 
the  Emperor  Joseph  even  acquiesced  in  his  interference  with  his 
government  of  his  own  dominions,  and,  at  his  demand,  restored  to 
the  Protestants  of  Silesia  the  religious  privileges  of  which  they 
had  been  silently  stripped  since  the  treaty  of  Westphalia ;  excusing 
himself  to  the  JPope's  nuncio  for  his  compliance  with  the  heretic 
monarch's  request  by  the  remark,  that  His  Holiness  might  well  be 
thankful  that  Charles  had  asked  no  more,  since,  if  he  had  required 
him  to  become  a  Lutheran,  he  should  hardly  have  dared  to  refuse. 
Yet  so  great  was  the  difference  between  the  practical  wisdom  of 
the  two  sovereigns,  that  Charles  reaped  no  solid  advantage  from  his 
triumph,  which  indeed  was  almost  his  last ;  while  Peter,  in  spite 
of  his  discomfiture,  continued  steadily  to  rise  in  real  power.  The 
very  month  after  the  diet  had  pronounced  the  deposition  of 
Augustus,  the  Czar  took  Narva  ;  the  scene  and  cause  of  his  first 
overthrow ;  and  showed  himself  worthy  of  success  by  the  exer- 
tions which  he  made  to  save  the  citizens  from  the  fury  of  his 
soldiers,  who,  like  savages,  as  too  many  of  them  still  were,  were 
practising  the  most  horrid  barbarities  on  all  who  fell  into  their 
power.  Many  of  the  most  ferocious  and  insubordinate  he  slew 
with  his  own  hands ;  and  when  he  reached  the  town-hall,  where 
the  magistrates  were   sitting,  he  laid  his  reeking  sword  on  the 


346  MODERN  niSTORY.  ^  [a.d.  1704. 

table,  assuring  the  council  that  it  was  stained,  not  with  the  blood 
of  the  citizens,  but  with  that  of  his  own  subjects,  whom  he  had 
killed  to  save  the  lives  of  the  townspeople. 

And  with  him  the  triumphs  of  war  and  those  of  peace  went 
hand  in  hand.  He  had  at  all  times  two  objects  equally  in  view: 
to  make  his  people  prosperous,  and  hirftself,  as-  their  sovereign, 
powerful  and  formidable.  And  his  principle  of  conduct  evidently 
was  that,  though  the  internal  prosperity  of  a  country  must  depend 
on  peace  and  the  arts  of  peace,  on  manufactures,  on  commerce,  and 
above  all  on  education,  its  power,  the  reputation  of  itself  and  of  its 
monarch  among  foreign  nations  could  rest  on  no  foundation  but 
that  of  victorious  war ;  and,  in  the  prosecution  of  these  views,  he 
was  still  diligent  in  increasing  his  army,  in  extending  his  con- 
quests in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Baltic,  and  in  fostering  the 
warlike  spirit  of  his  subjects  by  military  displays,  reviews,  and 
triumphant  processions  on  the  occasion  of  any  signal  success ;  most 
of  which  were  signalised  by  the  promotion  of  himself  to  a  higher 
rank  in  his  own  army,  and  on  one  occasion  by  the  honour  of 
knighthood  being  conferred  on  him  as  a  reward  for  his  personal 
■gallantry  in  capturing  two  Swedish  men-of-war  in  a  naval  action 
on  Lake  Ladoga.  And  at  the  same  time  he  showed  his  unabated 
respect  for  the  arts  of  peace  by  the  vigorous  prosecution  of  all  the 
different  works  which  have  been  mentioned  before,  and  by  the 
foundation  of  a  new  city  at  that  point  of  the  coast  where  the  Neva 
connects  Ladoga  with  the  Gulf  of  Finland,  to  be  called  by  his 
own  name,  Petersburg,  and  destined  hereafter  to  become  the 
metropolis  of  the  Empire.  His  object  in  preparing  the  transference 
of  the  seat  of  government  from  the  ancient  and  sacred  Moscow  to 
a  maritime  city,  was  evidently  to  make  his  country  mistress  of 
the  Baltic;  and  how  true  was  his  foresight  was  conspicuously 
shown  in  the  war  of  1854,  when  the  Isle  of  Cronslot,  as  it  was 
called  in  his  day,  or  Cronstadt,  to  give  it  its  modern  appellation, 
which  he  exerted  all  his  skill  in  fortifying,  as  an  outwork  of  the 
new  metropolis,  was  found  by  the  allied  fleets  to  hg  the  most 
formidable  obstacle  to  their  progress  of  any  spot  in  his  dominions. 

For  three  or  four  years  the  war  between  Russia  and  Sweden 
was  carried  on  with  comparative  languor ;  neither  of  the  sovereigns 
appearing  themselves  at  the  head  of  their  armies,  Peter  being  fully 
occupied  with  the  labours  which  have  just  been  mentioned,  and 
Charles  entrusting  the  conduct  of  his  military  operations  to  lieu- 
tenants, because  he  was  busy  in  arranging  the  affairs,  not  only  of 
Poland  but  of  Saxony  also,  in  which  he  had  reduced  Augustus  to 
submit  to  regulate  everything  according  to  his  pleasure.  At  last, 
when  everything  was  settled  to  his  wish  in  that  quarter,  and  he  had 
become  weary  of  the  comparative  inaction  in  which  he  had  so  long 


A.D.  1708.]  CHAllLES  INVADES  RUSSIA.  347 

been  resting,  at  the  beginning  of  1708  he  quitted  Saxony,  to  com- 
mence a  fresh  campaign ;  proposing  to  march  upon  Moscow,  gain 
a  victory  under  its  walls,  and  dictate  peace  on  his  own  conditions 
in  the  Kremlin.  It  was  the  very  same  dream  which,  a  century 
later,  dazzled  a  still  greater  conqueror,  and  led  to  the  destruction 
of  a  still  mightier  host.  His  wisest  ministers  and  even  his  bravest 
generals  remonstrated  against  an  enterprise  which  would  carry  the 
army  so  far  from  its  resources;  but  the  prospect  of  a  battle  for  an 
empire  under  the  walls  of  its  capital  city  was  too  flattering  to  his 
pride  to  be  relinquished  after  it  had  once  been  contemplated ;  and, 
in  July,  he  moved  his  whole  army  towards  the  central  provinces  of 
Western  Russia,  with  an  army  of  upwards  of  50,000  men,  which 
he  expected  to  be  soon  augmented  by  20,000  more,  whom  General 
Levenhaupt  was  leading  from  Livonia,  with  a  huge  train  of 
supplies  of  all  sorts,  to  which  they  were  serving  as  an  escort.  He 
had  achieved  such  mighty  deeds  with  far  inferior  numbers,  that 
with  his  present  force  he  looked  upon  himself  as  able  to  subdue 
the  world;  and,  nothing  daunted  by  the  difficulties  of  a  long 
march  through  a  country  but  partially  cleared,  and  still  full  of 
forests  and  marshes,  he  rejected  every  overture  made  to  him  by 
the  Czar,  declaring  that  it  was  only  in  Moscow  itself  that  he 
would  negotiate.  Peter,  though  he  would  gladly  have  made 
peace,  could  he  have  done  so  with  honour,  was  well  aware  that 
he  had  become  able  to  carry  on  war  with  greater  effect  than 
in  former  years,  and  fearlessly  prepared  for  the  contest  which 
he  had  found  to  be  unavoidable,  remarking,  that  though  his 
brother  Charles  desired  to  play  Alexander,  he  should  not  find 
a  second  Darius  in  himself;  and  Charles  did  not  advance  far  with- 
out learning  that  the  obstacles  which  nature  herself  opposed  to  his 
progress  were  not  the  only  ones  which  he  would  have  to  encounter. 
Peter,  true  to  the  resolution  which  he  had  proclaimed,  had  moved 
down  across  his  line  of  march  a  force  about  equal  to  his  own, 
with  which  he  had  taken  up  a  strong  position  near  HoUosin, 
a  small  town  on  the  eastern  bank  of  the  river  Bibitsch,  usually  a 
shallow  stream,  but  at  this  time  flooded  by  recent  rains,  which 
had  also  laid  the  adjacent  ground  under  water,  and  converted  it 
into  a  swamp.  Charles,  as  impetuous  as  ever,  would  not  give 
the  engineers  time  to  construct  a  pontoon  bridge,  but,  throwing 
himself  into  the  flood  at  the  head  of  his  cavalry,  swam  the  river, 
swollen  as  it  was ;  and  having  at  last,  with  great  difficulty  and 
danger,  placed  his  army  on  the  further  bank,  he  at  once  led  them 
against  the  Russians,  who  were  awaiting  his  attack  in  an  entrenched 
camp.  Had  their  commanders  possessed  but  a  portion  of  his 
daring  spirit,  and  opened  their  fire  on  the  Swedes  while  they  were 
toiling  through  the  stream  and  the  marshy  ground,  they  might 


348  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1704. 

have  destroyed  the  whole  army.  But  they  had  not  yet  such 
confidence  in  themselves  that  they  could  venture  to  quit  their 
entrenchments,  though  behind  them  they  fought  with  a  stubborn- 
ness that  long  made  the  event  of  the  day  doubtful.  Victory  did 
at  length  declare  for  Charles ;  but  the  Russians  retreated  in  good 
order,  leaving  him  but  few  trophies  or  prisoners.  It  was  evident 
that  the  prediction  of  Peter  was  near  its  fulfilment  that,  though 
the  Swedes  would  beat  his  soldiers  for  some  time,  they  would  at 
last  teach  him  to  beat  them. 

Proceeding  rapidly  onwards,  Charles  reached  Moghilew  on  the 
Dnieper,  Peter,  who  by  this  time  had  joined  his  army,  hanging  on 
his  flanks,  and  harassing  him  with  frequent  skirmishes,  in  one 
of  which  Charles  himself  was  only  saved  from  capture  by  his 
personal  prowess  and  skill  in  the  use  of  his  sword.  But  the 
wily  Czar  designed  to  carry  on  the  war  by  other  means  besides 
hard  fighting.  The  tactics  by  which,  a  century  later,  his  successor 
inflicted  such  disasters  on  the  French  invader,  were  but  a  copy  of 
those  which  Peter  now  employed  against  Charles.  As  the  Swedes 
advanced,  he  laid  waste  the  country  before  them  :  preferring  to 
destroy  the  crops,  and  even  the  dwellings  of  the  inhabitants  to 
allowing  them  to  furnish  food  and  shelter  to  his  enemy :  so  that 
Charles  was  frequently  compelled  solely  against  his  will  to  halt 
till  his  foragers  brought  in  supplies  which  could  only  be  procured 
from  a  distance  and  with  great  difficulty,  and  scarcely  ever  in 
adequate  quantities.  But  in  difficulties  he  never  saw  anything 
but  the  glory  of  surmounting  them.  Moghilew  is  less  than  400 
miles  from  Moscow ;  and  he  still  made  no  doubt  of  reaching  it 
before  the  winter  set  in,  when  he  was  unexpectedly  joined  by 
Mazeppa,  the  Hetman,  or  chief,  of  the  Cossacks,  a  semi-barbarous 
tribe  in  the  south  of  the  Empire,  already  renowned  for  their 
excellence  as  light  cavalry.  Charles  was  generally  the  most  self- 
reliant  and  obstinate  of  men :  but  on  this  occasion,  for  probably 
the  flrst  time  in  his  life,  he  listened  to  advice,  and  his  adviser 
ruined  him. 

The  early  career  of  Mazeppa  had  been  of  the  most  romantic 
character.  By  birth  he  was  a  Pole,  and  of  a  noble  family ;  but 
while  a  page  in  the  king's  household  he  had  excited  the  jealousy 
of  one  of  the  great  nobles  of  the  country,  whose  wife,  many  years 
younger  than  himself,  had  been  captivated  with  the  personal 
beauty  of  the  youth.  The  revenge  which  the  old  count  took  was 
as  singular  as  it  was  inhuman  ;  Mazeppa  was  stripped  naked  and 
bound  on  the  back  of  a  wild  horse,  who  was  then  turned  loose  to 
roam  through  his  native  forests  till  his  unwilling  rider  should  be 
devoured  by  the  wild  beasts,  or  should  perish  still  more  miserably 
of  exposure  and  hunger. 


A.D.  1708.]     THE  EAKLY  CAEEER  OF  MAZEPPA.  349 

Rash  would  be  the  historian  who  would  adventure  to  relate  in 
prose  the  horrors  of  that  long  wandering  which  Byron's  verse 
has  made  immortal.     The  horse, 

A  Tartar  of  the  Ukraine  breed, 

maddened,  by  his  unaccustomed  burden,  tore  through  the  tangled 
woods,  breasted  the  swoln  torrents,  outstripped  the  wolves, 
who  in  ravenous  packs  pursued  the  pair,  till  at  last  he  himself 
fell  dead  brokenhearted  with  the  length  and  speed  of  his  journey. 
But  he  had  reached  the  ground  where  he  had  been  bred,  and,  when 
he  died,  it  was  in  sight  of  some  of  the  peasants  of  the  country, 
who  released  the  now  senseless  youth,  and  brought  him  to  their 
chief.  He  was  pitied ;  employed  ;  the  proofs  which  he  gradually 
gave  of  endurance  and  daring  won  him  promotion:  and  about 
twenty  years  before  the  time  of  which  we  are  speaking  he  had 
been  elected  chief,  or  Hetman,  of  his  adopted  tribe.  He  had 
reached  the  period  allotted  to  human  life,  and  was  seventy  years 
of  age  5  but  time  had  done  little  to  quench  his  vigour,  or  tame  his 
fire.  And  having  received,  or  fancied  that  he  had  received,  some 
slight  from  the  Czar,  he  now  sought  Charles's  camp,  undertaking 
to  induce  his  warlike  subjects  to  throw  oif  the  Russian  yoke,  and 
to  range  themselves  under  the  Swedish  banner.  To  secure  a 
reinforcement  so  valuable,  Charles  relinquished  his  instant  march 
upon  Moscow,  and  turned  southward  towards  the  Ukraine. 

So  inconsiderate  was  his  haste  that  he  would  not  even  wait  till 
Levenhaupt  joined  him,  but  in  the  early  part  of  September  quitted 
Moghilew,  sending  the  general  orders  to  join  him  on  the  march. 
But  the  Czar  was  well  informed  of  Levenhaupt's  movements  and 
plans ;  and,  having  taken  up  a  favorable  position  on  his  intended 
line  of  march  in  a  spot  where  the  necessity  of  passing  several 
small  streams  could  not  fail  to  cause  some  disorder  in  the  Swedish 
ranks,  he  fell  upon  them  the  moment  that  they  appeared ;  and 
though  Levenhaupt,  in  spite  of  his  surprise,  fought  with  great 
skill  and  resolution,  it  was  not  without  the  sacrifice  of  all  his 
stores,  the  loss  of  most  of  his  guns,  and  of  nearly  half  his  division, 
who  were  either  slain  or  too  severely  wounded  to  be  capable  of 
removal,  that  he  at  last  joined  his  royal  master  with  the  remainder, 
which  had  so  completely  exhausted  its  supplies,  and  even  its 
ammunition,  that  it  brought  scarcely  any  real  strength  to  the 
army  which  in  name  it  reinforced. 

Nor  was  the  loss  of  the  supplies  which  they  had  been  expected 
to  bring  with  them  the  only  disappointment  which  damped  the 
hopes  of  all,  but  Charles  himself.  It  was  soon  ascertained  that 
Mazeppa,  in  undertaking  to  induce  the  Cossacks  to  revolt,  had 
promised  more  than  he  could  perform.     But  still  the  king  pressed 


350  .  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1709. 

on,  hardening  himself  against  the  counsels  of  all  who  dared  to 
volunteer  advice  to  him,  and  who  implored  him,  if  he  would  not 
retreat  while  it  was  yet  time,  at  least  to  halt,  and  to  give  his  army 
rest  for  the  winter  in  some  town  which  he  might  seize  and 
fortify.  It  was  evident  that  such  a  measure  alone  could  save  the 
army  from  destruction,  for  its  food  was  becoming  scanty ;  the 
men's  clothes  were  wearing  out;  under  the  united  pressure  of 
cold  and  hunger,  their  numbers  were  diminishing  daily,  and  their 
condition  was  no  secret  to  the  enemy,  who,  being  in  their  own 
country,  were  not  exposed  to  the  same  privations.  But  the  more 
indispensable  the  adoption  of  prudent  measures  became,  the  less 
inclined  was  Charles  to  yield  to  them.  To  halt  he  pronounced 
timid,  to  retreat  infamous  ;  still  he  pressed  on,  the  Russian  skir- 
mishers hanging  on  his  flanks,  harassing  him  with  incessant  petty 
attacks,  and  burning  every  village  in  his  path  which  could  afford 
him  shelter.  By  the  beginning  of  1709,  he  had  reached  the 
Ukraine ;  the  extreme  difficulty  of  finding  subsistence  for  his 
troops  greatly  retarding  his  progress,  and  sometimes  even  com- 
pelling him  to  retrace  his  steps  ;  so  that  it  was  not  till  May  that 
he  reached  Pultava;  a  town  which,  though  small,  was  of  great 
importance,  as  commanding  the  roads  from  some  of  the  most 
fertile  provinces  of  the  south  of  Moscow ;  and  as  containing  large 
magazines  of  corn  which  were  stored  there  for  transport.  As  such 
the  Czar  had  strengthened  it  with  a  reinforcement  to  its  usual 
garrison,  and  was  marching  himself  to  protect  it,  at  the  head  of 
60,000  men,  which  was  more  than  twice  the  number  that  the 
fatigues  and  losses  of  the  winter  campaign  had  left  to  his  antago- 
nist. It  was  the  middle  of  June  before  Peter  arrived  at 
Pultava ;  the  weakness  of  the  Swedes  being  sufficiently  proved 
by  the  mere  fact  of  their  having  been  unable  to  reduce  it  during 
the  six  weeks  that  they  had  been  resisted  by  the  garrison  alone  : 
so  that  neither  army  could  have  much  doubt  of  the  issue  of  the 
battle  to  which  his  own  situation  would  have  compelled  Charles, 
even  had  it  not  been  the  evident  purpose  of  the  Czar  to  bring  it 
on.  It  was  for  Charles's  interest  to  fight  without  delay.  Peter's 
object,  on  the  other  hand,  was  to  postpone  the  conflict  till  he  had 
completed  his  arrangement3  to  prevent  the  escape  of  the  invading 
army  after  it  should  have  been  defeated.  And  he  had  by  this  time 
acquired  sufficient  military  skill  to  baffle  the  king's  attempts  to 
bring  him  to  action  before  he  was  ready.  He  entrenched  his 
camp  with  as  much  care  as  if  he  had  been  the  weaker  party : 
fortune  aiding  him  in  his  design  of  deferring  the  battle  ;  since  in 
a  trilling  skirmish  Charles  received  a  wound  from  a  musket  ball 
in  his  foot,  which  for  some  days  wholly  disabled  him;  and,  even 
when  he  was  able  to  move,  confined  him  to  a  litter.     At  last,  on 


A.D.  1709.]  THE  BATTLE  OF  PULTAVA.  351 

the  eighth  of  July,  the  Czar's  arrangements  were  completed ;  and 
he  led  his  men  from  their  camp  to  attack  the  enemy.  As  Voltaire 
has  remarked,  the  degree  in  which  the  fame  of  the  two  antago- 
nists was  staked  on  the  result  of  the  coming  shock  was  far  from 
equal.  A  single  defeat  would  deprive  Charles  of  the  title  of  the 
'  Invincible.'  But,  as  Peter  did  not  owe  his  surname  of  *  the  Great ' 
to  his  victories,  the  most  decisive  overthrow  would  not  deprive 
him  of  it.  As  however  the  Russians  were  no  longer  the  ill-equip- 
ped, half-disciplined  multitude  that  had  fought  at  Narva,  the 
odds  were  too  unequal  for  such  a  termination  of  the  conflict  to  be 
probable,  or  even  for  the  conflict  itself  to  last  long.  The  Swedes 
did  not  discredit  their  old  renown  j  led  by  their  undaunted 
monarch,  who,  wounded  and  suffering  as  he  was,  was  carried  in  a 
litter  at  their  head,  they  charged  the  Russians  with  such  fury 
that  they  even  captured  some  of  the  redoubts  with  which  the 
Czar  had  strengthened  his  line.  Charles  himself  had  a  narrow 
escape,  a  cannon  shot  shattering  the  litter  on  which  he  lay.  The 
Russians,  however,  were  but  little  inferior  in  sturdy  valour,  and 
Peter  showed  equal  hardihood,  and  indifference  to  his  personal 
safety,  and  was  equally  near  meeting  his  death,  several  musket 
balls  passing  through  his  clothes ;  at  the  end  of  two  hours  numbers 
prevailed ;  the  Swedes  were  overpowered;  regiment  after  regiment 
fell  into  disorder ;  and  his  officers,  placing  their  wounded  king  on 
a  horse,  hurried  him  from  the  field  with  about  half  his  army  j 
the  other  half  lay  killed  or  wounded  on  the  field,  or  fell  into  the 
conqueror's  hands  as  prisoners;  while  the  entire  loss  of  the 
Russians  did  not  greatly  exceed  1,300  men.  f- 

As  far  as  his  prisoners  were  concerned,  Peter  did  not  make  a 
generous  use  of  his  victory.     He  complimented  some  of  the  chief 
officers  with  fine  speeches,  calling  them  his  masters  in  the  art  of '|^>-vt.,,ivvu*, 
war ;  but  he  limited  his  courtesy  to  those  of  the  highest  rank ;  y^    - 
and  all  the  rest  were  sent  into  Siberia.     But  as  a  soldier  and  a  ^**'**'*"»^ 
statesman,  he  showed  great  ability  by  the   promptitude  of  the 
measures  which  he  took  to  reap  all  the  fruits  of  his  achievement. 
That  very  night  he  sent  a  strong  division  in  pursuit  of  Charles ; 
and,  so  demoralised  were  the  Swedes  by  their  defeat,  that  the  main  ^ 
body,  as  soon  as  it  was  overtaken,  surrendered  without  stnking  a  ^ln»«ivs.vf' 
blow :  and  the  king  was  left  with  only  a  body-guard  of  a  few 
hundred  men  to  prosecute  his  retreat  towards  the  Swedish  ter- 
ritories.    The  diplomatic  and  political   talents  which  Peter  dis- 
played  were  even  more  conspicuous,  and  led  to  more  important 
successes.     He   at  once   opened  negotiations  with  the   different /^  y 

sovereigns  of  northern  and  western  Europe,  who,  through  good  ^  erU^ 
will,  or  admiration,  or  fear,  had  hitherto  ranged  themselves  on^  y^yi  J^ 
the  side  of  Charles.     He  expelled  Stanislaus  from  Poland,  andT^ 


^feyttN^ 


352  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1709. 

replaced  Aug-ustiis  on  hia  throoe.  In  a  personal  interview  with 
Frederic  of  Prussia,  who  had  lately  been  allowed  to  convert  his 
niarquisate  into  a  kingdom,  he  bound  him  to  his  interests ;  and, 
having  thus  deprived  Charles  of  his  allies,  he  proceeded  with  all 
rapidity  to  strip  him  of  all  his  and  his  predecessor's  conquests, 
reducing  Elbing,  Viborg,  Riga,  and  Revel ;  and  thus  accomplish- 
ing his  long-cherished  wish  for  the  acquisition  of  harbours  which 
might  enable  him  to  become  powerful  at  sea  as  well  as  on  land. 

I  have  said  that  in  some  points  the  two  rivals  resembled  each 
other  in  character ;  in  others  they  differed  widely ;  and  in  nothing 
was  the  difference  more  seen  than  in  the  effect  which  the  great 
battle  had,  on  what  may  be  called,  the  private  conduct  of  each. 
The  Ozar  bore  his  success  with  the  most  magnanimous  equanimity. 
He  did  not  even  assume  to  himself  the  chief  credit  of  his  victory, 
[^y^  A^     though  in  truth  it  was  he  himself  who  had  planned  the  operations 
^^  *  which  contributed  to  ensure  it,  and  though  he  fought  throughout 
^  •#  e«-  •^  the  day  at  the  head  of  his  troops  ;  but,  in  the  triumph  with  which 
»  he  celebrated  it  on  his  return  to  Moscow,  the  place  of  honour  was 

still  ceded  to  others ;  and  he  marched  in  the  place  belonging  to 
his  military  rank  of  major-general.     But  if  Peter  was  not  in- 
toxicated by  victory,  Charles,  on  the  other  hand,  was  rendered 
more  proud  and  obstinate  than  ever  by  defeat.  The  Sultan  gave  him 
t   ^1        an  asylum  at  Bender,  in  Bessarabia,  with  appointments  befitting 
^^    fk        a  crowned  head  ;  but  he  requited  his  kindness  by  wrangling  with 
t^ji^^  ^        the  vizier  about  money ;  sowing  intrigues  and  dissensions  in  the 
divan ;  insulting  all  from  whom  assistance  was  to  be  expected, 
till,  after  bearing  for  several  years  the  burdensome   and  costly 
honour  of  protecting  him,  the  Sultan  was  driven  to  insist  on  his 
withdrawal,  and  as  he  would  not  comply  with  the  request  to 
retire,  to  remove  him  by  force ;  which  could  not  be  effected  with- 
out a  regular  siege  and  assault,  in  which  the  house  which  had 
been  allotted  to  Charles  was  burned,  and  many  Swedes  and  Turks 
were  killed.     He  survived  his  return  to  his  kingdom  but  a  very 
/^      '       few  years ;   and  they  were  neither  happy  nor   honorable.      He 
found  all  the  resources  of  the  country  so  completely  exhausted  by 
mM'**  H<w  his   own  long  wars,  and  through   the   disorders  incident  to  his 
J.  long  absence,  that  he  was  forced  to  listen  to  proposals  of  peace 

with  the  Czar,  or  Emperor,  as,  since  Pultava,  Peter  had  been 
generally  called  ;  but,  as  he  could  not  endure  to  be  without  some 
military  occupation,  he  consoled  himself  for  his  inability  to  attack 
Russia,  by  an  attempt  to  subdue  Norway ;  and,  in  that  country, 
while  besieging  Frederickshall,  a  strongly  fortified  town  on  the 
shores  of  the  bay  which  leads  to  Christiania,  he  was  killed  by  a 
cannon  shot  in  the  trenches  in  December  1718.  He  was  only 
thirty-six  years  of  age ;  and  short  as  his  life  had  been,  it  had  been 


A.D.  1718.]     THE  DEATH  OF  THE   CZAROVITCH.  353 

long   enough   to    crown    him    with    the   highest    glory   and  to 
overwhelm  him  in  the  lowest  disaster.     His  military  talents  were 
probably  overrated  in  his  day ;  but,  had  they  been  more  con- 
siderable than  they  were,  they  would  not  have  been  allowed  fair 
play,  so  often  were  his  enterprises  dictated  or  guided  not  by 
scientific  calculations,  but  by  notions  of  what  became  his  dignity.    /? 
It  seemed  a  strange  freak  of  fortune  that  a  hero  who  had  come  (/-c^^-"*^^ 
unhurt  out  of  so  many  pitched  battles,  should  perish  by  a  chance  J^t/ 
shot  from  a  fortress  of  which,  till  it  was  rendered  memorable  by 
his  death,  few  people  had  ever  heard  the  name.     But  we  may 
accept  the  moral  which  a  great  philosopher  from  among  ourselves 
has  drawn  from  it,  and  agree  that  such  an  end  affords  an  in- 
structive proof  of  the  vanity  of  the  hopes  of  the  warrior,  and  of 
the  pride  of  the  conqueror.^  / 

The  latter  years  of  his  victorious  rival,  though  more  honorably  ^L^^t^-^-j^,^^ 
and  more  beneficially  employed,  were  not  happier  than  his.    Peter  ^  ^^ 
had,  indeed,  the  satisfaction  of  seeing   his   enlightened  labours  ^l  i^i^^ 
meet  their  steadily  increasing  reward  in  the  progressive  expansion 
of  all  the  resources  of  his  kingdom,  the  growth  of  its  warlike 
power  and  political  influence,  and  in  the  material  improvement  of 
the  character  and  condition  of  his  people.    But  occurrences  in  his 
own  family  caused  him  great  disquietude,  and  led  him  into  great 
crime.     It  is  recorded  of  him  that  on  one  occasion  he  lamented  that 
he  had  not  been  able  to  effect  more  in  civilising  his  subjects  than 
in  controlling  himself;  throughout  his  life  he  was  prone  to  give 
way  to  the  most  violent  fits  of  passion,  and  he  was  pitiless  and 
inhuman  when  under  their  influence.     As  the  great  object  of  his 
life  had  been  the  reform  of  his  empire,  so  no  offence  could,  in  his 
eyes,  be  equal  to  an  indifference  to  his  plans  for  its  attainment. 
When  only  twenty-four  years  of  age  he  had  repudiated  his  first  c  . 
wife  Eudoxia,  and  confined  her  in  a  convent,  because  she  showed  ^*^^ 
an  attachment  to  the  old  national  customs  which  he  was  abolish-^^^^^  trL*. 
ing :  and  he  now  found  that  her  son  Alexis,  the  heir  to  his  throne,       '  '  ^^^ 
shared  her  prejudices.     It  was  not  only  on  the  question  of  smoking 
that  the  priests  condemned  the  Czar's  innovations:    and  though 
not  much  under  the  influence  of  their  precepts  in  his  own  way 
of  life,  Alexis  had  fully  imbibed  their  political  notions ;  and  not         »       , 
only  denounced  his  father's  measures,  but  made  no  secret  of  his  ^^\iJ^j>iA^ 
desire,  when  he  should  become  Emperor,  to  restore  the  principles 
and  customs  of  former  ages.     The  quarrels  between  him  and  his 

*  On  what  foundation  stands  the  wamor's  pride. 
How  just  his  hopes,  let  Swedish  Charles  decide. 

He  left  a  name  at  which  the  world  grew  pale,* 
To  point  a  moral  or  adorn  a  talc.' 

Johnson,  Vanity  of  Human  Wishes,  190. 


354  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1713. 

father  became  violent ;  Peter  threatened  to  disinherit  him  :  Alexis 
eUir'  o^/L.\t  one  time  offered  to  give  up  the  succession,  and  proposed  to 
become  a  monk ;  but  he  soon  repented  of  such  a  renunciation  of 
^"^  liis  rights,  and,  dreading  his  father's  rage,  fled  from  the  country, 

lirst  seeking  the  protection  of  the  Emperor,  and  subsequently- 
taking  refuge  in  Italy.  Peter's  indignation  was  excessive.  The 
old  laws  of  the  Empire  gave  the  Czar  the  power  of  life  and 
death  over  his  children ;  and  departure  from  the  country  with- 
out his  permission  was  especially  named  as  a  capital  crime, 
though  it  was  obvious  that  the  penalty  could  not  be  executed  till 
the  offence  had  been  eff'aced  by  the  fugitive's  return.  Resolved  to 
get  his  son  into  his  power,  Peter  sent  the  most  conciliatory  mes- 
sages to  Naples,  promising  him  not  only  forgiveness,  but  a  com- 
plete and  cordial  reinstatement  in  his  affections ;  and  the  moment 
that  Alexis  yielded  to  these  professions  and  returned  to  Moscow, 
he  arrested  him ;  compelled  him  to  sign  a  deed  recognising  and 
ratifying  his  disinheritance ;  and  then,  having  dravra  from  him,  by 
a  long  and  rigorous  examination,  a  confession  that  he  had  more 
it^  '  than  once  wished  him  dead,  and  from  the  judges  an  opinion  that 
the  entertainment  of  such  an  idea  was  itself  an  act  of  parricide,  he 
brought  him  to  trial,  and  pronounced  on  him  a  formal  sentence  of 
death.  He  was  saved  the  guilt  of  carrying  it  into  execution,  since 
the  young  prince  was  so  terrified  at  the  reading  of  the  sentence 
that  he  fell  down  in  a  fit,  and  died  the  next  day ;  recovering  his 
senses  before  his  death  sufficiently  to  implore  pardon  of  his  father, 
who  came  to  his  bedside,  and  mingling  his  own  tears  with  those 
of  the  dying  youth,  assured  him  of  his  forgiveness.  It  may  be 
fancied  that  the  forgiveness  would  not  have  been  so  easily  granted 
had  it  not  been  clear  that  it  would  be  ineffectual :  and  the  Czar's 
warmest  admirers,  while  rejoicing  that  their  hero  was  thus  saved 
from  staining  his  name  with  the  infamy  vsdth  which  the  death  of 
Don  Carlos  has  for  ever  branded  the  memory  of  Philip,  can  hardly 
refuse  to  agree  with  Voltaire  that  his  treatment  of  his  son  would 
deservedly  render  him  odious,  if  the  benefits  which  he  conferred 
on  his  whole  nation  did  not  lead  posterity  to  overlook  it  in  con- 
sideration of  his  great  services,  and  of  the  noble  example  which  in 
other  matters  he  set  to  all  the  sovereigns  of  the  world. 

Though  he  was  not,  like  his  rival  Charles,  prematurely  cut  off 
by  the  chances  of  war,  he  was  not  permitted  to  enjoy  a  long  life  ; 
he  had  from  his  youth  been  subject  to  fits,  perhaps  originally 
brought  on,  certainly  aggravated,  by  intemperance  in  the  use  of 
ardent  spirits.  And  in  the  summer  of  1724,  though  he  was  only 
fifty-two  years  old,  his  strength  was  seen  to  be  decaying.  He 
was  warned  that  he  required  repose  ;  but  his  mind  was  too  restless, 
his  earnestness  in   the  prosecution  of  his  different  objects  too 


A.D.  1725.]  DEATH   OF  PETEE.  355 

vehement  to  let  him  allow  himself  the  needful  relaxation  ;  and  his 
end  was  nobly  characteristic :  though  he  had  become  unable  to 
walk  or  ride,  he  could  move  about  the  coast  in  his  yacht  to  see 
the  works  which  were  in  progress  for  the  completion  of  the  differ- 
ent harbours  and  dockyards  in  which  he  took  unabated  interest. 
With  this  object,  in  the  last  month  of  the  year,  he  was  visiting  a  small 
port  on  the  coast  of  Finland,  when  a  boat  was  upset,  and  its  crew, 
thrown  helplessly  among  the  breakers,  was  in  imminent  danger  of  t>^C*»'^iC 
being  drowned  j  ill  as  he  was,  he  sprang  into  the  water,  and  by    jff     __ 
his  own  exertions  saved  several  lives  ;  but  the  strain  and  the  chill  ^^•^^^^'^  — 
aggravated  his  complaints,  inflammation  set  in,  and  on  the  twenty- 
fifth  of  January  1725  he  died. 

For  such  a  man  there  is  no  need  of  a  detailed  and  laboured 
panegyric.     His  acts  speak  for  themselves.     In  the  year  1721  the 
Senate,  while  entreating  him  to  exchange  the  old  form  of  Czar  for 
the  title  of  Emperor  of  all  the  Russias,  added  to  it  by  formal  _y      a 
decree  the  surnames  of  the  Great,  and  the  Father  of  his  Country.     j^^__^ 
The  former,  as  we  have  seen,  had  been  sadly  prostituted  among 
other  nations :  the  latter  had  in  modern  times  been  conferred  on 
no  one,  nor  in  either  modern  or  ancient  times  had  it  ever  been 
better  deserved.^     Though  it  cannot  be  said  of  him  that  he  had 
an  innate  talent  for  war,  he  was  a  great  conqueror,  and  the  acqui- 
sitions which  he  made  being  chiefly  of  maritime  provinces  were 
exactly  such  as  most  tended  to  promote  the  prosperity  of  the  coun- 
try, facilitating  the  great  object  of  creating  a  foreign  commerce  ; 
his  wars  are  not  indeed  entirely  free  from  the  charge  of  aggres- 
sion, yet  no  aggressive  wars  have  had  greater  excuse,  since  the  r\r~ 
provinces  which  he  aimed  at  wresting  from  Sweden  were  only    *"*^*"*->- 
those  which  that  country  had  itself  acquired  by  successful  war  ^f/^f>9^ 
within  the  century.     But  the  glory  of  a  legislator  is  far  beyond     j^'. 
that  of  a  conqueror ;  and  in  that  respect  it  is  hardly  possible  to  •'^'*-»*-»- 
over-estimate  his  merits.     He  found  his  subjects  little  better  than 
barbarians :  ignorant  not  only  of  polite  and  scientific  learning,  but  <r-  y   ->-_ 
of  the  arts,  without  which  no  nation  can  be  accounted  civilised,<>-^*'^ 
and  of  the  trades  and  manufactures  for  which  no  people  ought  to  /V/  J 
depend  on  others.    This  disabling  stigma  he  removed  ;  and  though  ^       /nc.- 
his  life  was  not  prolonged  sufl[iciently  for  him  to  see  the  comple-         f 
tion   of    the   work   which  he   had    prescribed  for   himself,   yet 
he  had  laid  the  foundations  of  civilised  refinement,  order,  and 
progress  so  surely,  that  his  people  never  retrograded,  but^has  gone 
on  ever  since  his  time  increasing  in  prosperity  and  reputation. 
The   great  Roman  poet  boasted  of  the  practical   genius  of  his 

1  The  Romans,  who  invented  the  Brenniis  ;  and  on  Cicero,  after  the 
title,  conferred  it  on  the  tlrst  Brutus  ;  detection  of  the  Catilinarian  con- 
on    Camillus,   after    liis    defeat  of     spiracy. 


356  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1726. 

countrymen  for  government  and  legislation  as  far  superior  to 
those  faculties  which  had  made  the  Greeks  their  superiors  in 
works  of  art,  and  even  in  the  triumphs  of  eloquence.  In  the  same 
spirit  the  Russians  might  have  compared  their  great  Peter  with 
the  contemporary  prince  whom  the  Parisians  had  honoured  with 
the  same  appellation,  and  might  have  boasted  with  truth  that 
while  Louis  could  organise  a  review  and  turn  a  marsh  into  a 
flower  garden,  Peter  could  create  an  army,  found  an  empire,  and 
reform  a  nation.* 

^  The  authorities  for  this  chapter     and  Cliarlesy  and  Barrow's  Life  of 
are  chiefly  Voltaire's  Lives  of  Peter     JPeter. 


A.©.  1273.]  THE  KISE  OF  PRUSSIA.  357 


CHAPTER   XYI. 

A.D.   1273—1745. 

ri'^HE  same  month  which  witnessed  the  failure  of  the  Czar's 

X  attempt  to  extend  his  temtories  by  the  reduction  of  Narva, 

beheld,  in  a  province  not  very  distant  from  that  scene  of  action, 

an  event  of  a  different  character  which  was  destined  to  have  at 

least  as  great  an  effect  on  the  subsequent  political  history  of 

Europe  as  even  the  introduction  of  Russia  into  the  list  of  civilised 

nations.      On  the   sixteenth  of  November   1700,   a  treaty  was 

signed   between   Leopold,   emperor  of  Germany,   and    Frederic, 

margrave  of  Brandenburgh,  who  was  also  Duke  of  Prussia  and  an 

Elector  of  the  Empire,  which  authorised  that  prince  to  exchange  /) 

his  coronet  for  a  royal  crown,  and  to  assume  the  title  of  King  of    '^''^^*«^ 

Prussia :    and  in  the   first  month  of  the  new  century  the  new  Jd  » 

sovereign  was  crowned  with  great  pomp  at  Konisberg.     It  would 

be  more  correct  to  say  that  he  crowned  himself,  since,  though  he 

had  already  exerted  his  kingly  authority  by  creating  two  bishops 

to  give  an  air  of  sanctity  to  the  ceremony,  he  placed  the  crown 

on  his  head  with  his  own  hands  as  a  sort  of  proclamation  that  he 

was  not  indebted  to  either  priest  or  Emperor  for  his  new  dignity, 

but  that  he  had  both  right  and  power  to  take  it  upon  himself. 

The  Kings  of  Prussia  are  spoken  of  as  belonging  to  the  family  of  ^^^^/ 
Hohenzollern,  a  small  district  to  the  north  of  the  Lake  of  Con-    .  ^****^ 
stance,  which  they  possessed  with  the  rank  of  Count  in  the  Middle  '^*'*^ 
Ages.     They  were  nearly  related  to  the  Counts  of  Hapsburgh ;  and  ^  ' 
in  1273,  Frederic,  the  reigning  Count  of  Hohemzollern,  who  was  •  /^h*^^*. 
also  Margrave  of  Nuremberg,  is  understood  to  have  contributed  in 
no   slight  degree   to   the  elevation  of  Rodolph  to  the  Impeiial 
throne.     The  new  Emperor  and  his  successors  were  not  ungrateful : 
the  descendants  of  Frederic  were  not  scrupulous  nor  unskilful  in 
profiting  by  their  gratitude  :  by  marriage,  by  negotiation,  and  by  '^^U^hJ^ 
purchase,  they  steadily  augmented  the  family  estates,  till,  by  the 
beginning  of  the  fifteenth  century,  they  had  acquired  Culmbach,  ffe*/.^  x^ 
Anspach,  and  Bayreuth  ;  crowning  their  acquisitions  in  Germany 
when,  in  1417,  they  persuaded  the  Emperor  Sigismund  to  sell 
them  the  Margraviate  of  Brandenburgh,  and,  as  margraves,  became 


358  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1618. 

Electors  of  tbe  Empire.    A  century  later  they  extended  their 
possessions  beyond  the  borders  of  Germany,  when,  at  the  end  of  a 

>'*"r'  jfcv*long  war,  in  which  the  knig^hts  of  the  Teutonic  order  had  been 
engaged,   with  Sigismund,  king  of  Poland,   that  monarch  was 

C^t^  ^^"^^educed  to  sue  for  peace,  and  obtained  it  on  cqndition  of  erecting 
the  eastern  part  of  Prussia  into  a  duchy,  and  conferring  it  on  the 
Grand-Master  Albert  of  Brandenburgh,  a  cousin  of  the  reigning 
margrave.  The  knights  who  had  previously  held  that  portion  of 
Prussia  as  a  fief  of  Poland  were  not  inclined  to  acquiesce  in  their 
grand-master  thus  enriching  himself  at  their  expense  ;  they  carried 
their  complaints  to   Vienna,   where   the    Emperor,  little   more 

x^,^,^^^,^,^^  pleased  than  they  at  such  an  addition  to  the  power  of  a  family 
which  he  seems  to  have  foreseen  might  become  formidable  to  his 

C-  *-«*X,j,^3wn,  pronounced  sentence  that  Albert  should  restore  the  duchy  to 
^  the  knights ;  and,  on  his  refusal,  put  him  under  the  ban  of  the 

•^i^-iUA^.*  Empire.  But  the  Empire  was  at  that  moment  too  much  weakened 
by  religious  divisions  to  be  able  to  enforce  the  decrees :  and  the 
house  of  Brandenburgh  had  not  been  used  to  pay  much  regard  to 
empty  words,  unsupported  by  substantial  force.  Albert  held  the 
duchy  in  spite  of  the  Emperor  and  the  diet :  and,  by  following  the 
lead  of  the  head  of  his  house  in  adopting  the  religion  of  the  Re- 

'i^\   lA      formation,  secured  himself  a  body  of  allies  whose  aid  would  have 

^      rendered  the  enforcement  of  the  ban  impossible  had  any  attempt 

I  been  made  to  execute  it.     He  held  Prussia  till  his  death,  and 

^■kW'A-v^^  when,  a  generation  or  two  later,  his  branch  of  the  family  became 
extinct,  the  dominions  which  he  had  acquired  devolved  on  the  head 

»-•.-*    -        of  the  family,  and  the  Elector  of  Brandenburgh,  by  the  addition 
Q  of  the  Duchy  of  Prussia,  became  the  most  powerful  prince  on  the 

north-eastern  side  of  Europe. 

So  greatly,  however,  in  that  age  did  the  prosperity  of  every 
kingdom  or  principality  depend  on  the  personal  character  of  its 
ruler  that,  though  before  the  breaking  out  of  the  Thirty  Years' 
War,  the  Elector  had  received  the  further  augmentation  of  the 
great  Bhenish  Duchy  of  Cleves,  the  heiress  of  which  had  married 
a  cadet  of  his  house,  to  whose  inheritance  he  had  succeeded, 
(^^    ^  Brandenburgh  had  no  influence  on  the  fate  of  the  war,  but  on  the 

'*'^  '*-^^  **»•  contrary  suffered  from  it  as  severely  as  any  province  of  the  Em- 
pire. The  Elector  George,  an  unwarlike  prince,  sought  to  save 
himself  by  taking  part  with  the  Emperor  against  his  brother  Pro- 
testants ;  he  only  brought  on  himself  the  hostility  of  the  Swedes, 
to  whose  assaults  his  dominions,  from  their  position,  were  par- 
ticularly exposed.  At  the  same  time  his  Rhenish  possessions  were 
overrun  by  the  United  States;  and,  had  he  lived  to  see  the  end  of 
the  war,  his  heir  would,  in  all  probability,  have  succeeded  to  a 
greatly  diminished  inheritance. 


\ 


A.D.  1640.]    CnARACTER  OF  THE  GREAT  ELECTOR.       350 

But  he  died  in  ]G40.     And  his  eldest  son,  Frederic  William,   t^^   ^^^ 
though  only  twenty  years  of  age,  was  of  a  yery  different  character. 
He  was  not  only  endowed  with  great  courage,  but,  young  as  he       I  ^  ¥  i 
was,  he  already  possessed  that  prompt  judgment  which  sees  from 
the  first  the  object  to  be  aimed  at,  and  the  best  means  of  attaining 
it;  and,  with  a  firmness  of  purpose  which  allows  nothing  to  inter- 
fere with  the  steady  prosecution  of  it,  he  resolved  from  the  first 
to  re-establish  his  electorate  in  all  its  former  reputation  and  power. 
But  it  was  no  easy  task  that  he  had  before  him.     His  treasury  was 
so  impoverished  that  it  was  in  the  last  degree  needful  for  him  to 
avoid  engaging  in  war :  while,  at  the  same  time,  it  was  indis- 
pensable for  him  to  make  treaties  with  and  to  obtain  concessions 
from  his  neighbours,  which  were  not  likely  to  be  granted  unless 
he  was  understood  to  be  prepared  for  war.     By  skilful  manage- 
ment he  contrived  to  levy  and  equip  a  small  body  of  troops,  and 
the  unprecedented  duration  and  ferocity  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War    .    • 
had  so  exhausted  the  resources  of  all  the  surrounding  potentates  ^^   ^^^ 
that  the  very  smallest  force  of  fresh  troops  seemed  almost  able  to  ^y>-7 
turn  the  scale.     He  was  thus  enabled  to  negotiate  with  such  effect,         A^M*** 
every  prince  fearing  to  drive  him  into  the  arms  of  his  enemies, 
that  he  not  only  induced  the  Swedes  to  withdraw  from  Branden- 
burgh,  and  the  Hessians,  in  the  pay  of  the  United  States,  to  retire 
from  Cleves,  but  he  even  worked  upon  the  Emperor  to  secularise 
some  ecclesiastical  sees,  and  to  add  them  to  his  dominions :   so 
that  when,  eight  years  after  his  accession,  the  general  war  was 
terminated  by  the  peace  of  Westphalia,  he  had  not  only  repaired 
the  injury  which  his  territories  had  suffered,  but  had  extended 
them,  and  established  a  reputation  for  himself  which  was  sure  to 
be  the  stepping-stone  to  further  honours  and  acquisidons. 

The  treaty  of  Westphalia  was  little  more  than  a  respite,  and  a 
substitution  of  a  war  with  one  pretext  and  title  for  a  war  with 
another.     And,  besides  the  qualities  of  which  we  have  spoken, 
Frederic  William  had  another  not  much  less  useful,  the  faculty 
of  discerning,  if  not  which  side  would  ultimately  prevail  in  a  con-  Qj^^f^oM^u^ 
test,  at  all  events  to  which  his  alliance  would  seem  to  be  most 
useful,  and  by  which  his  services  were  likely  to  be  most  liberally  ^f^*^"*^^^ 
requited.     In  obedience  to  this  instinct  in  the  wars  which  en-  ^^       .  ^ 
sued  between  the   Empire  and  France   he  adhered   steadily  to  ^**^^^ft 
Leopold ;  not  indeed  always  to  the  enhancement  of  his  own  re- 
putation, since,  as  commander-in-chief  of  the  German  forces  on   i^  . 
the  Rhine  in  1674  and  1675,  he  proved  altogether  unable  to  cope/'V*-/   (tlL 
with  Turenne,  but  was  routed  at  Turkheim,  and  driven  back  across 
the  river,  with  the  loss  of  two-thirds  of  his  army :  but  his  dis- 
comfiture in  4he  field  produced  no  change  in  his  policy;  and  he 
continued  to  be  the  only  one  of  all  tlie  German  princes  who  waa 


360  MODEEN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1688. 

at  all  times  proof  against  the  promises  or  gifts  of  the  French 
monarch.  Knowing  that  superfluovis  modesty  is  as  great  a  bar  to 
the  advancement  of  a  prince  as  to  the  prosperity  of  a  subject,  he 
did  not  conceal  that  he  desired  a  practical  recognition  of  the  value 
of  his  assistance,  not  that  the  reward  which  he  desired  was  the 
advancement  to  the  rank  of  king ;  but  it  was  far  from  being  con- 
sistent with  the  system  of  the  Emperor  to  raise  other  princes,  or 
to  allow  them  to  raise  themselves,  to  dignities  which  could  in 
any  way  claim  an  equality  with  his  own;  and  before  Frederic 
William  could  overcome  Leopold's  reluctance  to  gratify  him,  he 
died,  in  the  spring  of  1688,  at  the  very  moment  that  events  were 
at  hand  which  would  have  made  his  possible  hostility  a  danger  to 
be  averted  at  any  price. 

His  son  Frederic  could  not  of  course  succeed  at  once  to  all  his 
reputation  and  influence  ;  but  he  inherited  all  hjs  political  views 
and  wishes,  and  also  his  judgment  as  to  the  means  by  which  they 
could  most  surely  be  accomplished.  He  perseveringly  increased 
his  army ;  and  when,  in  the  thirteenth  year  of  his  reign,  the  affairs 
of  Spain  introduced  fresh  complications  into  the  policy  of  every 
kingdom  in  Europe,  his  alliance  had  become  of  such  importance 
thnt  the  Emperor,  however  imwilling,  could  no  longer  refuse  to 
purchase  it  at  the  price  at  which  he  himself  valued  it,  but,  as  we 
have  seen,  gave  a  formal  consent,  not  the  less  valid  for  being  re- 
luctant, to  his  assuming  the  kingly  crown. 

h       Frederic,  thus  become  king  of  a  kingdom  bearing  one  name,  in- 
stead of  sovereign  prince  of  a  number  of  principalities  of  various 
,     denominations,  felt  that  his  new  position  required  increased  exer- 
'**^     tions  to  maintain  it,  and  that  the  mere  name  of  king  would  not 
suffice  to  place  him  on  a  footing  of  real  equality  with  the  older 
monarchs  of  Christendom.     He  had  won  his  new  dignity  by  his 
attention  to  his  army.     He  now  applied  himself  to  extend  his  own 
reputation  and  to  expand  the  resources  of  his  country  by  the  arts 
of  peace.     He  felt  that  however  indispensable  to  an  infant  king- 
^     dom  it  may  be  to  have  credit  for  warlike  spirit  and  military  power, 
"A      nothing  can  more  surely  check  its  growth  than  war.     And,  there- 
•      fore,  he  confined  his  eflbrts  in  that  direction  to  putting  Prussia  in 
a  state  of  ostentatious  fitness  for  action,  and  was  equally  careful 
at  the  same  time  to  save  her  from  diminishing  her  strength  by 
exerting  it  in  the  field.     And  by  maintaining  peace  throughout 
the  whole  of  his  reign  he  obtained  leisure  for  important  adminis- 
trative reforms ;  establishing  a  system  of  general  education,  with  a 
view  to  which,  he  encouraged  some  oi  the  most  eminent  scholars 
in  Europe  to  settle  in  his  dominions,  founded  schools  and  uni- 
/h-CV-    versities,  and,  by  the  advice  of  the  great  Leibnitz,  established  an 


A.D.  1713.]     CHAIUCTER  OF  FREDERIC  WILLIAM  I.      361 

Academy  of  Science,  of  which  he  appointed  Leibnitz  himself  the 
first  president.  He  was  equally  zealous  in  promoting  manufac- 
tures and  an  improved  system  of  agi-iculture  5  and  at  his  death,  in 
1713,  every  part  of  the  kingdom  showed  how  sound  a  judgment 
had  directed  all  his  efforts  for  its  improvement.  %— ^ 

His  son,  who  succeeded  him  on  the  throne  under  the  name  of  f      \h  J 
Frederic  William  I.,  was  of  a  very  different  character.     He  had,  /'^**-^     *v 
indeed,  inherited  his  father's  desire  to  augment  and  extend  the 
reputation  and  power  of  his  kingdom ;  he  dissented  widely  from 
most  of  his  views  of  the  means  by  which  the  result  was  to  be  ac-  /^ 
complished.    Being  a  man  of  the  most  narrow  mind,  he  discouraged  ^^^Lv^     4H 
commerce,  believing,  with  a  strange  political  economy,  that  its  .       f 
chief  effect  was  to  render  a  nation  dependent  on  the  industry  «^ft<*-f-tt  lac  _ 
others  rather  than  on  its  own.     On  literature  and  art  he  looked 
with  still  greater  afversion,  as  tending  to  render  his  people  effemi-  ^j      V^y 
nate,  and  to  implant  in  them  a  fondness  for  foreign  fashions.  ^^  If  It^^. 
^  Nothing,'  he  said,  *  was  ever  got  by  the  pen ;  acquisitions  could  L^..^^,^ 
only  be  made  by  the  sword  :'  and,  accordingly,  his  army  was  from 
the  first  the  sole  object  of  his  attention.     And  even  that,  though 
he  himself  had  served  in  the  Netherlands  during  the  war  of  the 
Succession,  he  had  not  learned  from  Marlborough  and  Eugene  to 
regard  with  the  capacious  views  of  a  great  general.     He  looked 
at  it  with  a  mixture  of  the  feelings  of  a  recruiting  officer  and  a 
drill  sergeant ;' even  disbanding  the  militia  that  it  might  not 
interfere  with  the  levies  for  the  regular  army,  and  instituting  an 
unprecedently  severe  code  of  military  law  for  the  enforcement  of 
discipline.     To  bring  all  ranks  more  completely  under  its  obliga-     1 
tions,  he  also  abolished  the  last  relics  of  the  feudal  system  which  t^JL^,/. 
still  lingered  in  his  German  states,  and  by  which  the  chief  tenants 
of  the  crown  were  bound  to  render  military  service ;  commuting 
the  burdens  for  which  they  were  liable  for  a  yearly  payment, 
which  replenished  his  military  chest,  and  thus  enabled  him  to 
raise  additional  regiments  without  having  recourse  to  increased 
taxation.     Nothing  could  cramp  the  genius  of  the  people  more 
than  to  have  the  whole  energy  of  the  government  directed  into 
one  channel,  and  to  find  a  knowledge  of  military  drill  the  sole 
avenue  to  royal  favour  and  distinction.     Yet  it  cannot  be  denied 
that  this  king's  unremitting  attention  to  his  favourite  object  did 
also  prove  advantageous  to  the  kingdom  in  subsequent  years,  when  ^?  » 

the  sceptre  had  passed  into  other  hands :  for,  as  far  as  his  own  /^****^ 
objects  were  concerned,  his  system  was  eminently  successful.     In  /k^ 
ills  father's  time  the  army  barely  amounted  to  39,000  men.     At  ^^"^  ^if^m, 
the  end  of  twenty-seven  years  he  left  to  his  successor  between     )      ' 
eighty  and  ninety  thousand,  of  which  an  unu^iual  proportion  were  /•'»'»-«»• 
17 


362  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1725. 

cavalry  and  artillery  ;  a  force  inferior  to  that  of  no  sovereign,  but 
the  King  of  France,  though  the  population  of  his  kingdom  was 
almost  the  smallest  in  Christendom. 

Nor,  in  spite  of  his  professed  disdain  for  the  achievements  of  the 
pen,  did   he  neglect  the   opportunities   which   the   troubles   and 
necessities  of  other  nations  afforded  him  of  extending  his  dominions 
and  his  influence  by  diplomacy.     Charles  XII.,  as  we  have  seen 
"^Xi — Tl        ^^  ^^^  ^^^^  chapter,  was  still  in  Turkey  when  he  came  to  the 
a^-'^VkH*^  throne;  and,  skilfully  availing  himself  of  that  warlike  prince's 
jt     <"      g        absence  to  negotiate  with  his  heir  presumptive,  he  obtained  from 
4%-  ^^«Xu<%..>hiin  the  cession  of  the  greater  part  of  Pomerania,  which  even 
Charles  himself  on  his  return  was  unable  to  recover ;  though  to 
Z..JI9  \.  preserve  it,  Frederic  was   compelled  to  depart  from  his  usually 

pacific  policy,  and  to  unite  with  Russia  and  Poland  in  the  brief 
war  by  which  Stralsund  was  finally  wrested  from  Sweden. 
Family  ties  bound  him  so  closely  to  George  I.  of  England,  whose 
daughter  was  his  queen,  that  it  would  not  be  fair  to  lay  very 
great  stress  on  the  treaties  of  mutual, guarantee  which  he  con- 
cluded with  that  prince:  but  the  treaty  of  Hanover,  by  which 
France  as  well  as  England  entered  into  a  close  alliance  with 
Russia,  and  engaged  to  support  Frederic's  claims  to  the  important 
duchies  of  Juliers  and  Berri,  was  an  indisputable  recognition  of 
the  weight  which  he  had  acquired  in  the  political  system  of 
Europe.  It  was  also  a  foreshadowing  of  the  course  which  Prussia 
would  hereafter  take  of  combining  with  France  in  her  inveterate 
opposition  to  the  House  of  Austria  :  and  as  such,  it  may  be  said  to 
have  been  the  foundation  of  that  long  rivalry  between  northern 
and  southern  Germany  of  which  the  present  generation  has  wit- 
nessed, or,  it  may  be  more  correct  to  say,  is  still  witnessing,  the 
development. 
'  g        yy  Nor  was  it  a  weaker  acknowledgment  of  his  importance  that 

when  Augustus,  King  of  Poland  as  well  as  of  Saxony,  conceived 
the  idea  (the  original  germ  of  the  partition  which  was  carried  out 
forty  years  later)  of  sacrificing  a  portion  of  his  Polish  territories 
to  procure  the  hereditary  possession  of  the  rest,  he  not  only  felt 
L-  ^-  the  necessity  of  procuring  the  consent  of  Prussia,  as  well  as  that  of 

r  Austria  and  Russia,  but  the  portion  with  which  he  proposed  to 

purchase  Frederic  William's  acquiescence  was  far  more  extensive 
and  valuable  than  that  which  he  offered  to  Charles  VI.  While 
apparently  it  was  chiefly  owing  to  the  Prussian  sovereign's  percep- 
tion of  the  mutual  jealousies  which  must  arise  in  the  attempt  to 
carry  out  any  such  project  that  it  was  rejected,  or  rather  tempo- 
rarily laid  aside. 

For  many  years  Frederic  William  was  greatly  disquieted  lest 
"^"^  -^C^      his  son,  when  it  should  be  his  turn  to  succeed  him,  should  neglect 


^-iC^ 


^ijU'^oA^^ 


A.D.  1725.]       HIS  TREATMENT   OF  HIS  FAMILY.  363 

or  undo  the  military  system  to  the  organisation  of  which  he  had 
devoted  all  his  faculties.  Not  that  the  Crown  Prince,  as  he  was 
entitled,  showed  any  disinclination  or  inaptitude  for  military 
studies,  but  that  he  did  not  permit  them  to  engross  his  whole 
attention  as  they  monopolised  that  of  his  father.     The  young  ^  j  __^ 

Frederic  was  willing  to  be  a  soldier;  but  he  was  at  the  same  time  /h^^i-Jl^  / 
accessible  to   more  humanising  influences.      lie  had  an  ear  for 
music ;  he  was  not  without  a  taste  for  the  fine  arts ;  though  with- 
out much  judgment,  he  had  an  earnest  fondness  for  poetry  and  /•  •      /  ^"^ — 
learning,  and,  as  Germany  had  as  yet  no  national  literature,  he '^^^   t,^.*-* 
applied  himself  with  diligence  to  the  study  of  the  French  language  a.^|~^^IJ[7< 
and  the  most  celebrated  French  writers.    In  spite  of  the  treaty 
of  Hanover,  Frederic  William  hated  the  French:  he  hated  in- 
deed all  foreigners,  but,  being  a  firm  Protestant,  and  a  zealous, 
if  not  a  very  intelligent  theologian,  he  regarded  the  French  with 
peculiar  detestation  as  not  only  Roman  Catholics,  but  infidels :  and 
his  mode  of  expressing  his  disapprobation  was  never  gentle.    No 
monarch  of  whom  modern  history  has  preserved  a  record  was  so 
savage  in  his  temper  or  so  brutal  in  his  way  of  showing  his  anger,    y 
He  would  cane  clergymen  in  the  street  for  stopping  to  admire  the  T>}.>%J^  IA/* 
splendid  appearance  of  his  troops,  proud  as  he  himself  was  of  the 
display.     He  would  rush  into  a  court  of  justice  and  kick  the 
judges  off"  the  bench,  if  they  ventured  to  pronounce  a  sentence  at 
variance  with  his  opinion  or  caprice.     His  eldest  daughter,  the 
Margravine  of  Bayreuth,  who  has  left  us  an  account  of  her  own 
early  years,  declares  that  after  she  was  grown  up,  her  father  would 
seize  her  by  the  hair  with  one  hand  while  he  battered  her  face 
with  the  doubled  fist  of  the  other.     And  he  was  not  likely  to  be 

more  considerate  towards  "his  son.     At  first,  when  he  found  that  /t*         y , 

the  youth  took  a  delight  in  fine  clothes,  and  amused  his  leisure  fr^^^i^^At^ 
hours  with  playing  on  the  flute,  he  contented  himself  wuth  burn- 
ing his  laced  coat,  pulling  his  hair  out  of  his  head,  and  breaking  ^f'^ll^  u1 
his  flute  over  it.  Presently  he  grew  more  violent.  The  Austrian 
ambassador,  Count  Seckendorf,  could  find  no  better  expedient  fcr 
hindering  a  double  marriage  which  the  Queen  of  Prussia,  sister  of 
George  II.  of  England,  was  bent  on  promoting  between  her  son 
and  daughter  and  an  English  prince  and  princess,  than  that  of 
instilling  into  the  royal  ear  doubts  of  his  son's  attachment  to  the 
Protestant  faith.  Frederic  William  turned  divine.  Every  day  he 
assembled  his  family  in  his  private  chapel ;  where,  after  the  valet 
de  chambre  had  led  them  in  a  hymn,  he  himself  preached  them  a 
sermon.  Frederic  and  his  sister  laughed,  and  such  combined  dis- 
loyalty and  heresy  drove  the  preacher  to  madness.  On  one  occa- 
sion he  tried  to  push  his  daughter  into  the  fire ;  on  another  to 
strangle  his  son  with  the  cord  of  the  window  curtain.     At  times 


364  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1740. 

he  even  accompanied  Lis  cruelty  with  the  grossest  public  insult : 
on  one  occasion  causing  him  to  he  caned  in  front  of  his  regiment ; 
and  reproaching  him  for  submitting  to  the  outrage,  with  the  re- 
mark that  if  he  himself  had  been  treated  in  such  a  manner  by  his 
father  he  should  have  shot  himself.     So  fierce  and  implacable  did 
i       .      .  •     his  hatred  of  his  son  seem  to  be,  and  so  miserable  did  he  render  his 
C^#^'""M>^l*vC  -whole  life,  that  at  last,  when  Frederic  was  eighteen  years  of  age, 
,^. — ~^j  he  took  the  resolution  of  escaping  from  the  country,  and  seeking  an 

^ULL^j%,t\AJif    ^^y^^^  ill  France  or  England.     But  the  plan  reached  the  ears  of 
^  the  king,  and,  in  his  eyes,  nothing  more  was  wanted  to  justify  him 

7        J  in  proceeding  to  extremities  with  one  whom  he  regarded  as  an 

(yf*'^^  *  undutiful  son,  a  refractory  subject,  and  an  insubordinate  soldier. 
Many  years  had  not  elapsed  since,  for  disapproving  of  his  reforms 
and  taking  refuge  from  his  displeasure  in  a  foreign  land,  the  Czar 
had  publicly  condemned  his  son  to  death  :  and  in  many  respects 
the  misbehaviour  of  the  Prussian  prince  closely  resembled  the 
offence  of  Alexis ;  while  his  military  rank  seemed  to  facilitate  a 
more  expeditious  mode  of  dealing  with  him.  He  was  put  under 
arrest,  and  brought  to  trial  before  a  court-martial  for  meditating 
desertion.  It  was  to  no  purpose  that  the  members  of  the  court 
declared  princes  of  the  royal  family  beyond  their  jurisdiction  ;  and 
that  some  of  them  added  an  opinion  that  the  articles  of  war,  to 
which  the  king  appealed,  were  not  applicable  to  the  case.  Oppo- 
sition only  increased  the  king's  exasperation ;  and  it  was  not  till 
the  sovereigns  of  Sweden,  Poland,  and  Russia  had  all  interceded 
for  the  prisoner,  and  till  Charles  VI.  had  formally  claimed  his 
liberation  as  a  Prince  of  the  Empire,  and  as  such  not  amenable  to 
any  ordinary  tribunal,  that  his  unnatural  father  laid  aside  his  idea 
of  putting  him  to  death,  and  contented  himself  with  sentencing  him 
to  close  imprisonment  in  the  fortress  of  Custrin,  and  compelling 
him  to  witness  the  execution  of  a  young  officer.  Lieutenant  Katte, 
who  had  been  the  confidant  of  his  design. 

In  the  spring  of  1740,  to  the  joy  of  the  whole  nation,  Frederic 
William  died.  The  Crown  Prince,  who  had  gradually  contrived  to 
soften  his  father's  displeasure,  and  even  to  gain  some  degree  of  his 
favour,  succeeded  to  the  throne ;  and  never  did  a  change  in  the 
person  of  its  ruler  produce  a  more  instant  and  complete  alteration 
in  any  country.  Frederic  William's  energies  had  been  spent  on 
the  organisation  of  an  army,  which  he  had  no  heart  to  employ ;  on 
the  rehearsal  of  manoeuvres,  which,  with  his  own  goodwill,  were 
never  intended  to  be  put  in  practice.  The  father  had  an  inter- 
view with  the  great  Eugene  in  1732,  who  estimated  his  cha- 
racter at  a  glance.  '  He  dreamt  of  nothing,  but  military  matters  ; 
but  only  of  such  as  parades,  drills,  short  jackets,  and  tall  men.'' 
»  Memoirs  of  Prince  Eugene,  year  1732,  p.  102,  od.  1811. 


A.D.  1740.]  DEATH  OF  THE  EMPEROR.  3G5 

But  when  two  years  afterwards,  the  son  was  permitted  to  join  the 
old  Prince,  the  most  renowned  of  living  warriors,  on  the  Rhine, 
Eugene  conceived  a  far  higher  idea  of  his  capacity,  and  speaks  of 
him  in  his  Memoirs  as  a  young  man  of  '  infinite  promise.'^  He 
no  doubt  meant  of  promise  as  a  soldier,  the  subject  on  which  he 
himself  was  best  qualified  to  pronounce  an  opinion.  And  Frederic 
had  been  but  a  few  months  on  the  throne  when  circumstances  pre- 
sented him  with  an  opportunity  of  showing  how  correct  was 
Eugene's  judgment  of  the  difference  between  his  father's  abilities 
and  his  own. 

In  the  autumn  of  the  same  year  the  Emperor,  Charles  VI.,  also 
died,  and  was  succeeded  in  his  hereditary  dominions  by  his  daughter 
Maria  Teresa,  who  now  became  Queen  of  Hungary  and  Bohemia, 
and  Archduchess  of  Austria,  and  who  was  married  to  Francis,  duke 
of  Lorraine.  Had  Francis  been  the  son  of  Charles,  his  election  as 
King  of  the  Romans  and  successor  to  the  Imperial  dignity  would 
have  been  a  matter  of  course,  and,  as  his  son-in-law,  Charles  would 
hardly  have  found  any  greater  difficulty  in  obtaining  for  him 
the  suffrages  of  the  electors  :  but,  with  unaccountable  carelessness, 
strangely  contrasted  with  the  prudent  foresight  which  he  had 
exercised  in  removing  all  obstacles  to  his  daughter's  succession,  he 
had  neglected  to  take  the  necessary  steps  in  favour  of  her  husband ; 
and  his  death  had  therefore  left  the  Empire  vacant.  His  neglect 
should  have  made  no  difference.  No  one  but  Frederic  could  dis- 
turb what  might  be  called  the  natural  order  of  things,  according 
to  which  the  electors  would  have  at  once  conferred  the  Imperial 
dignity  on  the  husband  of  the  head  of  the  House  of  Austria, 
which  had  uninterruptedly  enjoyed  it  for  so  many  generations. 
And  no  prince  in  Europe  was  so  bound  to  aid  Charles's  daughter 
as  Frederic,  who  owed  his  very  life  to  her  father's  intercession. 
But  obligations  of  gratitude,  scruples  of  conscience,  or  considera- 
tions of  anything  but  personal  interest,  were  never  to  influence  the 
course  of  the  young  prince,  who,  having  just  attained  sovereign 
power,  longed  to  convince  himself  and  the  world  of  its  reality. 
He  saw  in  the  sex  of  Maria  Teresa,  and  in  her  situation,  (she  was 
on  the  point  of  a  confinement),  only  a  helplessness  which  pointed 
her  out  as  a  promising  object  for  immediate  attack.  He  knew 
that  the  treasury  at  Vienna  was  nearly  exhausted;  that  the 
Austrian  army  had  been  allowed  to  dwindle  down  to  a  force 
scarcely  exceeding  30,000  men ;  while  he  himself  had  upwards  of 
B0,000,  admirably  trained,  and  fully  provided  ;  and  an  exchequer 
which  his  father's  economical  if  not  avaricious  management  had 

1  Ibid.,  year  1734,  p.  169:  'Le  not  dictated  by  flattery,  for  Eugene 
prince  royal,  qui  me  parut  promettre  died  two  years  afterwards,  some  time 
iiifiniincnt;'    and  this  remark  was     before  Frederic  came  to  the  throne. 


366  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1741. 

left  better  filled  than  that  of  any  other  sovereign.  He  looked 
around  him  for  a  pretext  for  war ;  and  those  who  seek  such  are 
rarely  at  a  difficulty  in  finding  one.  He  set  up  a  claim  to  Silesia,  a 
province  of  the  Bohemian  kingdom.  It  was  not  altogether  a  new 
claim,  hut  it  was  more  untenable  than  if  it  had  never  before  been 
heard  of,  since  one  of  his  ancestors  in  the  preceding  century,  after 
advancing  it,  had  formally  abandoned  it,  and  had  even  received 
a  small  indemnification  for  so  doing.  Nor,  indeed,  though  Frederic 
now  reasserted  it  in  a  public  manifesto,  did  he  pretend  to  conceal 
that  he  had  no  strong  belief  in  its  validity  or  justice.  In  one  of  his 
familiar  letters  he  confessed  to  his  correspondent  that  his  actuating 
motive  was  a  desire  of  glory,  and  the  pleasure  of  seeing  his  name 
in  newspapers,  and  hereafter  in  history ;  and  in  the  autobiographi- 
cal Memoirs  which  he  left  behind  him,  he  admits  the  inducements 
to  have  been  the  *  deplorable  state  of  the  court  of  Vienna ;  with 
its  finances  in  disorder,  its  army  ruined,  its  ministers  disunited, 
and  a  youthful  inexperienced  princess  at  the  head  of  the  govern- 
ment.' ^  These  circumstances  afforded  a  prospect  of  '  acquiring 
reputation,  and  augmenting  the  power  of  the  state,'  ^  which  he 
could  not  resist.  He  relied  also  on  the  inveterate  hostility  of 
France  towards  the  House  of  Austria  for  providing  him  with  an 
ally  whose  aid  in  such  a  war  would  be  more  effective  than  that  of 
any  other  power.  And  with  such  rapidity  did  he  form  his  reso- 
lution and  act  upon  it,  that,  though  it  was  not  till  the  twentieth 
of  October  that  the  Emperor  died,  in  the  first  week  of  December 
he  despatched  his  envoy  to  Vienna  to  demand  the  cession  of  Silesia, 
and  at  the  same  time,  with  a  discourteous  bad  faith,  refused  to 
wait  for  an  answer  to  his  demand,  but  at  once  poured  his  troops 
into  the  province.  For  a  time  he  was  unopposed  and  successful ; 
Breslau  the  capital,  and  all  the  chief  fortresses  were  wholly  un- 
provided with  means  of  resistance,  and  surrendered  without  a 
struggle;  but  when,  by  the  beginning  of  April,  the  queen  had 
been  able  to  assemble  an  army  sufficient  to  give  him  battle,  his 
own  share  in  the  action  which  ensued  threw  no  little  doubt  not 
only  in  his  military  skill,  but  for  a  moment  even  on  his  courage. 
The  armies  were  pretty  equally  matched  in  point  of  numbers, 
neither  exceeding  20,000  men ;  but  the  queen's  cavalry  was  the 
more  numerous  ;  the  ground  on  which  the  battle  was  fought  was 
favorable  to  that  force ;  and  when  the  Austrian  hussars  had 
beaten  back  the  Prussian  cavalry,  and  Frederic,  who,  to  quote  his 
own  expression,  *  thought  he  might  rally  cavalry  as  he  would  stop 
a  pack  of  hounds,'  ^  found  himself  unable  to  restore  order,  he 
gave  up  all  hopes  of  victory,  and  rode  from  the  field  with  a  small 

^  History  of  my  own  Times,  by  Frederic  II.,  c.ii.    Holcroft's  Translation. 


A.D.  1741.]  MAEIA  TERESA  AT  PBESBURG.  367 

escort  to  the  shelter  of  the  neighbouring  town  of  Oppeln.  His 
flight  nearly  led  him  into  the  very  misfortune  which  it  was  intended 
to  avoid ;  for  an  Austrian  squadron  was  in  possession  of  Oppeln, 
and  made  prisoners  of  the  escort,  very  nearly  capturing  Frederic 
himself,  who  was  only  saved  by  the  fleetness  of  his  horse.  What- 
ever personal  vanity  he  had  must  have  been  deeply  mortified  when 
at  night  he  learnt  that  Marshal  Schwerin,  his  second  in  command, 
had  held  his  ground  with  the  infantry  with  such  tenacity  and  skill 
that  he  had  finally  retrieved  the  fortune  of  the  day,  and  had  driven 
the  Austrians  from  the  field,  with  the  loss  of  above  1,000  prisoners 
and  several  guns  and  colours.  But  Frederic  was  a  man  willing  to 
learn  even  from  his  own  blunders,  and  singularly  candid  in  detect- 
ing them.  He  never  flattered  himself.  In  his  Memoirs  he  frankly 
gives  the  whole  credit  of  the  victory  to  the  marshal,  admits  that 
his  own  generalship  afforded  '  a  great  cause  for  censure,'  but 
*  Molwitz  was  his  school :  he  made  profound  I'eflections  on  all  the 
faults  which  he  had  committed,  and  endeavoured  to  correct  him- 
self in  future.'  ^ 

Comparatively  small  as  had  been  the  number  of  the  combatants, 
the  victory  had  important  political  consequences.  It  encouraged 
the  Elector  of  Bavaria  to  advance  claims  to  other  parts  of  the 
queen's  dominions  which,  though  less  justifiable  than  even  those 
proposed  by  Prussia,  were  rendered  formidable  by  the  co-opera- 
tion of  the  French  court,  which  also  successfully  exerted  its 
influence  with  the  Electors  to  obtain  for  him  the  Imperial  crown  ; 
while  George  the  Second's  anxiety  for  Hanover  led  him  to  keep 
England  neutral,  though  his  English  subjects  were  zealous 
partisans  of  Maria  Teresa.  For  a  moment  it  seemed  impossible 
that  she,  unsupported  by  a  single  ally,  could  make  head  against 
such  a  combination ;  but  she  was  worthy  of  her  position,  and  of 
her  race  ;  and,  true  to  her  people  and  to  herself,  confronted  all  her 
difficulties  and  dangers  with  unshaken  courage.  The  story  has 
often  been  told  (and  none  will  better  bear  repetition)  how  she 
summoned  the  Hungarian  states  to  Presburg,  and,  in  the  ancient 
castle  of  the  capital,  still  clad  in  deep  mourning  for  her  father,  but 
wearing  the  crown  of  St.  Stephen  on  her  head,  and  girt  with  the 
consecrated  scimetar,  the  symbol  of  authority  worn  by  her  manly 
predecessors,  threw  herself  fearlessly  on  the  loyalty  and  support 
of  the  nation.  She  laid  before  the  assembled  deputies  her  present 
troubles,  her  impending  danger :  some  of  her  territories  were 
already  invaded  by  the  enemy,  the  rest  were  threatened  :  '  The 
kingdom  of  Hungary,  ourselves,  our  children,  our  crown,  all  are 
at  stake.     Deserted  by  all  besides,  we  throw  ourselves  on  our 

*  History  of  my  own  Times,  c.  iii. 


368  MODERN  HISTORY.  (a-b.  1745. 

only  refuge,  on  the  loyalty  of  these  illustrious  states,  on  the 
proved  valour  of  the  Hungarian  people.'  Nor  did  she  appeal  in 
vain.  Full  of  attachment  to  her  sex,  admiration  for  her  courage, 
and  gratitude  for  her  confidence,  the  council  rose  as  one  man, 
clashing  their  swords,  and  declaring  v^ith  enthusiastic  shouts  their 
willingness  to  shed  their  life-blood  in  her  cause,  'to  die/  as  they 
expressed  it, '  for  their  King  Maria  Teresa.' 

Nor  was  their  zeal  confined  to  empty  professions :  they  raised 
troops,  they  voted  money;  hut  the  Austrian  discipline  was  no 
longer  such  as  it  had  heen  in  the  days  of  Eugene :  the  com- 
manders, with  the  exception  of  Marshal  Traun,  were  not  such  as 
to  do  credit  to  his  teaching.  And,  though  Frederic  incurred  one 
great  disaster  by  a  rash  advance  into  Bohemia,  from  which  the 
old  marshal  and  Prince  Charles  of  Lorraine,  the  queen's  brother- 
in-law,  drove  him  with  the  loss  of  half  his  army,  the  general 
course  of  the  war  proceeded  so  steadily  in  his  favour,  that,  in  the 
winter  of  1745,  Maria  Teresa  was  compelled  to  sign  a  treaty, 
known  as  the  peace  of  Dresden,  by  which  she  confirmed  Frederic's 
possession  of  Silesia;  while  he  recognised  her  husband  as  Em- 
peror. For  the  Elector  of  Bavaria  who,  on  her  father's  death,  had 
been  elected  Emperor,  with  the  title  of  Charles  VII.,  had  died  in 
the  preceding  January  ;  and  Francis  of  Lorraine  had  been  elected 
as  his  successor,  and  had  already  been  crowned  at  Frankfort. 

Unscrupulous  and  unprovoked  as  Frederic's  hostility  to  the 
queen  had  been,  it  had  gained  his  object :  it  had  acquired  for 
him  a  valuable  province ;  and  it  had  made  him  famous.  In  little 
more  than  four  years  it  had  established  the  credit  of  the  Prussian 
army,  both  infantry  and  cavalry,  as  second  to  no  other  force  on  the 
Continent :  and  his  own  reputation  as  deserving  a  place  among 
the  first  of  living  generals.  It  had  given  him  also  the  means  of 
efl'ecting  more,  through  the  admiration  for  himself  with  which  it 
had  inspired  his  subjects,  who  greeted  his  return  to  Berlin  with 
enthusiastic  acclamations,  hailing  him  as  *  Frederic  the  Great,'  a 
title  by  which  they  have  never  ceased  to  speak  of  him.  It  was 
hardly  possible  that  such  success,  not  easily  paralleled,  if  the 
shortness  of  the  time  in  which  it  was  achieved  and  his  own  pre- 
vious inexperience  be  considered,  should  not  have  excited  in  his 
mind  a  desire  hereafter  to  eclipse  it  by  still  greater  triumphs. 
But,  if  such  an  intention  existed  in  his  breast,  he  gave  no  sign  of 
it  beyond  intrigues  with  the  English  Jacobites,  as  a  punishment 
to  George  II.  for  the  support  which,  before  the  close  of  the  war, 
the  unanimous  voice  of  the  people  had  compelled  him  to  aff'ord 
to  the  queen :  and  probably  (though  George  was  his  uncle)  as  a 
means  of  eventually  wresting  from  him  the  Electorate  of  Hanover, 
on  which  he  had  already  cast  a  covetous  eye ;   and  for  which, 


A.D.  1746.]       FREDEEIC'S  DOMESTIC  POLICY.  369 

after  he  had  once  pointed  it  out  to  Prussia  as  a  prey  to  be  desired, 
his  successors  unremitting-ly  laboured,  till,  after  the  law  of  in- 
heritance prevailing  in  the  electorate  had  separated  it  from  Eng- 
land, they  found  in  its  isolation  an  opportunity  of  seizing  it, 
effecting  by  open  violence  what  they  had  more  than  once  sought  to 
accomplish  by  treachery ;  expelling  its  sovereign  with  whom  they 
had  not  even  the  pretence  of  a  quarrel,  and,  by  the  mere  law  of 
strength,  incorporating  it  with  their  own  dominions. 

But  in  other  quarters  his  conduct  afforded  no  indication  of  any 
warlike  purpose.  He  rather  seemed  contented  to  have  sheathed 
his  sword,  and  for  several  years  devoted  all  his  faculties  to  the 
internal  improvement  of  his  kingdom,  showing  a  most  judicious 
discernment  in  most  of  his  measures,  and  erring  only  or  chiefly  in 
the  adoption  of  the  idea  of  which  not  unnaturally  finds  favour 
with  absolute  sovereigns,  that  he  could  direct  and  perform 
everything  himself.  It  will  be  remembered  that,  on  the  death  of 
Mazarin,  Louis  XIV.  declared  his  intention  to  be  for  the  future 
his  own  prime  minister,  and  had  shown  an  industry  very  rare  in  a 
king,  in  his  endeavours  to  carry  it  out.  In  a  somewhat  similar 
spirit,  when,  on  the  death  of  Frederic  William,  his  favourite 
ministers  and  generals  besought  their  new  master  to  suffer  them 
to  retain  their  offices,  Frederic  replied  that  he  himself  designed 
to  be  Hhe  King  of  Prussia's  Field-Marshal  and  the  King  of 
Prussia's  Finance  Minister.'  And,  though  during  his  absence 
with  the  army,  it  was  impossible  for  him  to  act  up  to  the  declara- 
tion, from  the  first  moment  of  the  restoration  of  peace  he  applied 
himself  to  the  performance  of  what  he  regarded  as  his  duty  with  the 
most  vigorous  and  untiring  assiduity.  He  traversed  his  kingdom, 
examining  the  condition  of  every  town  and  province  with  his  own 
eyes :  ordering  the  construction  of  fortifications,  the  establishment 
of  manufactures^  examining  the  state  of  the  provincial  as  well  as 
of  the  national  finances.  Even  the  administration  of  the  law  he 
took,  to  a  certain  extent,  into  his  own  hands,  constituting  himself 
a  court  of  appeal  from  the  decisions  of  the  judges,  and  issuing  an 
edict  that  every  one,  who  had  either  a  grievance  to  be  redressed 
or  a  wish  to  be  satisfied,  should  be  at  liberty  to  bring  his  com- 
plaint or  his  petition  to  himself.  He  put  one  limitation  on  this 
permission ;  requiring  that  the  petitioner's  demands  should  never 
take  up  more  space  than  one  side  of  a  sheet  of  paper;  but,  pro- 
vided this  condition  were  complied  with,  he  read  with  his  own 
eyes  every  document  addressed  to  him;  paying  equal  attention 
to  the  most  important  and  the  most  trivial  matters,  regulating 
with  equal  care  the  tax  to  be  imposed  on  foreign  manufactures 
and  the  salary  to  be  paid  to  an  actress  by  a  theatrical  manager. 

As   a  political   economist,  he   failed :  the  same   spirit,  which 


370  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1746. 

induced  him  to  undertake  the  duties  of  all  the  different  depart- 
ments of  government,  led  him  also  to  confine  to  the  crown  many 
branches  of  trade  which  a  more  enlightened  system  leaves  to 
private  hands,  trusting  for  their  regulation  to  the  natural  laws  of 
demand  and  supply.  He  judged  that  many  trades  required  en- 
couragement, but  the  only  eiicouragement  which  he  could  con- 
ceive effectual  was  to  take  them  into  his  own  hands :  and  on  this 
principle  he  established  one  royal  monopoly  to  promote  the  culti- 
vation of  tobacco  :  the  importation  of  coffee  was  made  the  sub- 
ject of  another,  and  the  most  minute  regulations  were  promul- 
gated with  the  sanction  of  the  royal  authority  to  define  who 
might  buy  the  berry  raw  and  who  must  be  content  to  purchase 
it  ready  roasted  in  royal  tin  cases.  Some  subjects  he  dealt  with 
iii  an  enlightened  spirit  which  seemed  to  prove  him  greatly  in 
advance  of  his  age.  He  established  complete  religious  toleration 
in  every  part  of  his  dominions  5  and,  though  there  is  too  great 
leason  to  believe  that  the  mainspring  of  his  conduct  was  not  so 
much  respect  for,  as  contempt  for  and  indifference  to  religious 
belief  of  any  kind,  the  effect  of  his  ordinance  on  the  general  tran- 
quillity of  his  kingdom  was  not  the  less  beneficial.  It  was  even 
more  praiseworthy  that  he  allowed  his  subjects  the  most  perfect 
freedom  in  the  expression  of  their  opinions  whether  in  conversa- 
tion or  in  writing.  It  was  a  liberty  that  they  were  by  no  means 
disposed  to  suffer  to  lie  dormant :  for  there  was  hardly  a  month 
for  many  years  that  lampoons  on  his  administration,  libels  on  his 
motives,  and  caricatures  of  his  person  and  of  his  actions  were  not 
published  and  circulated  :  the  bitterest  and  worst  of  them  did  not 
endanger  either  author  or  publisher,  nor  apparently  even  bring  him 
into  the  slightest  disfavour.  On  one  occasion,  when  the  coffee  mono- 
poly was  new  and  specially  unpopular,  Frederic  saw  a  crowd  strain- 
ing their  eyes  to  obtain  a  sight  of  a  picture  of  himself,  which  por- 
trayed him  with  a  coffee-mill  between  his  knees  grinding  with  one 
hand  and  picking  up  any  berries  which  fell  to  the  ground  with 
the  other,  but  whicli  the  billsticker  had  posted  too  high  up  on  a 
blank  wall  to  be  distinctly  seen.  He  ordered  it  to  be  shifted  lower 
down  that  all  might  examine  it  with  greater  ease.  He  and  his 
people,  he  said,  had  come  to  an  understanding :  he  was  to  do  what 
he  pleased,  and  they  were  to  say  what  they  pleased  :  and  his 
people  were  abundantly  satisfied  with  a  license  so  unusual  from 
an  arbitrary  sovereign. 

More  important  still  and  more  truly  glorious  than  any  of  his 
achievements  in  war  was  his  mitigation  of  the  severity  of  the 
ciiminal  law.  Before  his  time  extreme  punishments  were  in  un- 
diminished favour  with  all  legislators.  The  number  of  crimes,  to 
which  death  was  awarded  in  England,  was  fearfully  enormous : 


A.D.1746.]  HE  MITIGATES  THE  SEVERITY  OF  THE  LAW.  371 

while  in  France  criminals,  as  in  the  case  of  Damiens,  could  still 
be  exposed  to  the  most  inhuman  and  revolting  tortures.  Frederic 
was  the  first  ruler  of  a  country  who  thought  it  more  important  to 
prevent  than  to  punish  offences ;  and  who  at  the  same  lime  conceived 
the  idea  that  the  true  method  of  prevention  was  to  be  found  in 
diminishing  the  severity  of  the  punishment,  and  especially  in  a 
more  sparing  resort  to  capital  sentences.  The  result  justified  his 
anticipations.  Before  the  end  of  his  reign  Prussia  was  more  free 
from  the  more  heinous  crimes  than  perhaps  any  other  country  in 
Europe,  and  he  had  the  pleasing  reflection  that,  in  humanising 
the  laws,  he  had  humanised  the  people  also. 

Meritorious  and  valuable  as  these  reforms  were,  they  donotexhaust  "^^ 
the  list  of  Frederic's  wise  measures  for  the  development  of  the  re- 
sources of  the  country  and  the  elevation  of  the  character  of  the  people.  0     /  "^^ 
Marshes  were  drained,  villages  and  towns  were  built  in  remote  dis-  ^A*/^'^''V'-^^-* 

tricts,  and  were  peopled  with  settlers  allured  from  foreign  countries  - jLfl  ^«-u. 

and  skilful  in  foreign  arts  which  he  desired  to  naturalise  in  Prussia.  I 
Improvements  in  the  cultivation  of  land  and  the  breed  of  cattle 
were  encouraged.  Internal  trade  was  facilitated  by  the  construc- 
tion of  roads  and  canals :  foreign  commerce  by  the  improvement 
of  the  harbours  in  the  Baltic,  and  the  establishment  of  a  mercantile 
company  to  open  a  traffic  with  the  East.  While  at  the  same 
time,  to  expand  the  minds  of  his  subjects  by  elegant  accomplish- 
ments, museums  were  established  and  enriched  by  choice  collec- 
tions of  antiquities  and  works  of  art  purchased  at  a  large  price, 
and  an  academy  of  polite  literature  was  founded  and  endowed, 
tliough,  with  a  strange  inconsistency,  Maupertuis,  a  Frenchman, 
was  appointed  to  preside  over  it,  and,  by  the  king's  express  order, 
all  papers  read  before  it  were  required  to  be  written  in  French. 

These  manifold  cares  and  useful  labours  of  peace  did  not,  how- 
ever, for  a  moment  divert  his  attention  from  his  army.  The  very 
foundation  of  his  indifference  to  lampoons  and  libels  was  the  con- 
viction, which  he  had  inherited  from  his  father,  that  the  sword 
was  the  only  power  worthy  of  serious  consideration ;  and  a 
vigilant  increasing  superintendence  of  all  that  related  to  the 
organisation  and  discipline  of  the  army  was  ever  the  task  to  which 
he  applied  himself  with  the  greatest  interest. 

To  review  his  guards  was  one  of  his  daily  occupations,  with 
tvrhich,  except  when  he  was  absent  from  Berlin,  nothing  was  ever 
permitted  to  interfere.  And  the  greatly-increased  force,  augmented 
beyond  all  proportion  to  the  population  of  the  country,  and  its 
conduct  when  again  called  to  the  field  abundantly  testified  to  the 
judgment  exerted  by  him  in  all  military  details.  But  it  is  cha- 
racteristic of  the  view  which  he  took  of  the  unpardonable  character 
of  all  violations  of  military  duty  that  he  introduced  none  of  the 


372  MODERN  niSTORY.  [a.d.  1746. 

reforms  into  his  code  of  martial  law  which  proved  so  beneficial  in 
his  administration  of  the  common  Jaw.  In  the  army  the  slightest 
offences  were  still  punished  with  the  most  merciless  rigour,  no 
rank,  reputation,  nor  past  service,  availed  to  procure  the  mitigation 
of  a  sentence.  The  slightest  violation  of  the  articles  of  war  was 
visited  with  such  inhuman  floggings  that  the  guilty  soldier  often 
entreated  to  be  hanged  as  an  indulgence ;  executions  were  inflicted 
with  fearful  frequency ;  and  when  war  again  broke  out  the  slightest 
failure  or  want  of  success  in  any  operation  was  sure  to  bring  on 
the  unlucky  officer  to  whose  conduct  It  had  been  entrusted  a 
deprivation  of  his  rank  and  employment,  perhaps  even  banishment 
from  the  country.  The  king's  maxim  appeared  to  be  that  it  was 
only  his  reliance  on  the  unflinching  obedience  of  his  troops  that 
could  enable  him  to  treat  the  rest  of  his  subjects  with  moderation 
and  indulgence. 

Certainly  nature  had  endowed  Frederic  in  a  singular  degree 
with  the  qualities  calculated  to  render  his  reign  over  an  infant 
kingdom  beneficial  to  all  under  his  authority.  Nor  was  he  in- 
sensible to  the  greatness  of  his  achievements,  nor  to  the  glory  with 
which  they  would  invest  him  in  the  eyes  of  posterity.  Yet  he 
scarcely  coveted  the  fame  of  a  victorious  general,  a  wise  legislator, 
A  ijL-  an  enlightened  benefactor  of  his  country  more  than  literary  re- 
yf^'**'^^'*^^^''*'^  putation,  and,  above  all,  the  fame  of  a  poet,  which  nature  was 
far  from  having  placed  within  his  reach.     He  did  not  indeed 

twine 
The  hopes  of  being  remembered  in  his  line 
With  his  land's  language.^ 

I  As  he  had  proscribed  German  in  his  academy  of  literature,  he 

Jy^^  never  used  it  himself :  indeed,  he  knew  but  little  of  it,  not  much 

§  more  than  would  enable  him  to  scold  or  gossip  with  his  soldiers. 

But  he  was  well  read  in  the  French  literature  of  the  last  century, 
and  predominant  above  almost  all  other  feelings  was  his  admira- 
tion for  the  living  authors  of  France,  and  especially  for  Voltaire. 
XJ^*'*-^  ,  After  many  efforts,  he  persuaded  that  celebrated  wit  and  writer  to 
visit  Berlin,  originally  hoping  to  induce  him  to  fix  his  permanent 
residence  in  his  capital,  and  assigning  him  rooms  in  his  own  palace 
wliich  he  was  to  occupy  with  the  most  perfect  freedom  of  move- 
ment. Unhappily,  personal  acquaintance  destroyed  the  illusion. 
The  only  return  which  he  expected  for  his  condescension  was  that 
Voltaire  should  guide  his  studies  and  correct  his  poems.  But 
Voltaire  soon  wearied  of  the  task ;  and,  having  tried  in  vain  to 
render  his  performance  of  it  equally  distastel'ul  to  his  pupil  by  the 
severity   of    his   criticisms,   which  Frederic  accepted   with   rare 

»   Childe  Harold,  iv.  9. 


A.D.  1756.]         VOLTAIRE'S  VISIT  TO  BERLIN.  373 

docility,  he  Tented  hia  disappointment  in  ridicule  of  the  king's 
general  abilities  and  character.  Selecting  for  his  confidants  those 
who,  he  might  have  been  sure,  would  circulate  his  sarcasms,  he 
was  wont  to  denounce  Frederic  as  a  combination  of  drill-sergeant 
and  pedant.  Frederic,  with  more  reason,  pronounced  him  mad,  and 
ordered  one  of  the  satires  which  he  had  ventured  to  publish  to  be 
burned  by  the  common  executioner.  Voltaire  returned  to  Switzer- 
land ;  and  at  that  safe  distance  reproached  Frederic  as  one  *  who 
disgraced  the  name  of  philosopher,  and,  by  his  caprices,  gave 
some  colour  to  the  reproaches  of  bigots,  when  they  said  that 
neither  justice  nor  humanity  could  be  expected  from  those  who 
rejected  Christianity.'  For  one  bond  of  union  between  the  two 
had  been  their  common  profession  of  infidelity.  Frederic  was 
equally  ready  with  hard  language,  and  wrote  back  that '  Voltaire 
was  a  rogue  who  deserved  a  jail ;  that  his  talents  were  not  more 
widely  known  than  his  dishonesty  and  malignity.  And  that  he 
was  fortunate  in  having  to  deal  with  one  who  pardoned  his  base- 
ness out  of  his  indulgence  to  his  genius.' 

,     From  these  miserable  squabbles  Frederic  was  suddenly  called  off 
by  a  fresh  war.     He  was  far  better  prepared  for  it  than  he  had 
been  before.     Since   the  peace  of  Dresden   Prussia  had  greatly 
advanced  in  prosperity   and   in   power.     His  army   was  nearly  _  -«, 
doubled ;  his  revenue  was  more  than  doubled.     And,  in  1756,  he  \jU%v>^   ^ 
was  able  to  contemplate  without  uneasiness  the  appearances  of  ^ 

war^vhich  the  movements  of  more  states  than  one  seemed  to^'^^.,^^  t\^ 
present,  when  he  unexpectedly  found  that  he  was  not  to  be 
allowed  the  option  of  remaining  neutral,  nor  even  of  deciding 
which  side  he  would  take  in  the  event  of  any  general  commotion, 
but  that  he  himself  had  been  selected  as  the  mark  for  the  hostility 
©f  all  his  neighbours. 

W^e  may  certainly  look  on  it  as  a  continuation  of  the  good  for- 
tune which  had  hitherto  attended  him,  that  war,  when  he  did 
again  engage  in  it,  was  forced  upon  him  ;  and,  instead,  like  hia  /a/ 
Silesian  campaigns,  of  being  stamped  with  the  character  of  wanton  ^"^^^"^'i 
aggression  on  his  part,  was  a  war  of  self-defence  against  enemies  |X^    %^ 
from  whom,  of  all  nations,  he  believed  himself  to  have  the  least 
reason  to  apprehend  hostility.     Austria  he  regarded  as,  though 
discontented  at  the  result  of  the  former  war,  nevertheless  appeased 
by  the  elevation  of  Francis  to  the  throne  of  the  Caesars.     France 
had  been  his  ally  in  that  war ;  and  was,  moreover,  separated  from 
the  Empire  by  a  century  and  a  half  of  unvarying  enmity.     With 
Russia  and  Saxony  he  had  no  cause  of  quarrel  whatever.     But 
Maria  Teresa  had  never  forgotten  the  loss  of  Silesia,   nor  lost 
eight  of  the  possibility  of  one  day  recovering  it ;  and  the  talents 
and  craft  of  her  diplomatists   enabled   lier  to  turn   the  French 


iiiu^ 


374  MODERN  HISTOBY.  [a.d.  1756. 

monarch  also  against  him.  During  the  last  ten  years  of  peace, 
the  increase  in  the  resources  of  her  kingdom  had  fully  kept  pace 
with  the  improvement  of  Prussia.  She  had  been  so  fortunate  and 
so  judicious  as  to  discern  the  abilities  of  one  of  her  diplomatic 
servants,  the  Baron  Kaunitz,  her  ambassador  at  Paris,  and  to  place 
him  at  the  liead  ot  lier^  administration.  His  subtle  genius, 
sharpened  by  the  insight  which,  in  his  diplomatic  career,  he  had 
acquired  into  the  views  of  the  different  foreign  cabinets,  had 
formed  a  plan  which  he  imagined  likely  to  lead  to  the  gratifica- 
tion of  what  he  well  knew  to  be  the  dearest' wish  of  his  mistress  : 
and  he  was  materially  aided  by  the  imprudence  of  Frederic  him- 
self. To  his  passion  for  becoming  a  poet,  Frederic  united  the 
desire  of  being  considered  a  wit ;  and  had  specially  selected  other 
sovereigns  of  tastes  different  from  his  own  as  the  butts  for  his 
jests.  In  his  eyes  and  that  of  many  other  judges  of  etiquette  of 
courts,  Louis  XV.  had  inflicted  a  deeper  wound  on  his  royal 
dignity  than  any  which  had  been  dealt  by  the  worst  profligacy  of 
his  predecessors,  by  selecting  his  reigning  mistress  from  a  class 
not  entitled  to  such  a  distinction.  Madame  de  Pompadour  was 
the  daughter  of  a  butcher.  The  reigning  Empress  of  Russia, 
Elizabeth,  was  as  shamelessly  licentious  as  Louis,  and  as  little 
inclined  as  he  to  confine  her  favours  to  those  whose  noble  birth 
was  held  necessary  to  j  ustify  her  choice.  Frederic  spared  neither 
king  nor  empress;  he  named  one  of  his  dogs  Pompadour,  and 
proclaimed  her  better  bred  and  better  behaved  than  her  namesake 
belonging  to  his  brother  of  France  ;  and  at  his  reviews  he  would 
point  out  some  specially  handsome  trooper,  and  announce  his  in- 
tention of  sending  him  as  ambassador  to  St.  Petersburg.  He 
knew  much,  but  he  had  still  to  learn  that  success  and  scorn  often 
cause  deeper  resentment  and  are  less  easily  forgiven  than  actual 
injuries.  Russia  was  easily  secured  as  an  ally  for  the  empress- 
queen.  To  gain  France  was  a  harder  task,  for  Kaunitz  had  to 
overcome  the  disdain  which  his  pure  and  high-minded  sovereign 
felt  for  the  French  court  and  for  the  worthless  woman  who  ruled 
it,  and  without  whose  aid  no  impression  could  be  made  on  Louis. 
But  the  recovery  of  Silesia  was  an  object  paramount  to  all  other 
considerations ;  and  Maria  Teresa  consented  to  forget  her  sense  of 
royal  dignity,  her  matronly  purity,  and  her  loathing  of  vice,  and 
to  write  letters  in  the  language  of  courtesy  and  even  respect  to 
the  low-born,  worthless  woman  who  could  secure  her  the  French 
alliance,  and,  with  it,  as  she  doubted  not,  the  recovery  of  the 
province  which  had  been  iniquitously  wrested  from  her.  She 
called  Madame  de  Pompadour  *  princess,'  '  cousin,'  ^  her  dear 
sister,'  as  if  she  had  been  writing  to  Louis's  lawful  queen.  It 
happened  that  just  at  the  same  moment  the  French  ministers 


A.i>.  1766.]  THE  SEVEN  YEAKS'  WAR.  375 

learnt  that  Frederic  was  negotiating  a  treaty  with  England,  which, 
in  their  view,  could  only  indicate  ill-will  to  their  own  country. 
And  political  jealousies  thus  coinciding  with  personal  pique  and 
female  caprice,  both  cabinet  and  court  came  into  Kaunitz's  views ; 
and,  in  May  175G,  an  offensive  and  defensive  treaty  was  signed 
between  the  two  countries.  Poland  and  Saxony  joined  the  alli- 
ance ;  and  Frederic  was  left  with  no  support,  but  that  of  England  to  C^  C(jUjk 
confront  the  whole  Continent  in  arms.^  Nor  was  the  aid  of  Eng'  ^^ 
land  of  any  material  service  to  him.  She  was  almost  wholly  j^^  T/Si 
occupied  with  retaliating  on  France  for  the  loss  of  Minorca,  by  t^'"'^w  v 
conquests  in  America,  by  triumphs  in  India,  by  insulting  her 
whole  coast  from  Calais  to  Bayonne  j  and,  though  she  did  also 
send  a  force  to  combat  the  French  in  quarters  where  their  success 
would  have  imperilled  Hanover,  no  British  regiments  joined  the 
armies  on  the  Elbe  or  the  Oder.  So  desperate  to  Frederic  himself 
did  the  contest  appear,  that  among  the  provision  which  he  made 
for  it  was  a  dose  of  poison  which  he  constantly  kept  in  his  pocket, 
resolved  to  take  it  rather  than  become  a  prisoner  to  his  enemies. 
Yet,  from  this  contest  which  he  had  such  reason  to  regard  as 
hopeless,  he  came  forth  not  only  with  no  diminution  of  territory 
or  power,  but  with  a  large  increase  of  personal  reputation.  Not, 
indeed,  without  exposing  his  people  to  frightful  miseries,  nor 
without  himself  suffering  severe  disasters  and  defeats  which,  if 
they  had  not  been  repaired  by  subsequent  triumphs,  might  almost 
be  called  ignominious.  For  Frederic  was  no  invincible  general, 
like  Marlborough  and  Wellington ;  and  though  Napoleon,  in  a 
discussion  of  the  talents  of  the  great  masters  of  war,  on  one  occa- 
sion assigned  him  the  palm  among  the  warriors  of  modern  Europe,  ^ 
while  passing  over  the  great  British  commanders  almost  without  fL 
notice,  his  praise  of  him  may  well  be  set  down  to  that  habitual  v  *^» 
want  of  candour  which  was  one  of  the  meanest  faults  of  that  extra- 
ordinary man.  Napoleon  could  not  bring  himself  to  allow  any  merit 
to  a  citizen  of  the  nation  which  alone  was  checking  his  progress, 
and  which,  as  he  must  often  have  felt  misgivings,  was  already 
shaking  and  was  destined  to  overthrow  his  power.  He  could  afford 
to  compliment  the  past  achievements  of  a  people  he  had  struck 
down  and  which  was  lying  helpless  at  his  feet.  Perhaps  he  even 
hoped  to  encourage  his  hearers  and  to  blind  himself  by  affirming  the 

1  It  is  remarkable  that,  in  the  tones  on  the  frontier  of  the  Nether- 
treaty  which  Kaunitz  thus  con-  lands ;  so  early  had  the  idea  of  com- 
clude'd  with  France,  it  was  stipu-  pensations,  at  the  expense  of  neutral 
lated  that,  if  Austria  should  recover  and  weak  states,  Avliich  the  present 
Silesia,  her  increase  of  power  in  that  generation  has  seen  cost  their  coun- 
direction  should  be  counterbalanced  try  so  dear,  entered  into  the  mind  of 
by  France  being  permitted  to  make  French  statesmen, 
corresponding  additions  to  her  terri- 


Jr. 


T 


376  MODEEN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1767. 

superiority  of  the  Prussians  whom  he  had  conquered  to  the 
Britons,  against  whom  all  his  efforts  by  land  as  well  as  by  sea  had 
hitherto  been  productive  of  nothing  but  discomfiture.  But  history 
judges  differently.  She  does  not  indeed  deny  to  Frederic  the 
praise  of  a  great  general :  nor  refuse  to  set  Hohenfriedberg,  Ros- 
bach,  and  Leuthen  against  Kolin,  Hochkirch,  and  Kunersdof; 
imd  to  admit  that  the  orginality  of  his  mode  of  handling  his 
troops ;  the  skill  with  which  he  concealed  his  designs  from  his 
antagonists,  thus  often  making  up  for  that  inferiority  in  numerical 
force  which  was  a  difficulty  attending  him  throughout  the  war ; 
the  irresistible  energy  of  his  attack ;  the  indomitable  tenacity  of 
his  resistance,  were  qualities  in  which  he  has  rarely  been  sur- 
passed. But,  far  from  pronouncing  him  the  equal  of  Marlborough, 
Wellington,  or  Napoleon  himself,  she  may  fairly  doubt  whether 
he  was  not  surpassed  in  skill  by  his  own  contemporary  Saxe  ;  and 
will  rather  rank  him  with  Conde  or  Peterborough  than  with 
Luxembourg  or  Turenne. 

One  of  the  fruits  of  his  rapidity  of  decision  both  political  and 
military  was  that,  though  his  enemies  had  planned  and  prepared 
the  war,  he  was  first  in  the  field  and  struck  the  first  blow.  It 
was  not  till  the  last  week  in  August  that  his  envoys  reported  that 
the  cabinet  of  Vienna  had  shown  by  its  language  that  war  was 
,*^^^  inevitable.  The  very  day  after  their  despatches  reached  Berlin, 
S^^^^  te  left  it  to  put  himself  at  the  head  of  his  army,  and  opened  the 
campaign,  at  once  penetrating  into  Saxony ;  blockading  the  Saxon 
army  in  Pirna,  near  Dresden  ;  beating  back  on  the  first  of  October 
the  Austrian  Marshal  Browne,  who  had  hastened  to  relieve  it,  and 
finally  compelling  the  Saxons  to  surrender,  and  incorporating  the 
greater  portion  of  their  force  in  his  own  army.  And  in  the 
next  campaign  he  again  assumed  the  offensive,  invading  Bohemia, 
and  pushing  on  with  great  celerity  to  Prague ;  but  no  longer 
meeting  with  the  same  good  fortune  that  had  rewarded  his  first 
efforts.  He  did,  indeed,  gain  a  nominal  victory  over  Prince  Charles 
of  Lorraine,  brother-in-law  of  the  empress,  and  commander-in- 
chief  of  the  Austrians,  under  the  walls  of  the  city :  nominal  it 
may  be  called,  because  the  loss  on  both  sides  was  nearly  equal ; 
and  still  more,  because,  as  he  was  in  a  foreign  country  and  the 
Austrians  were  in  their  own,  they  could  repair  the  chasms  made 
in  their  ranks  more  readily  than  he.  For  Frederic  had  committed 
the  same  error  which  had  ruined  Charles  of  Sweden  in  the  cam- 
paign of  Pultava,  and  was  to  ruin  a  still  greater  commander  than 
either  in  a  subsequent  age,  he  had  advanced  too  far  from  his 
resources ;  and  he  was  soon  to  learn  that  no  error  is  more  fatal. 
His  very  victory,  such  as  it  was,  was  injurious  to  him,  by  fixing 
him  in  his  resolution  not  to  relinquish  his  hold  on  the  Bohemian 


;^^ 


X 


A.D.  1758.]  THE  EATTLE  OF  KOLIN.  377 

capital,  which  he  made  sure  of  soon  compelling  to  surrender, 
though  Prince  Charles  with  the  remainder  of  his  army  had  thrown 
himself  into  it.  And  in  this  hope  he  persevered  in  the  eiege, 
without  receiving  any  reinforcements,  while  a  fresh  army,  under 
Marshal  Daun,  the  most  renowned  of  all  the  Austrian  commanders, 
was  hastening  from  Vienna  to  relieve  it. 

So  vigorous  had  been  the  exertions  of  the  Imperial  govern- 
ment, and  so  rapid  the  movements  of  Daun,  that,  within  six 
weeks  after  the  battle  of  Prague,  Frederic  learnt  that  the  Marshal 
had  j-eached  Kolin,  a  town  at  no  great  distance  from  his  camp, 
with  50,000  men ;  and  that  his  only  chance  to  avoid  being  entirely 
overwhelmed  lay  in  scattering  that  army  before  it  should  be  joined 
by  others.  It  is  by  no  means  strange  that  the  same  ground  should 
have  been  a  battlefield  in  successive  ages ;  the  unchanging  con- 
formation of  the  ground,  the  course  of  rivers,  the  importance  of 
cities  and  fortresses  naturally  make  the  same  positions  of  import- 
ance in  different  wars.  But  it  is  very  remarkable  how  often  the 
same  day  has  heard  the  din  of  battle  in  different  ages.  Above 
300  years  before,  the  eighteenth  of  June  had  seen  the  English 
prospects  of  retaining  the  sovereignty  of  France  dissipated  in  the 
shameful  rout  of  Patay ;  on  the  same  eighteenth  of  June  English  and 
Prussians  were  destined  hereafter  to  raise  a  common  shout  of  triumph 
over  the  final  overthrow  of  the  most  formidable  enemy  that  either 
country  had  ever  encountered  ;  and  now  on  the  same  day  Frederic 
was  to  learn  that  the  best  founded  reliance  on  his  own  skill  and  ou 
the  faithful  stubborness  of  his  soldiers  will  not  justify  a  general  in 
neglecting  the  ordinary  rules  of  military  prudence.  I  saV  nothing 
of  his  fancied  superiority  in  tactical  skill,  because,  in  fact,  in  this 
battle  he  was  so  far  from  displaying  it,  that  his  defeat  is  mainly 
attributable  to  his  originally  injudicious  choice  of  a  position,  and 
to  his  subsequent  error  in  altering  his  dispositions  in  the  middle 
of  the  action.^  lie  himself,  in  his  Memoirs,  frankly  admits  his 
want  of  judgment ;  and  that  the  success  of  the  Austrians  was  so 
decided  that  had  Daun  known  as  well  how  to  improve  a  victory 
as  to  win  one,  and  had  he  passed  on  at  once  to  Prague,  where  a 
strong  Prussian  division  had  been  left  to  maintain  the  investment, 
the  consequences  of  the  defeat  would  have  been  more  serious  than 
the  defeat  itself.  On  the  other  hand,  all  admit,  what  he  forbears 
to  boast,  that,  if  the  most  heroic  courage  and  the  most  splendid 
exertions  could  have  retrieved  such  faults  as  he  had  committed, 
he  would  have  retrieved  them.     The  Saxon  cavalry  was  more 

1  He  admits  himself,  in  his  His-  tains ; '     and  that  '  Marshal  Daan 

tory  of  the  Seven  Years'  War,  c.  6,  had  the  power  to  turn  his  right  when 

that  'his  position  was  bad  :  his  camp  he  pleased.' — Holcroft's  Translation, 
narrow,    shut    up    between    moun- 


^ 


378  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1758. 

numerous  than  his  own ;  and,  burning  to  avenge  the  disaster  of 
their  countrymen  in  the  previous  year,  they  attacked  the  Prussian 
infantry  in  front  and  rear,  carrying  everything  before  them  and 
giving  no  quarter ;  w^hile  the  Austrian  artillery,  which  was  also 
superior  in  strength  to  the  Prussian  batteries,  swept  the  field  with 
terrible  effect.  Soon  Frederic's  sole  hope  lay  in  his  own  cavalry  : 
he  put  himself  at  their  head,  and  six  times  led  them  on  in  person 
to  the  charge,  though  at  every  onset  these  numbers  were  fearfully 
thinned  by  the  enemy's  cannon.  He  tried  to  rally  the  broken 
squadrons  for  a  seventh  charge  on  the  batteries  themselves,  but 
they  could  form  no  longer.  *  Do  you  want  to  live  for  ever  ? '  said 
he,  in  bitter  reproach.  For  that  seventh  charge  he  could  not 
collect  forty  men :  when  they  came  within  range  of  the  fatal 
grapeshot,  the  bulk  of  them  quailed  before  it,  and  fled ;  and  still 
he  was  galloping  on  till  a  Scotch  aide-de-camp,  named  Grant,  asked 
him  if  they  two  were  to  take  the  batteries  by  themselves.  He 
checked  his  charger:  saw  that  he  was  unsupported  by  even  a 
single  trooper,  and,  after  taking  a  steady  survey  of  the  enemy's 
lines  with  liis  glass,  rode  slowly  from  the  field. 

His  loss  had  been  very  great.  He  reckons  it  himself  at  nearly 
14,000  men,  and  the  conquerors  had  also  taken  most  of  his  guns ; 
*but  he  was  not  a  man  to  let  one  disaster,  however  considerable, 
break  his  spirit  or  end  a  war.  Yet,  at  first,  it  seemed  as  if  Kolin 
were  but  the  beginning  of  the  end.  A  few  weeks  later  Prussia  was 
invaded  on  the  north-eastern  side  by  a  Russian  army ;  an  Austrian 
division,  pushing  up  from  the  south,  appeared  under  the  walls  of 
Berlin,  and  compelled  the  capital  to  pay  a  heavy  ransom  to  save  itself 
from  assault ;  on  the  north-west  two  large  French  armies,  under 
the  Duke  de  Hichelieu  and  the  Prince  de  Soubise,  cut  him  off 
from  all  prospect  of  assistance  from  the  English  and  Hanoverians ; 
while  he  himself,  having  retreated  into  Saxony  after  Kolin,  to 
recruit  his  shattered  forces,  was  lying,  as  it  were,  in  the  midst 
of  the  hostile  armies,  every  one  of  which  more  than  doubled  the 
utmost  force  that  he  could  hope  to  assemble.  For  a  moment 
he  did  despair ;  and  even  announced  to  Voltaire,  with  whom  he 
kept  up  a  constant  correspondence,  his  resolution  to  seek  in  deatli 
a  relief  from  his  troubles ;  but  Voltaire  thought  such  an  idea 
unworthy  of '  the  Solomon  of  the  North  ; '  ^  urged  him  to  remem- 
ber that  such  an  act  would  only  give  an  additional  triumph  to 
his  enemies ;  that,  even  should  he  be  stripped  of  all  his  dominions, 
'  a  philosopher  could  live  without  domains ; '  and  asked  him 
whether  '  it  was  worth  the  trouble  he  had  taken  to  become  a 
philosopher,  if,  though  a  king,  he  could  not  support  adversity  ?  ' 

»  See  his  letter  to  Frederic,  Oct.  1757.  Vol.  vii.  p.  414  of  Holcroft's 
edition. 


A.D,  1758.]  THE  BATTLE  OF  ROSBACH.  379 

And,  in  truth,  despair  was  a  feeling  too  foreign  to  his  own  nature 
to  be  long  entertained.  It  was  far  more  characteristic  of  his  real 
disposition,  that  he  presently  began  to  tranquillise  his  feelings  by 
writing  yerses.     '  Man,'  he  replied  to  his  tutor's  warning  voice, 

Man  was  T  born,  and  therefore  must  oppose 
My  fortitude  to  man's  eternal  foes. 

Being  what  I  am,  'tis  fit, 
Though  on  the  rocks  the  vessel  split. 
Though  howling  storms  destruction  bring. 
To  act,  and  think,  and  live,  and  die  a  king.* 

And,  within  a  month  of  the  date  of  this  effusion,  he  had  begun 
to  give  the  enemies  who  thought  to  overwhelm  him  terrible  proof 
how  undiminished  were  his  energy  and  his  resources ;  if  it  may 
not  even  be  said  that  the  momentary  relaxation  of  his  nerves  had 
given  them  additional  tension  and  vigour  when  they  recovered 
from  the  blow.  He  turned  first  upon  the  French :  bribing  Riche- 
lieu, the  most  profligate  and  rapacious  of  men,  into  inactivity, 
while  he  marched  against  Soubise,  who  was  advancing  through 
Saxony,  and  had  already  reached  Erfurt.  On  the  fifth  of  November 
the  two  armies  met  at  Rosbach,  a  small  town  on  the  Saale,  not  far 
from  Leipsic  :  the  French  had  60.000  men,  the  Prussians  22,000, 
but  it  would  be  a  misnomer  to  call  the  events  of  the  day  a  battle. 
Frederic's  manoeuvres  were  unusually  skilful;  Soubise  had  no 
skill,  nor  even  much  courage  -,  of  confidence  he  had  more  than 
enough.  When,  on  the  previous  evening,  he  had  learned  that 
Frederic's  handful  of  men  were  within  reach  of  his  overpowering 
host,  he  sent  off  a  courier  to  Paris  to  announce  the  certainty  that 
on  the  morrow  he  should  make  prisoners  of  the  king  and  all  his 
army.  The  next  morning,  the  moment  that  he  was  attacked,  he 
was  seized  with  a  panic  that  communicated  itself  to  his  whole 
force.  Two  regiments  of  Austrian  cavalry,  with  two  or  three 
of  his  own  squadrons,  made  a  momentary  stand,  but,  isolated  by 
the  flight  of  their  comrades,  they  were  easily  overpowered  and 
destroyed  ;  and  the  rest  of  the  army  fled  without  striking  a  blow. 
Frederic  scarcely  lost  500  men ;  but  he  surpassed  even  this 
brilliant  exploit  before  the  end  of  the  year.  A  few  days  after- 
wards bad  news  reached  him  from  Silesia,  where  Charles  of  Lor- 
raine had  beaten  a  strong  Prussian  force,  and  captured  Breslau ; 
without  a  moment's  delay,  Frederic  hastened  to  check  the  progress 
of  the  conqueror,  marching  with  such  speed  that  exactly  a  month 
after  Rosbach  he  came  in  front  of  the  Austrian  position  at  Lissa 

*  Frederic's  answer  to  Voltaire,  the  less  faithful  for  its  want  of 
Oct.  9,  1757.  lb.  p.  418.  Mr.  IIol-  poetic  merit.  I  have  not  been  able 
croft's   translation  is  probably  not     to  meet  with  the  original. 


380  MODEKN  HISTOEY.  [a.d.  1758. 

and  Leuthen,  villages  a  few  miles  to  the  west  of  the  Silesian 
capital.  He  had  picked  up  the  relics  of  the  beaten  division  on  his 
way  :  so  that  he  had  now  between  30,000  and  40,000  men  under 
his  command ;  but  Prince  Charles  had  60,000  and  a  position  so 
strong  that,  if  he  could  have  been  contented  with  holding  it,  as 
the  more  experienced  and  prudent  plan  recommended,  the  king 
would  only  have  been  hurrying  to  his  destruction.  But  the  young 
prince  was  elated  with  the  victory  which  he  had  already  gained, 
and  listened  rather  to  the  hot-headed  counsels  of  some  of  his  staff 
who  derided  the  weakness  of  the  Prussian  battalions,  and  urged 
that  it  would  be  unworthy  of  his  courage  to  wait  to  receive  the 
attack  from  so  unequal  a  foe.  Frederic  was  equally  aware  of  his 
inequality  in  numbers;  but  one  of  his  maxims  was,  that  'the 
capacity  and  fortitude  of  the  general  are  in  war  more  decisive 
than  the  number  of  his  troops.'  And  he  had  learned  something 
from  the  battles  he  had  already  fought  against  the  Austrians,  and 
even  from  his  own  recent  defeat.  After  carefully  reconnoitring  the 
enemy's  position,  he  prepared  a  plan  of  attack  which  should 
'  bring  his  whole  army  on  the  left  flank  of  the  Imperialists,'  and 
'  avoid  the  faults  which  had  caused  the  loss  of  the  battle  of  Kolin," 
and  he  hoped  to  teach  the  Austrians  that  caution  would  have  been 
a  more  useful  lesson  for  themselves  to  htive  learned  than  overconfi- 
dence.  The  importance  of  the  coming  battle  was  so  vital  to  his 
whole  kingdom,  that  before  the  onset  he  took  means  to  which 
he  never  before  had  had  recourse  to  encourage  his  army.  He 
summoned  his  generals  and  principal  officers  around  him,  and  in 
a  brief  and  energetic  speech  roused  them  to  the  efforts  which  he 
expected  of  them  by  reminding  them  of  the  glory  they  had  already 
won.  It  was  only  that  day  month  that,  with  still  greater  odds 
against  them,  they  had  routed  the  French  at  Rosbach.  His  own 
determination  was  to  conquer  or  die ;  and  he  was  confident  that 
they  were  inspii*ed  with  the  same  resolution.  He  dismissed  them, 
bidding  them  speak  to  their  soldiers  as  he  had  spoken  to  them  ; 
and,  without  further  delay,  began  his  operations.  Prince  Charles 
and  Daun  handled  their  troops  with  no  inconsiderable  skill ;  but 
Frederic's  fertility  of  design  and  rapidity  of  execution  were  on  this 
great  day  far  superior  to  theirs.  The  Austrian  soldiers,  both  in- 
fantry and  cavalry,  showed  themselves  worthy  of  their  leaders, 
but  all  that  they  could  do  was  to  protract  the  conflict  till  night, 
under  cover  of  which  the  generals  were  able  to  rally  and  draw  off 
the  remnant  of  their  army.  For  it  was  but  a  remnant :  they  had 
lost  10,000  killed  and  wounded,  and  above  20,000  prisoners,  with 
more  than  100  guns.  Nor  was  this  the  whole  extent  of  their 
calamity,  for  two  days  afterwards  Breslau,  which  was  held  by  an 

>  Memoirs  of  the  Seven  Years^  War,  c.  6. 


A.D.  1759.]         THE  BATTLE  OF  KUNEE3D0F.  381 

Austrian  garrison  of  nearly  20,000  men  more,  surrendered  ;  while 
the  Prussian  loss,  though  severe,  was  trifling  in  comparison  of 
such  enormous  successes. 

After  such  great  achievements  on  each  side  as  distinguish  this 
the  first  year  of  the  war  all  subsequent  events  seem  tame.  Yet 
still  year  after  year  saw  fresh  conflicts  with  chequered  results,  but 
all  marked  with  tremendous  slaughter.  If  Frederic  beat  the 
Russians  at  Zorndof,  a  few  weeks  afterwards  Daun  did  more  than 
avenge  them  at  Hochkirch.^  And  in  August,  1759,  the  Austrians 
and  Russians  combined  dealt  Frederic  a  blow  at  Kunersdof^  which 
counterbalanced  that  of  Leuthen  itself,  and  which  must  have  been 
the  more  painful  that  he  brought  the  defeat  on  himself  by  blunders 
worse  than  he  had  committed  at  Kolin.  Though  greatly  inferior 
in  numbers,  in  the  earlier  part  of  the  day  he  had  gained  such  ad- 
vantages over  the  Russian  division,  that  he  despatched  a  courier 
to  Berlin  to  announce  his  victory ;  but  he  prolonged  the  attack,  in 
the  hope  of  annihilating  his  enemies,  so  long  that  he  gave  the  Aus- 
trian commander,  Loudon,  who  on  this  day  displayed  consummate 
skill  and  presence  of  mind,  time  to  bring  up  his  reserve,  and  in  a 
moment  all  was  changed.  The  Prussians  were  overpowered,  and" 
soon  utterly  routed ;  Frederic  himself  was  slightly  wounded,  and 
only  escaped  capture  by  the  gallant  exertions  of  a  captain  of 
hussars.  During  the  latter  part  of  the  day  he  exposed  himself 
with  such  rashness,  that  it  seems  probable  that  he  did  not  desire 
to  survive  his  defeat ;  but  at  last  he  was  prevailed  on  to  retreat, 
and  sent  off  a  fresh  despatch  ordering  that  the  royal  family  should 
quit  Berlin  j  that  the  archives  should  be  removed,  and  authoris- 
ing the  magistrates  of  the  city  to  make  terms  with  the  enemy. 

Now  for  a  moment  he  seriously  resolved  to  destroy  himself;  he 
declared  his  brother  Henry  generalissimo  of  the  army :  prepared 
orders  that  he  and  the  troops  should  take  the  oaths  of  allegiance 
to  his  nephew  (for  he  had  no  children)  :  and,  had  the  conquerors 
followed  up  their  victory,  there  is  little  doubt  that  he  would  have 
executed  his  design.  He  was  saved  by  a  jealousy  which  sprang 
up  between  the  Austrian  and  Russian  generals,  arising  out  of  the 
very  circumstances  of  their  victory.  The  loss  had  fallen  on  the 
Russians,  the  glory  had  been  reaped  by  the  Austrians,  and  Prince 
Soltikoff,  the  Russian  commander,  was  not  inclined  to  take  any 
step  which,  even  if  it  should  lead  to  the  capture  of  Frederic  him- 
self, which  Loudon  strongly  urged  could  not  fail  to  be  the  fruit 
of  an  energetic  pursuit,  would  tend  to  the  glory  of  his  colleague, 
whom  he  looked  upon  as  his  rival,  rather  than  to  his  own. 

Thus  once  more  Frederic  obtained  a  respite ;  and,  after  a  few 

1  Zorndof,  Aufjust  25,  1758.    Hochkirch,  October  13. 
*  August  12,  1759. 


382  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1763. 

dajs  recovered  from  his  despondency :  once  more  he  recruited  his 
army,  and  still  the  war  went  on,  the  preponderance  of  success 
being-,  on  the  whole,  in  favour  of  his  enemies.  If  he  gained  a 
victory  in  the  open  field,  they  took  Berlin ;  but  still  his  resolution 
was  unabated.  Ilis  treasury  was  exhausted  ;  the  population  was 
no  longer  equal  to  the  continued  drain  upon  it :  but  he  treated  his 
own  kingdom  as  if  it  had  been  a  hostile  country ;  cutting  down  the 
woods,  seizing  the  corn  and  cattle,  and  exacting  enormous  taxes ; 
tiU  even  the  peasants,  who  were  necessary  to  till  the  ground,  were 
forced  to  enlist  in  the  army,  as  their  sole  refuge  from  starvation. 
And  thus,  in  the  last  campaigns  he  more  than  once  found  himself 
at  the  head  of  armies  stronger  in  number,  if  weaker  in  discipline, 
than  those  which  he  had  led  at  the  beginning  of  the  war.  For- 
tune, too,  began  to  favour  him.  The  changes  in  the  British 
ministry,  which  were  the  result  of  the  death  of  George  II.,  and 
which  led  to  peace  between  England  and  France,  relieved  him 
from  the  hostility  of  the  French.  At  the  end  of  1761  the  Empress 
of  Kussia  died,  and  her  death  changed  the  policy  of  that  Empire 
also ;  and,  while  Austria  was  thus  losing  her  allies,  the  Turks, 
tempted  to  a  renewal  of  their  old  designs  by  a  belief  in  her  ex- 
haustion, began  to  menace  her  Hungarian  frontier.  Mediators 
were  not  wanting ;  and  in  February  1703,  the  Peace  of  Tluberts- 
burg  left  all  parties  in  the  same  position  as  when  they  had  begun 
the  war.  Frederic  evacuated  Saxony,  which  he  had  held  almost 
from  its  commencement ;  but  he  was  allowed  to  retain  Silesia,  to 
wrest  which  from  him  had  been  the  original  object  of  the  great 
confederacy  against  him. 

To  have  preserved  it  was  a  great  triumph  for  himself,  but  it 
was  one  which  had  been  dearly  purchased  by  his  nation.  Never 
in  any  country  had  war  left  such  fearful  traces  ;  trade  and  agri- 
culture were  alike  ruined  ;  large  tracts  of  land  lay  uncultivated  ; 
the  very  seed  com  had  been  consumed ;  the  flocks  and  herds  of 
entire  districts  had  been  swept  away  ;  the  decrease  of  the  popula- 
tion was  still  more  grievous.  Its  entire  amount  at  the  commence- 
ment of  the  war  is  not  estimated  at  more  than  2,500,000  :  and  it 
is  computed  that  during  it  one-sixth  of  all  the  men  in  the  kingdom 
capable  of  bearing  arms  had  perished  in  the  field  of  battle ;  while 
the  ravages  made  by  famine  and  disease  had  been  even  more  terrible 
and  more  universal  than  those  of  the  sword. 

To  repair  these  evils  was  the  chief  task  of  the  remainder  of 
Frederic's  life.  And  it  was  well  for  Prussia  that  he  was  spared 
to  it  for  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century.  For  it  is  in  the  prosperity 
of  his  country  as  he  left  it  at  his  death,  when  compared  with  the 
universal  misery  which  pervaded  it  at  the  end  of  this  war  which, 
it  must  be  remembered,  had  been  forced  upon  him,  that  bis  real 


A.ij.  178 6. J  DEATH  OF  FREDERIC.  383 

glory  is  to  be  found ;  far  more  than  in  the  manoeuvres  of  Leuthen, 
or  the  fiery  charges  of  Zorndof  or  llosbach. 

We  shall  have  occasion  to  recur  to  his  foreign  policy  in  a 
subsequent  chapter;  without  entering  here  into  the  details  of  his 
domestic  administration,  it  is  sufficient  to  say  that  at  his  death,  in 
1786,  he  left  Prussia  flourishing  in  everything  (except,  indeed,  a 
free  constitution)  which  can  make  a  people  happy  at  home  and 
respected  abroad.  The  taxes  were  not  burdensome,  yet  a  large 
fund  was  accumulated  in  the  treasury  for  future  emergencies. 
Trade  was  greatly  developed ;  agriculture  was  improved.  As  a 
military  power,  an  army  of  200,000  men,  admirably  disciplined, 
placed  him  on  a  level  with  the  mightiest  of  his  neighbours.  These 
were  the  results  for  which  the  generation  which  saw  him  descend 
to  the  grave,  admired,  and  honoured,  and  loved  him :  though  he 
himself  would  have  denied  that  they  entitled  him  to  any  excess  of 
gratitude  on  their  part.  In  his  own  words,  as  magnanimous  as 
ever  flowed  from  royal  lips,  ^  To  relieve  the  distresses  and  promote 
the  happiness  of  his  subjects  was  his  duty  ;  it  was  lor  thtit  that  he 
was  a  king.'^ 

1    The   chief  authorities  for   this  TTie  Memoirs  of  the  Margravine  of 

chapter  have  been :  Ranke's  ^2s<ory  Bayreuth,   Lord  Dover's    and    Mr. 

of  Prussia,  Coxe's  House  of  Austria,  Carlyle's     Lives    of  Frederic    11.^ 

Frederic  the    Great*  Own  Memoirs,  &c.  &c 


384  MODERN  HISTORY.  [^.  1715. 


r 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

A.D.  1716  —  1774. 

N  the  last  chapter  we  have  twice  made  mention  of  France ; 
first,  as  taking  part  with  Prussia  against  Austria  in  the  Silesian 
war ;  and,  a  few  years  afterwards,  as  combining  with  Austria 
against  Prussia  in  the  Seven  Years'  War.  And  this  vacillation 
of  policy,  viewed  in  connection  with  the  motives  which  led  to  it, 
is  but  a  specimen  of  the  utter  want  of  fixed  principle,  and  a  type 

.   .  of  the  weakness  that  gradually  overspread  the   whole  kingdom 

'  during  the  reign  of  Louis  XV.     There  is  no  reign  in  which  the 

vices  of  the  rulers  have  had  a  more  visible  effect  in  corrupting  the 
character,  sapping  the  energies  and  spirit  of  a  people,  and  con- 
sequently diminishing  its  power,  and  with  that,  its  reputation  and 
influence  among  foreign  nations.  And  the  historian  would  gladly 
pass  it  by  with  averted  eyes,  were  it  not  that  it  had  so  great  and 
manifest  a  share  in  bringing  on,  or  at  least  accelerating,  the  Ee volu- 
tion which,  before  the  end  of  the  century,  swept  away  all  the 
ancient  institutions  of  the  country,  not  sparing  even  the  throne  of 
the  king  or  the  temple  of  the  Almighty ;  that  some  survey,  as 
brief  as  may  be,  of  the  chief  events,  and  still  more  of  the  characters 
jmd  conduct  of  those  who  at  different  periods  had  the  principal  in- 
fluence over  the  affairs  of  the  state,  or  the  minds  of  the  people,  is 
indispensable  to  the  correct  understanding  of  those  fearful  events,  or 
series  of  events,  which  are  known  by  that  ill-omened  name. 

For  the  first  infamies  of  his  reign  the  king  himself  was  not 
accountable.  He  was  but  a  child ;  and  the  chief  power  was  in 
the  hands  of  his  cousin,  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  as  regent :  a  man,  if 
abilities  alone  are  to  be  considered,  not  unfit  for  the  office,  though 
the  state  of  absolute  bankruptcy  in  which  Louis  XIV.  had  left  the 

,^^  O/^"^  kingdom  had  surrounded  his  discharge  of  its  duties  with  unusual 
'  difficulties ;  but  of  a  character  so  utterly  abandoned  that  he  had 

even  lost  all  respect  for  virtue  in  others.  He  lived  in  notorious 
incest  with  his  own  daughter,  and  the  two  nightly  polluted  the 
royal  palace  with  orgies  such  as  had  never  been  seen  since  the  days 
of  the  Borgias  :  while  his  knowledge  that  his  former  tutor,  Dubois, 
was  as  vicious  as  himself  did  not  prevent  him  from  making  him  an 


A.D.  1723.]      FLEURY  BECOMES  PRIME  MINISTER.         385 

archbisliop  and  prime  minister,  and  exerting  his  influence  at  Rome 
to  obtain  for  him  a  cardinal's  hat.  The  regent  did  not  even 
escape  the  imputation  of  personal  dishonesty  in  pecuniary  matters. 
The  zeal  which  he  showed  to  uphold  the  credit  of  Law's  Missis- 
sippi  Company,  which  brought  such  widespread  ruin' on  ine  nation, 
was  stimuiatecl  by  the  deep  interest  which  the  amount  of  his 
own  speculations  in  the  bubble  had  given  him  in  its  success  :  and,  in 
the  judgment  of  his  own  most  honest  friend,  St.-Simon,  the  whole 
transaction,  of  which  his  share  in  it  was  the  most  damaging  inci- 
dent, contributed  no  little  to  lay  the  foundation  of  that  general  con- 
tempt and  hatred  with  which  people  began  to  regard  the  whole 
system  of  government. 

D'Orl^ans  died  in  1723,  worn  out  by  his  excesses,  though 
scarcely  forty  years  of  age.  He  had  already  ceased  to  be  regent, 
since  Louis  had  reached  his  thirteenth  birthday,  on  which,  under 
the  old  constitution,  a  French  king  attained  his  legal  majority,  a 
few  months  before;  but  he  had  latterly  been  prime  minister, 
Dubois  having  also  died  in  the  course  of  the  summer ;  and  his 
strccessor  in  that  office,  the  Puke  de  Bourbon,  was  as  profligate 
and  worthless  as  he,  without  tlie  abilities  which  had  enabled  him 
in  some  points,  and  especially  in  the  department  of  foreign  policy,  to 
render  good  service  to  the  kingdom,  and  without  the  grace  and 
courtesy  which  had  veiled  his  disorders  from  superficial  observers. 
In  less  than  three  years  Bourbon  was  dismissed  and  banished  from 
the  court ;  and  was  succeeded  by  Fleury,  Bishop  of  Fr^Jus,  better 
known  by  his  title  of  cardinal,  which  he  obtained  a  few  weeks 
afterwards,  whose  administration  is  the  one  bright  spot  in  the  /-  / 
reio-n.  Not  from  his  talents  for  diplomacy  or  war,  for  he  was  not  ^^  /♦»-*.*. 
endowed  with  any  brilliant  abilities,  and  still  less  was  he  in- 
fluenced by  any  lust  of  acquisition,  but  from  the  purity  of  his 
personal  character,  his  incorruptible  integrity,  and  his  steady 
adherence  to  the  maintenance  of  peace  and  economy  as  the  lead- 
ing principles  of  his  administration.  He  had  been  almoner  to 
Louis  XIV.,  and  having  won  his  goodwill  by  his  tact  and  courtly 
address,  and  having  conciliated  the  favour  of  Madame  de  Maintenon 
by  his  opposition  to  the  Jansenists,  he  had  been  appointed  tutor  to 
the  little  Dauphin,  and  had  thus  acquired  an  influence  over  him 
which  ended  only  with  his  own  life.  He  might  have  succeeded 
Orleans  three  years  before,  as  the  Duke  de  St.-Simon  strongly 
recommended,  but  he  was  unwilling  to  place  himself  in  so  pro- 
minent a  post  as  that  of  prime  minister  while  the  king  was  still 
a  minor,  insisting  that,  till  Louis  should  come  of  age,  no  one  but 
a  prince  of  the  blood  could  discharge  its  duties  with  sufficient 
authority  ;  and  it  was  in  deference  to  his  advice  that  the  Duke  da 
18 


386  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1727. 

Bourbon  had  been  selected.  It  was^  again,  through  his  influence 
that  the  duke  was  dismissed  when  he  found  not  only  that  that 
prince  had  become  unpopular  with  every  class  of  the  people,  but 

b«  <>«mJ^^         that  he  regarded  himself  with  jealousy  and  ill-will.    And,  when  he 
•    '   "  now  at  last  consented  to  accept  the  vacant  office,  his  promotion 

"**'  ^*'^'^'*****'was  hailed  with  general  joy. 

^..^ys^  No  contrast  was  ever  greater  than  that  which  is  presented  by  the 

character  of  the  new  minister  and  the  authority  which  he  exerted. 
He  was  seventy-three  years  of  age ;  he  had  always  been  a  man  of 
simple  manners,  gentle  and  unassuming  temper ;  and,  as  has  been 
already  said,  he  was  not  endowed  with  commanding  abilities  of 
any  kind.  Yet  he  not  only  retained  office  for  the  whole  of  his  life, 
which  was  prolonged  for  nearly  seventeen  more  years,  but  he 
exercised  its  powers  with  as  complete  an  absoluteness  of  au- 
thority as  Louis  XIV.  himself  had  ever  enjoyed.^  "While  he  pre- 
sided at  the  council  board  the  other  ministers  were  compelled  to 
stifle  their  mutual  jealousies,  and  even  to  take  his  orders  for  the 
regulation  of  their  own  departments,  in  which  they  were  reduced 
to  a  position  little  higher  than  that  of  clerks.  And,  in  the  condi- 
tion in  which  he  found  the  country  when  he  assumed  the  reins,  it 
was  well  that  they  should  be  so.  It  is  true,  as  has  often  been 
alleged,  that  he  was  not,  indeed  he  never  had  been,  a  man  of 
great  energy.  But  his  very  want  of  vigour  was  eminently  service- 
able to  his  country  in  her  existing  state :  for  he  had  good  plain 
sense,  and,  in  matters  of  importance,  sufficient  firmness.  As  has 
been  already  mentioned,  Louis  XIV.  had  left  the  finances  of  the 
kingdom  in  a  condition  of  such  apparently  hopeless  exhaustion  that 
some  of  the  regent's  advisers  had  recommended  the  convocation 
of  the  states-general  for  the  purpose  of  making  a  formal  declara- 
tion of  national  bankruptcy.  The  measures  adopted  by  the 
regent  to  avoid  that  disgraceful  expedient,  the  debasement  of  the 
coinage,  the  enforced  forfeiture  of  a  large  portion  of  the  national 
debt,  were  not  less  disgraceful,  and  hardly  less  mischievous  : 
while  under  rulers  such  as  Orleans  and  Bourbon  there  was  little 
chance  of  affairs  being  relieved  by  any  judicious  economy.  The 
government,  therefore,  was  still  as  insolvent  as  ever  when  Fleury 
took  the  helm ;  but  its  embarrassments  did  not  dismay  him.  He 
knew  exactly  what  the  country  wanted ;  and  he  resolved  that 
no  discontent  or  clamour  of  factious  courtiers  should  prevent  him 
from  giving  it  to  her. 

He  had  faith  in  the  national  resources  of  the  country  itself,  pro- 
vided she  were  allowed  time  to  develope  them;  provided  their 

'  'Jamais  roi  de  France,  non  pas      eloignee  de  toute  contradiction,'  <tc 
meme  Louis  XIV,  n'a  regne  d'une      — St.-Simon,  vol.  xvi.  c.  20. 
manibre    si    absolue,    si    sure,     si 


k,j>.  1737.]  WAR  IN  ITALY.  387 

growth  were  not  checked  by  foreign  war,  nor  their  fruits  wasted 
by  domestic  prodigality.     The  maintenance  of  peace  abroad,  there-  Z'*       '     .       ( 
fore,  and  of  an  economy  at  home,  in  which,  however,  there  should  '^'J'J^V^^ 
be  nothing  mean  or  undignified,  were  the  cardinal  principles  of  his   r^f.  ^^^  -,. 
administration.     From  his  trust  in  them  he  never  swerved.     And      tv^^f" 
so  great  and  so  speedy  was  the  advantage  which  France  reaped  e^-^^VivCCL**> 
from  his  sagacious  government,  that,  before  he  had  been  eight      - 
years  minister,  the  great  Eugene,  than  whom  no  man  living  had  A^X'V^  . 
enjoyed  better  opportunities  of  justly  estimating  the  French  power 
and  character,  warned  the  Viennese  cabinet  to  avoid  engaging  in   C*  ' 

war  with  France.     *  That  country,'  he  assured  them,  ^  had  never  ^*'^^^*^* 
been  stronger ;  her  finances  were  re-established  in  a  thoroughly  /^Vvft<^ 
healthy  state,  and  she  was  under  a  prudent  and  vigorous"  ad- 
ministration.' ^ 

Yet,  in  spite  of  Fleury's  sincere  love  of  peace,  he  was  twice  ^• 
drawn  into  war  with  the  Empire  before  the  close  of  his  admin-^  /  "u^^-i^^ 
istration.  Once  through  a  quarrel,  which  arose  partly  out  of 
the  support  which  the  government  of  Chaxles  VI.^  Jn^sjjiteof  theCfl 
warnings  of  Eugene,  resolved  on  giving  to  the  party  which,  on  the 
death  of  Augustus  the  Strong,  endeavoured  to  prevent  the  restora- 
tion to  the  Polish  throne  of  Stanislaus  Leczinski,  who,  as  we  have 
seen  in  a  previous  chapter,  had  been  involved  in  the  disasters 
which  Pultava  wrought  on  his  ally  Charles  XII.,  but  whose 
daughter  had  since  become  the  wife  of  king  Louis ;  and  partly  out 
of  some  old  engagements  which  had  long  subsisted  between  the 
French  and  Sardinian  kings,  and  which  had  bound  France,  at  a 
conyenient  season,  to  aid  in  wresting  the  Milanese  from  the  House 
of  Austria.  And  a  second  time,  as  we  have  already  seen,  as  an  ally  of 
Prussia  in  the  Silesian  war.  The  first  war  was  marked  by  one  or 
two  events  of  military  importance  :  by  the  death  of  the  Duke  of 
Berwick,  who  was  killed  in  the  trenches  while  besieging  Philips- 
burg,  thus  meeting  with  a  death  which  equally  excited  the  envy 
of  his  brother  marshal,  the  veteran  Villars,  and  of  his  antagonist 
Eugene; 2  and  by  the  bloody  battles  of  the  Secchia  and  of  Gua- 
stalla.  In  the  first  the  French  were  victorious,  in  consequence  of 
the  death  of  the  Austrian  general,  the  Count  de  Mercy,  who,  like 
his  great-grandfather  at  Nordlingen,  had  almost  secured  the  victory 
when  he  was  struck  dovm  by  a  cannon  ball ;  whila  a  similar  acci- 
dent, the  deaths  of  two  of  the  principal  Austrian  generals,  the 
Princes  of  Waldeck  and  Wurtemburg,  enabled  the  French  to 
represent  the  second  also  as  having  terminated  in  their  favour, 

1  Memoir es  du  prince  Eugene,  an.  ete  heureux.' — Lacretelle,\\lhh.  And 

1738,  p.  1G4.  Eugene  says,  ♦  J'en  fus  jaloux,  et 

2  Villars  remarked,  on  hearing  of  c'est  la  premiere  fois  de  ma  vie  que 

his  death,  *  Get  homme-lk  a  toujours  je  I'ai  ete.'—3Iemoires,  p.  168. 


388  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1737. 

since,  though  they  lost  some  thousands  of  prisoners,  they  kept 

possession  of  the  field.     And  it  was  still  more  memorable  in  its 

political  results,    since  it   enabled  the   cardinal  to    acquire   for 

France  a  territory  for  which  Richelieu  and  Louvois  had  striven  in 

vain.     Scarcely  any  treaty  in  modem  history  had  led  to  such  an 

-\  extensive  rearrangement  of  territories  as  the  peace  concluded  at 

^M^  *^        Vienna  in  the  autumn  of  1738.     Naples  and  Sicily  were  ceded  by 

*       '     t  AeA^^   Emperor   to   a   Spanish   Infante,  who   had  previously  been 

^T'oacceptedby  the  last  of  the  Medici  as  the  heir  to  the  Duchy  of 

Tuscany ;  Tuscany  thus,  as  it  were,  vacant,  was  exchanged  for 

Lorraine  with  Duke  Francis,  who  was  just  about  to  marry  Maria 

Teresa ;  and  Stanislaus  gave  up  his  claim  on  Poland  for  the  present 

possession  of  Lorraine,  the  reversion  of  which  was  at  the  same  time 

settled  on  his  daughter,  the  Queen  of  France,  as  her  dowry.    He 

lived,  indeed,  to  enjoy  his  new  dominions  for  more  than  thirty 

years;  but  France  could  well  afford  to  wait  now  that  she  had 

secured  the  eventual  possession  of  so  rich  an  inheritance ;  one  of 

such  value  both  in  time  of  peace  and  war  that  subsequent  French 

historians  have  not  hesitated  to  class  the  dower  which  Maria  Lec- 

zinski  thus  brought  to  her  husband  with  the  inheritance  of  Eleanor 

t/t  <^*^,^^of  Guienne,  or  of  Anne  of  Brittany,  and  to  compare  the  treaty  by 

'  which  it  was  secured  to  that  of  Nimeguen,  the  crowning  glory  of 

Louis  XIV. 

Recent  event  have  wrested  from  France  the  greater  part  of 
Mari.a's  inheritance  ;  but  the  subsequent  loss  of  a  province  cannot 
be  allowed  to  diminish  the  merit  of  the  minister  who  acquired  it : 
while  the  fact  of  such  a  concession  having  been  made  to  France  is 
an  irresistible  proof  of  the  extent  to  which  Fleury's  policy  had 
re-established  the  reputation  and  influence  of  his  country  in  the 
eyes  of  foreign  statesmen.  He  had  given  her  what  she  had  never 
had  before,  a  character  for  moderation  and  justice  ;  which  was  fully 
recognised  in  the  frequent  appeals  which  were  made  in  the  later 
years  to  his  own  judgment.  The  mediation  of  no  one  in  his  day 
was  so  frequently  invoked  or  so  cheerfully  acquiesced  in,  the  most 
opposite  parties  accepting  it  with  equal  deference.  Protestants, 
whose  factions  had  for  some  years  agitated  Geneva,  listened 
to  his  arbitration,  and  composed  their  differences ;  he  had  no 
less  success  in  arranging  the  disputes,  between  the  Pope  and 
the  Court  of  Spain,  on  the  subject  of  the  sovereignty  of  Naples; 
and  even  the  Infidels  allowed  his  counsels  no  slight  weight  in  the 
negotiations  for  the  cessation  of  their  war  with  the  Empire, 
which  resulted  in  the  Peace  of  Belgrade.  But  nothing  which  his 
counsels  or  his  character  could  effect  in  Germany,  or  Turkey,  or  at 
Rome  itself,  had  such  an  influence  on  the  subsequent  future  of 
France,  and,  indeed,  of  all  Europe,  as  the  interference  to  which  he 


i 


A.D.  1738.]  AFFAIES   OF  CORSICA.  389 

"was  invited  in  the  affairs  of  a  petty  island  which  had  never  for  a 
moment  risen  to  the  rank  of  an  independent  power. 

The  Corsicans  had  lately  revolted  from  their  ancient  masters  l>*»v-^c 
the  Genoese.  Though  few  in  numbers  (for  the  population  of  the 
island  did  not  greatly  exceed  120,000  persons  of  all  ages),  they 
were  a  fierce  and  restless  people,  keeping  the  Genoese  in  a  state  of  k^JL ,  fK 
perpetual  disquiet  and  uneasiness  by  their  factions  and  seditions,  ' 
and  they  were  consequently  ruled  by  them  in  a  spirit  of  severe 
coercion,  and  often  of  intolerable  oppression.  After  several  out- 
breaks within  a  few  years,  in  1736  the  Corsicans  altogether  threw 
off  their  allegiance  to  the  republic,  and  elected  a  Westphalian 
baron,  Theodore  Neuhof,  as  their  king.  The  Genoese  had  gene- 
rally relied  on  the  aid  ot  Austria  to  quell  their  previous  insurrec-  / 
tions ;  but  on  the  occasion  of  this  new  revolt,  they  applied  to  Fleury  /Cv-^ 
for  the  assistance  of  France,  and  the  cardinal  at  once  sent  a  body 
of  troops  to  the  island  which  crushed  the  insurrection  and  expelled 
the  king.  He  did  more,  in  the  hope  of  putting  an  end  to  the 
tyrannical  violence  with  which  its  Genoese  masters  had  provoked 
revolt,  and  of  establishing  permanent  tranquillity  \p.  the  island,  he 
combined,  with  the  cabinet  of  Vienna,  to  frame  a  constitution  for 
Corsica,  which  they  compelled  Genoa  to  accept.  The  Genoese  did 
not  long  regard  its  provisions ;  but  Fleury's  j  udicious  and  humane 
interposition  gave  France  an  influence  in  the  island  which  even- 
tually led  to  her  purchase  of  the  sovereignty  with  tlie  consent  of 
the  native  nobles  ;  and  to  the  adoption  of  the  greatest  of  Corsica's 
sons,  Napoleon  Buonaparte,  as  a  born  subject  and  citizen  of  France,     y 

Fleury  died  at  the  beginning  of  1743.  No  minister  had  ever 
so  long  a  tenure  of  undisturbed  power,  and  none  had  exerted  their 
power  more  beneficially  to  the  nation.  As  long  as  it  w^as  possible, 
he  had  preserved  peace ;  and  his  death  is  believed  to  have  been^ 
accelerated  by  mortification  at  the  failure  of  his  attempts  to  main-^vit„.^^i,>^ 
tain  it  longer.  He  had  done  what  was  far  harder,  he  had  restored 
economy  and  a  certain  degree  of  decency  to  the  most  extravagant 
and  profligate  of  courts ;  in  an  age  of  almost  universal  corrup- 
tion, he  had  kept  his  personal  integrity  unsullied ;  and,  dying  poor, 
after  seventeen  years  of  absolute  control  of  all  the  revenues  of  the 
kingdom,  he  afforded  an  example  of  disinterested  probity,  which 
he  had  not  been  able  to  copy  from  his  predecessors,  and  of  which 
he  left  no  imitator  among  those  who  succeeded  him. 

The  first  war  in  which,  under  his  rule,  his  country  was  involved 
with  the  Empire,  had  been,  as  we  have  seen,  terminated  to  her 
great  advantage  after  two  campaigns.  The  other  was  still  in 
progress  at  his  death :  it  was  not  till  after  that  event  that  the 
French  soldiers  were  concerned  in  any  battles  in  the  open  field, 
and  when  they  were,  it  was  made  abundantly  clear  that  Fleury 


390  MODERN  HISTOEY.  [a.d.  1738. 

liad  never  sufFered  Lis  regard  for  economy  to  impair  the  efficiency 
of  the  army.  Dettingen,  indeed,  was  a  defeat,  but  that  it  was  so 
was  owing  not  to  the  inefficiency  of  the  troops,  nor  to  any  unskilful- 
ness  on  the  part  of  the  commander-in-chief,  the  Duke  de  Noailles, 
but  to  the  rash  insubordination  of  one  of  his  generals  of  division, 
who,  by  an  unreasonable  and  unauthorised  advance  of  his  brigade, 
baffled  the  combinations  which  must  have  ensured  a  decisive 
triumph.  But  Fontenoy,  Raucoux,  and  Laufeld,  were  all  victories, 
which,  though  it  was  true  that  in  the  first  two  the  preponderance 
of  numbers  was  greatly  on  the  side  of  the  French,  were  deservedly 
held  to  establish  the  fame  of  Count  Saxe,  who  won  them,  as  the 
ablest  general  of  his  day.  At  Laufeld  he  was  slightly  inferior  in 
numbers,  but  was  again  victorious,  though,  by  the  admission  of 
the  French  themselves,  the  British  troops,  which  in  each  instance 
formed  a  portion  of  the  defeated  army,  rather  augmented  than  lost 
the  credit  which  they  had  earned  in  the  same  country  in  the  days 
of  Marlborough ;  since  it  was  upon  them  that  the  brunt  of  each 
battle  fell,  and  since  their  defeat  was  only  owing  to  the  failure  of 
their  Austrian  allies  to  support  them. 

Yet  it  was  not  without  difficulty  that  Louis  had  been  brought 
to  entrust  his  armies  to  the  count ;  and  his  unwillingness  to  do 
so  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  instances  ever  seen  of  the 
extent  to  which  superstition  and  bigotry  at  times  actuate  even 
those  who  have  utterly  renounced  all  the  principles  and  restraints 
of  religion.  For  some  years  before  his  death  Fleury  had  ceased 
to  have  any  influence  on  the  private  conduct  of  his  old  pupil,  who, 
at  first,  it  may  almost  be  said,  out  of  mere  indolence  had  yielded 
himself  up  to  the  guidance  of  artful  courtiers  habituated  to  the 
old  riotous  days  of  d'Orl^ans  and  Bourbon,  and  sighing  for  their 
return.  He  had  allowed  them  to  alienate  him  from  his  wife,  and 
when  he  had  once  plunged  into  vice,  he  speedily  outran  their  worst 
lessons,  till  his  licentiousness,  far  exceeding  the  worst  profligacy  of 
his  predecessors,  shocked  even  those  who  had  originally  prompted 
it.  He  was  now  living  in  open  adultery  with  three  sisters,  and 
the  almost  nightly  orgies  with  which  he  entertained  them  were 
reported  to  surpass  the  worst  excesses  of  the  regency.  Yet,  when 
the  old  de  Noailles  advised  him  to  make  Saxe  his  commander-in- 
chief,. he  could  not  be  brought  to  consent,  objecting  not  that  the 
count  was  a  foreigner,  but  that  he  was  a  Huguenot.  It  would 
have  been  more  correct  to  say  that  he  was  not  a  Roman  Catholic, 
for  in  reality  Saxe  was  not  much  more  trammelled  in  his  practice 
by  obligations  of  religion  than  Louis  himself.  But  it  was  not  till 
he  had  been  nearly  four  years  at  war  that  the  manifest  inefficiency 
of  most  of  his  other  generals  compelled  the  king  to  lay  aside  his 
scruples,  and  to  confer  a  marshal's  stafl"  on  one  who  denied  the 


and  to 

\ 


A.D.  1746.]  SKILL  OF  MARSHAL  SAXE.  391 

efficacy  of  priestly  absolution.  From  that  day,  however  chequered 
might  be  the  fortunes  of  the  French  arms  in  other  quarters,  the 
operations  of  the  force  confided  to  Saxe  were  a  succession  of 
triumphs.  I  have  already  alluded  to  his  different  battles,  and  the 
details  of  one  fight  so  nearly  resemble  those  of  another,  that  at 
such  a  distance  of  time  it  would  be  unprofitable  to  dwell  on  them ; 
but  that  Saxe  was  one  of  those  commanders  of  the  first  class  who, 
in  addition  to  their  skill  as  strategists  and  tacticians,  have  also  the 
art  of  inspiring  their  men  and  all  with  whom  they  come  in  contact 
with  confidence,  is  proved  by  an  anecdote  which  one  of  the  chro- 
niclers of  his  campaigns  has  preserved,  and  which  is  so  character- 
istic of  French  levity  as  well  as  of  French  courage  as  to  deserve 
to  be  repeated.  In  October  1746  the  marshal,  at  the  head  of 
100,000  men,  was  preparing  to  attack  a  strong  position  which 
Prince  Charles  of  l>oiTaine,  whom  the  peace  of  Dresden  had 
enabled  his  government  to  transfer  to  the  Netherlands,  had  taken 
up  with  80,000  men  at  Raucoux.*  Saxe  had  brought  with  him 
a  company  of  comedians  from  Paris,  and  every  evening  his  camp 
was  enlivened  by  private  theatricals ;  but  on  the  night  of  the  tenth, 
when  the  curtain  fell,  the  leading  actress  advanced  to  the  footlights 
and  announced  that,  on  the  ensuing  evening  there  would  be  no 
performance  on  account  of  the  intended  battle  ;  but  that  on  the 
twelfth  the  company  would  have  the  honour  of  representing  '  The 
Village  Cock.'  No  doubt  the  performance  took  place,  for  on  the 
eleventh  the  Prince's  position  was  forced  at  all  points.  He  lost 
4,000  men  killed  and  wounded,  3,000  prisoners,  with  most  of  his 
guns  and  baggage ;  and  had  he  not  taken  the  precaution  beforehand 
to  construct  some  bridges  over  the  Meuse,  his  army  would  have 
been  annihilated. 

The  peace  of  Aix-la-Chapelle  closed  the  campaigns  of  Saxe, 
who  died  two  years  afterwards  of  premature  old  age  which  he  had 
brought  on  by  his  licentious  life.     His  deeds  in  war  are  the  last 
transactions  in  the  reign,  though  it  was  protracted  for  more  than 
a  quarter  of  a  century,  which  it  is  possible  to  contemplate  without    S/TX 
shame  and  pity  for  the  debasement  of  a  great  people.     Though^.^^^^^***    , 
little  more  than  five  years  had  elapsed  since  the  death  of  ^^^^^t^fy^^^ 
they  had  sufficed  to  undo  the  greater  part  of  his  work.     The  ac-    v<T^a-i^- 
cumulations  of  his  wise  economy  were  dissipated,  the  most  fright- 
ful distress  was  again  pressing  on  the  lower  classes,  especially  in 
the  agricultural  districts.     In  some  provinces  the  people  were 
dving  of  famine ;  in  others,  the  peasantry  were  with  difficulty 
preserving  a  miserable  life  with  bread  made  of  fern,  and  other 
food  still  more  unpalatable  and  unwholesome.      Yet  the  time 

»  Kaucoux  is  a  village  in  the  Meure,  between  Liege  and  Maestricht. 


392  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1750. 

when  so  large  a  part  of  the  population  was  bowed  down  beneath 
such  sufferings  is  the  very  one  which  Voltaire  selects  as  the  golden 
age  of  modern  Europe,  and  of  the  nation.  He  no  doubt,  was, 
giving  utterance  to  the  feelings  of  the  wealthy  and  the  noble,  who 
while  they  beheld  the  growth  of  verdant  avenues  in  the  boule- 
vards of  Paris,  and  splendid  hotels  and  theatres  rising  in  the 
capital,  and  other  chief  towns  of  the  kingdcm,  cared   not   to 

<►  Iriok  lower,  but  made  even  the  misery  of  the  poor  more  unen- 

durable by  the  callous  indifference  with  which  they  regarded  it. 
And  3'et  there  were  not  wanting  signs  visible  enough  to  warn 
those  foreigners  who  observed  what  was  going  on,  and  were  at  the 
trouble  of  forming  an  independent  judgment,  that  beneath  this 
superficial  prosperity  and  ostentation  of  wealth  a  feeling  of  discon- 
tent existed,  and  was  rapidly  spreading  to  an  extent  which  threat- 
ened the  institutions  of  the  country.     The  danger  was  perceived 

i  not  only  by  an  experienced  statesman  and  diplomatist,  like  Lord 

^fJQ^'iHmy  Chesterfield,  who,  about  this  time,  in  writing  to  his  son  who  was 
travelling  in  France,  bade  him  watch  the  progress  of  affairs  in  the 

l^rj/,,7  \  country,  since  ^  all  the  symptoms  which  he  had  ever  met  with 
in  history  previous  to  great  changes  and  revolutions  in  government 
were  now  existing  and  daily  increasing  in  France ; '  but  by  a 
scholar  as  entirely  unpractised  in  state  affairs  as  Goldsmith,  who 
had  no  guide  but  his  own  natural  acuteness,  yet  whose  impres- 
sions were  the  same  as  those  of  the  old  courtier,  minister,  and 
diplomatist,  and  whose  warning  voice  was  little  less  distinct.^ 

Doubtless,  two  men  so  different  were  led  to  coincide  in  their 

anticipations  very  much   by  the  tone  which   now  began  to  be 

adopted  among  the  men  of  science  in  France,  and  those  whose 

1^        writings  had  the  chief  infl aence  upon  public  opinion.     One  of  the 

Y^ttr^  •  most  degrading  characteristics  of  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV.  had 

_      »  3[        been  the  abject  servility  of  all  the  men  of  genius.     The  regent 
L        '    Orleans,  who,  in  spite  of  his  vices,  had  a  more  manly  spirit  than 

LvO  Vt^.vv'  '^'^^  nionai-ch,  had  relieved  literature  from  that  reproach  by  his 
own  indifference  to  flattery,  which  would  have  done  him  honour, 
if  other  parts  of  his  conduct  had  not  made  it  doubtful  whether 
what  seemed  to  be  magnanimity  were  not  in  reality  an  in- 
difference to  the  opinions  entertained  of  him  by  any  part  of  tlie 
nation.  But  he  had  at  the  same  time  substituted  a  worse  evil 
for  that  which  he  had  extinguished.  At  no  period  of  the  last 
reign  had  any  author  ventured  openly  to  disparage  or  ridicule 
religion,  much  less  to  make  any  open  profession  of  infidelity ;  but, 
under  the  unhappy  sway  of  Orleans  and  Bourbon,  the  habitual 
profaneness  of  their  conversation  naturally  gave  the  tone  to  the 

*  Chinese  Letters,  No.  55. 


A.D.  1750.J  CAREER  OF  VOLTAIRE.  393 

writers  of  the  capital :  those  who  wished  to  be  well  with  the 

court  imitating  its  language,  and  reproducing  in  their  writings  the 

foul  witticisms  which  were   approved   and  echoed  at  the  royal  Q     A  't 

table ;  while  impiety  gradually  became  more  attractive  or  at  least  r'^'^y**^" 

more  fashionable  than  indecency.     And  as  men  who  disown  re-  A^  C.*w»i 

ligion  rarely  stop  there,  but  usually  seek  to  discard  the  restraints 

of  human  laws  also,  the  most  popular  authors  began  to  attack  all  ^ft^M«tv  V%< 

ancient  institutions,  to  seek  to  bring  the  laws  and  constitution  of 

the  country  into  contempt,  and  to  prepare  the  minds  of  the  people 

for  a  new  order  of  things. 

It  is  singular  that  the  author  who  subsequently  earned  the 
greatest  celebrity  by  writings  of  this  class,  and  who,  by  the  brilli- 
ancy of  his  talents  and  contempt  of  all  decency  might  have  been 
supposed  to  be  calculated  above  all  others  to  be  the  idol  of  such  a 
society  as  the  regent  gathered  round  him,  was  only  notorious  in 
that  day  as  having  fallen  under  his  displeasure,  and  as  having  been 
imprisoned  by  his  order,  on  a  charge  of  which  he  was  wholly 
innocent;    that  of  having   published  a  satire  on  the  late  king. 
Voltaire  was  the  son  of  a  notary  of  most  respectable  character,  (if   /  /  "^    ' 
named  Arouet,  who  hoped  to  wean  him  from  the  taste  for  licen-  W  <*^  ^*'*^ 
tiousness  which  he  displayed,  even  in  his  early  boyhood,  by  sending 
him  to  a  college  of  the  Jesuits  to  complete  his  education.     The 
Jesuits  left  him   worse  than   they  found  him ;    the    lessons   of  ^ 
morality  which  their  words  inculcated  were  neutralised  by  the«2u<C'\<K*^ 
indulgence  which  they  showed  for  every  kind  of  profligacy  wheni*^  i^    ^ 
practised  by  the  high-born  or  the  powerful ;  and  he  learnt  little  of  *  ^^ 
them  but  a  contempt  for  their  whole  order,  of  which,  in  his 
maturer  years,  he  became  an  unwearied  and  triumphant  assailant. 
After  he  quitted  their  college,  his  excesses  grew  more  unrestrained 
and  scandalous  than  ever ;  so  that  before  he  came  of  age  his  father 
had  disowned  him  ;  and  he  had  changed  his  name  to  Voltaire  to 
disguise  the  relationship.     After  he  was  released  from  the  Bastille,     _ 
he  visited  England:  but,  it  must  be    confessed,  to  learn  as  ^ittle^*^.^-^  •.    ^ 
good  from  his  viait  to  our  country  as  from  his  sojourn  at  the  " 
Jesuits'  college.     He  acquired  indeed  an  insight  into  some  of  the^ 
advantages  of  the  British  constitution,  and  conceived  a  high  admira-  ^'^  ^ 
tion  for  that  real  freedom  of  opinion  and  liberty  of  discussion  of  all 
subjects  which  was  enjoyed  by  all  classes;  but  at  the  same  time 
he  made  the   acquaintance   of  |jordBolingbroke,  a  man   who, 
though  the  ablest  of  our  living  statesmen,  was  equally  notorious 
for  his  wit  and  his  debaucheries ;  who  by  his  congeniality  of  cha- 
racter speedily  obtained  a  predominant  influence  over  the  young 
Frenchman's  mind ;  and  who,  being  himself  a  sceptic,  easily  per- 
suaded Voltaire  to  identify  the  freedom  which  he  admired  with 
irreligion.     And  the  fruit  of  his  teaching  was  shown  when,  on 


9^-^44^., 


394  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1750. 

his  return  to  Paris,  Voltaire  published  more  than  one  book  so 
openly  infidel,  and  at  the  same  time  so  indecent,  as  to  provoke 
the  formal  condemnation  of  the  parliament  of  Paris.  Another 
y\Aj!t§j^t/%^  writer  of  the  same  school  was  Rousseau,  probably  still  more  ex- 
tensively  known  in  foreign  countries ;  and,  if  less  distinct  in  his 
professions  of  infiLdelity  than  Voltaire,  a  still  more  avowed  enemy 
of  all  existing  institutions,  all  laws,  and  all  restraints  on  the  indul- 
gence of  the  passions;  and  who,  by  the  combination  of  senti- 
ment and  sensuality  with  which  his  mind  was  possessed,  and  by 
the  attractiveness  of  his  style,  exercised  a  still  more  pernicious 
influence  in  the  morals  of  the  age  than  Voltaire  himself.  The 
leading  motive  of  both,  in  spite  of  their  great  abilities,  was 
evidently  a  diseased  and  restless  vanity.  But  there  was  also  a 
graver  band  of  men  of  science  who,  being  equally  hostile  to  religion, 
yet  conducted  their  attacks  with  different  weapons,  and,  while 
Voltaire  assailed  all  that  was  sacred  by  ridicule,  and  Rousseau 
undermined  every  decent  feeling  by  his  seductive  tales,  brought 
against  everything  sacred  the  heavier  artillery  of  learning  and 
professedly  regular  argument.  Diderot  was  a  metaphysician,  at 
once  eloquent  and  logical :  Condillac  was  unrivalled  for  the 
perspicuity  of  his  expositions'!  D'Alembert,  as  a  mathema- 
tician, had  had  no  equal  in  France "smceTPascal :  and,  in  1751, 
these  men,  with  other  associates  of  eminence  in  their  respective 
branches  of  knowledge,  began  now  to  issue  an  Encyclopaedia, 
which,  under  pretext  of  explaining  every  branch  of  science,  was  m 
truth  an  organised  attack  upon  Christianity,  and,  in  some  of  its 
articles,  on  religion  of  every  kind,  even  on  the  most  meagi-e  belief 
in  an  overruling  Providence.  The  contributors,  indeed,  were  not 
all  infidels.  Buffon,  the  great  naturalist,  who  joined  them,  though 
in  his  speculaiions  on  the  origin  of  the  earth  and  on  geology,  a 
science  of  which  he  may  be  regarded  as  the  founder,  he  treated  the 
historical  authority  of  Moses  with  but  little  reverence,  wrote  no 
line  intended  to  oft'end  the  scruples  of  the  devout,  and  even  con- 
sented to  apologise  for  some  expressions  which  he  had  used  in 
questioning  the  received  interpretation  of  parts  of  Genesis,  when 
he  found  that. the  priests  had  taken  alarm  at  his  freedom :  Duclos, 
too,  whose  studies  and  contributions  were  generally  of  a  historical 
character,  in  the  very  articles  which  he  furnished  on  the  manners 
of  the  age,  and  other  kindred  subjects,  wrote  with  such  scrupulous 
decorum,  that  Louis,  the  infamy  of  whose  whole  life  did  not 
debar  him  from  intervals  of  sound  judgment  on  the  conduct  and 
character  of  others,  pronounced  his  contributions  those  of  a  worthy 
man.  But  the  very  fairness  of  these  men's  characters,  and  the 
correctness  of  their  language,  increased  the  mischief  done  by  the 
others,  whose  advocates  were  thus  enabled  to  contend  that  none 


A.o.  1751.]  THE  ENCYCLOPEDISTS.  395 

of  their  writings  were  such  as  to  prevent  men  of  strict  purity  from 
uniting  with  them  :  and  their  share  in  the  Encyclopaedia  was  re- 
garded by  many,  or  at  least  was  represented,  as  a  certificate  of  the 
propriety  of  the  whole  publication.  It  obtained  an  enormous  circu- 
lation ;  and  the  influence  it  acquired  over  the  restless  minds  of  the 
existing  generation  has  always  been  reckoned  by  those  who  have 
studied  the  signs  of  the  times  to  have  been  very  eiSective  in  pre- 
paring the  way  for  the  Revolution. 

A  curious  proof  how  little  bigotry  and  intolerance  are  indica- 
tions of  sincerity  in  religion  is  afforded  by  the  circumstance  that, 
just  at  this  time,  when  profaneness  and  licentiousness  were  more 
universal,  unrestrained,  and  shameless  than  they  had  ever  been, 
religious  persecutions  were  renewed  with  all  the  cruelty  of  the 
days  of  Louvois.  The  principal  desire  of  the  beneficed  clergy  who 
stimulated  them  was  to  attack  tlie  Jansenists,  who  had  recently 
made  converts  of  a  character  and  rank  to  Excite  their  bitterest  i»  . 
jealousy.  The  sect  did  not  now  number  many  priests,  since,  t^T^A^^tv 
throughout  the  reign,  ecclesiastical  promotion  had  been  steadily 
withheld  from  its  adherents,  but  its  lay  members  were  more 
numerous  and  influential  than  ever.  They  formed  a  great  majority 
of  the  parliament.  One  prince  of  the  blood  royal,  the  young 
Duke  of  Orleans,  whose  life  of  scrupulous  purity  and  devotion 
afforded  a  pleasing  contrast  to  the  infamy  of  the  former  bearers  of 
that  title,  avowed  his  adoption  of  their  doctrines.  And  though 
the  .Jesuits,  supported  by  the  sanction  of  Beaumont,  archbishop 
of  Paris,  did  at  first  venture  on  extreme  measures  even  towards 
the  prince,  refusing  him  the  sacraments  on  his  deathbed,  and  ex- 
communicating a  Jansenist  priest  attached  to  his  household,  their 
conduct  produced  such  a  commotion  that  Louis  himself  was  com- 
pelled to  interfere.  He  did  so  with  singular  energy ;  chastising 
both  parties  :  prohibiting  the  parliament,  which  had  arrested  some 
of  the  most  violent  of  the  Jesuits,  from  further  deliberation  on 
ecclesiastical  matters ;  seizing  their  registers ;  and,  after  that, 
banishing  the  archbishop.  But  this  spasmodic  vigour,  which  was 
not  likely  to  be  maintained  by  such  a  monarch,  failed  to  put  an 
end  to  the  strife.  It  rather  gave  it  a  form  more  pernicious  to  the 
body  of  the  people,  by  investing  the  whole  quarrel  with  a  ridiculous 
aspect.  Neither  party  were  disarmed ;  they  only  carried  on  the  ^ 
contest  with  new  weapons.  The  Jesuits  attacked  the  Jansenists  {i^  C^'^* 
with  satires  and  farces,  of  which  the  language  but  little  became  a  | 

clerical  pen,  and  the  incidents  could  hardly  have  been  conceived 
by  a  purely  spiritual  imagination.  The  Jansenists  encountered 
the  pen  with  the  pencil,  and  filled  the  shops  of  the  picture  dealers 
with  humorous  and  stinging  caricatures  of  the  Jesuits,  handing 
over  their  adversaries  to  the  prince  of  darkness,  in  which  it  was 


f-^ 


396  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.u.  1757. 

often  difficult  to  distinguisli  the  priest  from  the  devil.  Those 
who  were  wholly  indifferent  to  the  subject  and  to  religion  at  all, 
and  they  perhaps  were  the  most  numerous  class  of  all,  laughed  at 
both  alike,  and  insulted  both,  and  common  decency  at  the  same 
time,  with  profane  and  ribald  lampoons,  which  were  sung  about  the 
streets.  And  so  the  contest  proceeded,  to  the  great  embarrassment 
of  the  government,  till  at  last,  in  1754,  the  birth  of  a  young  prince 
furnished  a  plea  for  a  reconciliation,  by  which  the  Jansenists  were 
so  far  the  gainers  that  they  obtained  more  toleration  and  even  in- 
dulgence than  had  been  shown  to  them  for  many  years ;  while  it 
was  compensated  to  the  clergy  who  had  denounced  them  by  a  con- 
firmation of  their  right  to  exemption  from  taxation,  of  which  pre- 
viously a  new  finance  minister,  M.  Machault,  had  been  proposing  to 
deprive  them. 

But  the  failure  of  their  attack  on  the  Jansenists  only  made  the 

*-  •''^nAa^-ik^ clergy  more  resolute  to  crush  the  Huguenots,  a  comparatively 
small  band  of  whom  still  remained  in  the  country,  and  who  had 

J  ^^  r-i  no  avowed  defenders  in  high  places.    Their  enemies  easily  enlisted 

V     J  on  their  side  many  of  the  most  infamous  characters  of  the  kingdom, 

who,  as  Louis  XIV.  had  been,  were  glad  to  purchase  the  priests' 
connivance  at  their  own  profligacy  by  persecuting  those  who, 
though  pure  in  their  practice,  were  heterodox  in  their  principles. 
The  reigning  mistress  was  zealous  in  her  antipathy  to  heretics,  and 
next  to  her  in  zeal,  was  a  man  notorious  for  every  kind  of  baseness, 
for  the  foulest  profligacy  united  to  the  most  unrestrained  rapacity 
and  shameless  corruption,  the  Duke  de  Richelieu.  Unfortunately, 
he  was  in  a  position  which  enabled  him  to  give  unusual  effect  to 
his  orthodoxy.  He  was  governor  of  Languedoc,  and  that  province 
had  alwaj's  been  one  of  the  strongholds  of  the  French  reformers. 
He  tore  himself  for  a  while  from  the  luxuries  and  dissipations  of 
Paris  to  visit  his  government,  for  the  sole  purpose  of  tormenting 
and  extinguishing  the  scanty  relics  of  that  once  powerful  sect. 
J    ^  Again,  as  in  the  days  of  Louvois,  the  dragoons  were  let  loose  on 

'xA.'CWl^^^the  hapless  Tillages  and  peasantry,  while  Richelieu  offered  from 
his  own  purse  enormous  rewards  to  any  one  who  should  apprehend, 
or  give  information  which  should  lead  to  the  apprehension  of,  any 
Huguenot  minister.  Several  preachers  were  seized  and  summarily 
put  to  death,  while  numbers  of  men,  women,  and  even  children, 
who  were  accused  of  having  attended  their  preachings,  were 
hurried  off  without  trial  to  the  galleys :  and  by  a  refinement  of 
cruelty,  which  not  even  the  most  ferocious  of  former  persecutors 
had  devised,  Richelieu  made  even  the  natural  aflfections  an  engine 
to  entrap  yictims  who  had  escaped  him;  seizing  the  wives  and 
children  of  some  of  the  ministers  who  had  fled  the  province,  and 
threatening  them  with  torture  or  death  if  their  husbands  or  fathers 


k.n.  1757.]  PERSECUTION  IN  LANGUEDOC.  397 

fjtiled  to  surrender.  At  last  the  renewal  of  war,  by  providing 
other  employment  for  the  troops,  and  for  Richelieu  himself  as 
commander  of  an  army,  relieved  the  remnant  of  the  Huguenots 
from  his  cruelties.  But  the  whole  series  of  transactions  was  very 
injurious  to  the  government  and  to  religion.  To  religion,  because 
the  multitude  of  the  people,  from  a  contemplation  of  the  mutual 
ridicule  which  Jesuits  and  Jansenists  heaped  upon  each  other, 
were  led  to  entertain  a  contempt  not  only  for  the  two  sects,  but  for 
religion  itself,  which  was  the  cause  of  the  quarrel:  a  contempt 
which  was  not  lessened  when  the  clergy  afterwards  put  forward 
as  the  champion  of  Catholicism  such  a  man  as  Richelieu,  so  deeply 
stained  with  the  meanest  vices  as  to  be  the  laughing-stock  and  jest 
of  his  own  soldiers.^  And,  in  at  least  an  equal  degree  did  it  bring 
disrepute  on  the  government  which  had  proved  unable  to  ex- 
tinguish the  first  quarrel,  except  by  the  most  impolitic  concessions  : 
and  which  in  its  treatment  of  the  Huguenots  had  not  scrupled  to 
sanction  the  renewal  of  cruelties  of  which  even  so  callous  a  tyrant 
as  Louis  XIV.  had  on  his  deathbed  confessed  his  repentance. 

Nor  were  the  other  events  of  the  reign  calculated  to  undo  that 
unfavorable  impression.     We  saw  in  the  last  chapter  what  deep    jf\ 
disgrace  the  rout  of  Rosbach  inflicted  on  the  French  arms :  nor  /fUkyOjk 
was  that  the  only  disaster  which  their  alliance  with  Austria  and 
the  quarrel  with  England  inflicted  on  them  in  the  Seven  Years' 
War.     In  the  extreme  east  and  in  the  extreme  west,  the  country 
had  equal  cause  to  lament  the  impolicy  of  its  rulers.     In  America 
they  vvere  expelled  from  Canad_a :  a  colony  of  which  ijiey  were 
Jusflygroud  as  a  monument  of  the  sagacity  of  Henry  IV.,  who  had  ^ 
not  been  deterred  from  establishing  it  by  the  warnings  of  Sully  ^      J 
himself,  and  had  shown  himself  in  that  instance  a  better  political     ^-   v*^ 
economist  than  his  great  minister.     At  the  same  time  all  their 
most  important  settlements  in  India  were  wrested  from  them.     Sir 
Eyre  Coote  routed  their  besi  army  at  Wandewash,  captured  their 
chief  town  Pondicherry,  taking  prisoner  their  governor-general, 
the  unfortunate  Lally,  and  sending  him  as  a  prisoner  to  England ; 
while  on  the  sea  and  on  their  own  coast  their  humiliation  was 
deeper   still.      One  fleet  was   defeated  in   the   Mediterranean  ; 
another  was  nearly  annihilated  in  the  Bay  of  Biscay,  in  sight  of  its 
own  harbour :  and  not  a  port  or  town  on  the  whole  coast  from 
Calais  to  the  Pyrenees  was  safe  from  the  attacks  of  the  British 
squadrons.     Such  a  series  of  disasters,  at  once  dishonouring  and 
damaging,  was   not  calculated  to   lead  the  nation  to  look  with 

1  A  splendid  hotel,  which  Eichelieu      cost  was  defrayed  from  the  proceeds 
biiilt  in  Parif,   was  nicknamed  the     of  his  plunder  of  that  province. 
Palace  of  Hanover,  to  imply  that  its 


398  MODERN  HISTORY.  La.i>.  1763. 

greater  favour  on  the  government,  or  to  forget  its  mismanagement 
of  affairs  in  peace,  in  consideration  of  its  conduct  of  war. 

Every  circumstance  in  every  quarter  contributed  to  increase  tHe 
discontent.     The  savings  with  which  the  economy  and  uprightness 

fjL^  *^      of  Fleury  had  enriched  the  treasury  had  long  been  dissipated, 
'    jj?fii'tly  by  the  recent  wars,  and  still  more  by  the  rapacity  of  the 

''^^*~'^'^^ *king's  favourites,  and  by  his  own  and  their  extravagance.  The 
finances  of  the  kingdom  had  again  fallen  into  the  same  inextricable 
disorder  as  when,  at  the  beginning  of  the  reign,  the  Duke  de 
St.-Simon  had  advised  the  regent  to  proclaim  a  national  bank- 
ruptcy; and  the  general  embarrassment  of  the  court  and  of  the 
wealthier  classes  naturally  descended  downwards  towards  the 
poor,  till  in  many  provinces  the  recurrence  of  winter  brought  with 
it  annual  starvation.  The  controllers  of  finance  were  at  their 
wits'  end.     One,  a  statesman  both  able  and  honest,  M.  Machault. 

I  endeavoured  to  effect  some  reform  by  the  abolition  of  the  ex- 

h'"^^'^^'^  emptions  from  taxation  which  were  claimed  by  the  nobles,  a  class 
which,  for  that  purpose,  included  almost  every  one  who  held  office 
by  commission  from  the  crown,  and  by  all  the  clergy ;  but  the 
subsequent  weakness  of  the  government  not  only,  as  has  been 
already  mentioned,  restored  the  privilege  to  the  clergy,  but  even 
allowed  its  continuance  in  some  of  the  provinces,  whose  resistance 
to  the  new  law  was  in  exact  proportion  to  their  wealth,  and  there- 
fore to  the  importance  of  the  abolition  of  their  old  privileges  to 
the  national  welfare ;  and,  even  where  the  liability  of  all  classes 
to  taxation  was  enforced,  it  was  not  extended  beyond  a  slight 
income-tax  ;  and  the  bulk  of  imposts  and  duties  were  still  collected 
only  from  the  comparatively  poor.  To  attempt  to  extinguisli  a 
system  so  pernicious  as  that  under  which  the  wealthiest  classes 
were  excused  from  contributing  to  the  necessities  of  the  state,  was 
so  obvious  an  expedient  as  hardly  to  deserve  any  especial  praise  ; 
but  to  fail  in  it  was  more  mischievous  than  not  to  have  made  the 
attempt,  and  partial  success  was  the  worst  kind  of  failure. 

Machault  did  not  remain  long  in  office  ;  and  his  successors,  who 
succeeded  one  another  with  unparalleled  rapidity,  confessed  the 
greatness  of  the  evil,  and  their  inability  to  overcome  it  by  the 
variety  and  inconsistency  of  their  schemes.  Political  economists, 
too,  rose  up  with  the  most  opposite  plans  for  the  development  of 
^       the  resources  of  the  nation,  and  the  restoration  of  the  balance 

'l^*^  ^       between  revenue  and  expenditure.     One  looked  only  to  trade  and 
'S       commerce ;  another  affirmed  agriculture  to  be  the  sole  prop  on 

4  which  a  nation  could  rely  for  permanent  prosperity.     The  politi- 

V'**'^       cians  and  pamphleteers  were  divided  between  the  opposite  theories ; 

^  and  the  ministers  floundered  about  in  a  state  of  hopeless  bewilder- 

ment between  them :  if  one  established  free  trade,  his  successor's 


A.i>.  1763.]  EMBARRASSMENT   OF  THE  GOVERNMENT.   399 

first  measure  was  to  reimpose  restrictions :  the  only  policy  in 
which  every  minister  agreed  was  the  imposition  of  new  taxes ;  in 
this  each  vied  with  his  predecessor,  while  all  who  had  any  secret 
influence  in  the  state  exerted  it  to  baffle  every  scheme  that  was 
proposed,  since  none  could  be  devised  which  did  not  in  some 
degree  interfere  with  existing  interests.  If,  in  the  hope  of  bring- 
ing the  income  of  the  state  and  its  outgoings  to  a  level,  the  con- 
troller suggested  a  diminution  of  the  expenditure  of  the  court, 
which  now  exceeded  by  far  the  most  lavish  extravagance  of  the 
preceding  reign,  the  whole  court,  courtiers,  mistresses,  the  king 
himself,  and  even  his  own  colleegues  in  office,  pronounced  the 
scheme  one  which  could  not  be  entertained  even  for  a  moment. 
We  have  seen  the  fate  of  Machault's  attempt  to  abolish  exemptions. 
If  any  of  his  successors  revived  it,  he  was  met  by  a  resistance  fro 
all  the  exempt  classes,  which  was  encouraged  and  justified  by  the 
success  with  which  that  minister  had  been  defeated.  Even  if  he 
sought  such  small  augmentation  of  the  available  revenue  as, 
without  touching  any  established  principles  or  privileges,  might 
be  derived  from  improved  management,  he  raised  in  arms  the 
whole  company  of  intendents,  superintendants,  collectors,  and 
deputy  collectors,  who  were  amassing  large  fortunes  under  the 
existing  system  or  want  of  system,  which  facilitated  every  kind  of 
extortion  and  peculation.  And  every  opponent  of  reform  could 
reckon  on  the  support  of  the  parliament,  which  denounced  with 
equal  vehemence  every  expedient  proposed. 

A  desire  to  crush  the  parliament  may  be  said  to  have  been  a 
second  object  in  which  every  successive  minister  agreed.  The 
factious  and  corrupt  motives  which  for  many  generations  had 
animated  the  political  conduct  of  the  members  deserved  any 
chastisement  that  the  monarch  could  inflict;  but,  as  if  it  had 
been  fated  that  nothing  done  in  this  reign  after  the  death  of 
Fleury  should  be  dictated  by,  or  be  defensible  on,  any  proper  prin- 
ciple of  government,  it  happened  that  when  at  last  the  king's  dis- 
pleasure did  fall  on  the  councillors,  it  chastised  not  their  political 
misconduct  and  persevering  attempts  to  encroach  on  the  royal 
authority,  but  almost  their  only  action  which  for  many  years  had 
been  to  their  credit.  They  had  ventured  to  protect  the  attorney- 
general  of  Brittany,  M.  La  Chalotais,  a  lawyer  of  the  very  highest 
reputation  for  professional  knowledge,  and  for  integrity,  against 
the  governor  of  the  province,  the  Duke  d'Aiguillon,  a  man,  who, 
in  addition  to  more  ordinary  vices,  laboured  under  the  stigma  of 
personal  cowardice.  Like  most  cowards,  the  duke  was  of  a 
tyrannical  temper :  because  I^a  Chalotais  had  ventured  to  defend 
the  rights  of  his  fellow  provincials,  on  which  he  was  endeavouring 
to  trample,  he  prosecuted  him  on  a  charge  which  he  did  not  hesi- 


}Lfo^ 


iOO  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1771. 

tate  to  support  by  forged  documents.  The  Bretons,  in  retaliation, 
impeached  tlie  duke ;  and  the  parliament  of  Paris,  the  only  tri- 
bunal before  which  a  peer  of  France  could  be  tried,  by  the  tone  of 
their  proceedings,  showed  a  manifest  inclination  to  decide  against 
him.  Louis,  who,  for  some  reason  or  other,  regarded  D'Aiguillon 
with  especial  favour,  commanded  them  to  discontinue  the  trial. 
They  could  not  dare  to  disobey ;  but,  before  adjourning,  pronounced 
sentence  that  enough  had  been  proved  to  stain  the  duke's  honour, 
and  they  prohibited  him  therefore  from  exercising  any  of  the 
rights  of  the  peerage  till  he  should  have  established  his  innocence. 
The  king  went  down  to  their  palace,  tore  the  sentence  from  their 
registers,  summoned"  the  councillors  before  him,  and  severely 
reprimanded  them  for  their  contumacy  and  disloyalty.  They 
declared  such  a  reproof  to  be  a  violation  of  their  judicial  indepen- 
dence, suspended  their  sittings  altogether ;  and  Louis,  now  guided 
by  a  young  lawyer,  M.  Maupeou,  whom  he  had  lately  made 
chancellor,  and  who  had  acuteness  enough  to  perceive  what  kind 
of  advice  it  was  hoped  he  would  give,  arrested  and  banished  every 
individual  councillor,  and  by  a  formal  edict  abolished  parliaments 
for  ever,  uniting  the  provincial  assemblies  in  the  same  condemna- 
tion. 

It  is  curious  that  the  citizens  of  Paris,  who,  a  century  before, 
had  not  feared  to  confront  the  whole  power  of  the  state  in  defence 
of  a  single  councillor,  now  viewed  the  extinction  of  the  whole 
body  with  the  most  complete  indifference ;  and  it  can  hardly  have 
proceeded  from  anything  but  their  own  sense  of  how  completely 
they  had  lost  their  former  hold  on  the  goodwill  of  the  people, 
that  the  members  themselves  submitted  unresistingly  to  the 
edict :  the  most  unconstitutional,  if  such  a  word  can  be  applied 
to  the  proceedings  of  a  despotic  government,  on  which  any  king 
of  France  had  ventured  for  at  least  three  centuries. 

Louis,  who  was  by  no  means  devoid  of  natural  ability,  but^ 
when  he  chose  to  exert  himself,  could  often  judge  correctly 
enough  of  the  tendencies  of  the  measures  of  the  government,  and 
of  the  feelings  of  the  nation,  was  by  no  means  blind  to  the  general 
contempt  into  which  the  authority  of  government  had  fallen  in 
France,  or  to  the  dangerous  results  which  might  be  expected  to 
follow  from  such  a  feeling.  On  more  than  one  occasion  he  re- 
marked that,  though  the  storm  might  be  averted  from  his  own 
head,  his  successor  would  find  it  very  difficult  to  steer  the  ship 
through  the  breakers ;  and  there  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  he 
was  in  the  least  disquieted  by  the  apprehension,  or  ever  felt  a 
single  spark  of  patriotism  or  regard  for  his  own  race,  such  as  might 
prompt  him  to  make  the  slightest  effort  to  save  his  people  or  his 
own  descendants  from  the  dan>?ers  which  he  foresaw.     Yet  had  he 


A.D.  1774.]    ABOLITION   OF  THE   ORDER  OF  JESUITS.  401 

been  as  patriotic  as  honest,  and  as  judicious  as  lie  was  in  fact 
destitute  of  all  such  qualities,  he  could  have  adopted  no  measure 
better  calculated  to  avert  the  coming  evils,  by  facilitating  the 
adoption  of  reforms  which  every  statesman  knew  to  be  indispen- 
sable ;  but  to  Avhich  the  parliaments  had  always  presented  the 
greatest  obstacles.  Unhappily,  one  of  the  first  measures  of  the 
grandson  who  succeeded  him  was  to  undo  this,  the  most  beneficial 
measure  of  the  reign,  and  thus  once  more  to  give  the  malcontents 
a  leader  capable  of  speaking  with  an  appearance  of  legitimate 
authority.  It  might  have  been  of  equal  consequence  that  a  few 
years  before  Louis  had  suppressed  the  Jesuits  also,  confiscating  and 
putting  up  for  sale  all  the  property  which  the  Order  possessed  in 
France  as  an  ecclesiastical  corporation,  if,  before  his  death, 
Clement  XIV.  had  not  abolished  the  whole  Order.  Louis  had, 
no  doubt,  been  mainly  led  to  pass  his  edict  against  them  by  their 
proved  complicity  in  the  conspiracy  for  the  murder  of  the  King 
of  Portugal,  and  by  his  belief  that  they  had  sanctioned,  if  not 
instigated,  the  attack  of  Damiens  upon  himself.  The  Pope  was 
influenced  mainly  by  the  urgency  of  the  French  minister,  and  by 
the  desire  of  recovering  the  Veuaissin  and  Avignon,  with  which 
his  compliance  was  purchased.  And  it  seemed  to  reflect  some 
degree  of  glory  on  Louis  that  he,  a  temporal  prince,  should  thus 
have  been  able  to  constrain  the  Head  of  his  Church  to  deal  so 
severely  with  an  Order  which,  whatever  the  crimes  in  which,  by 
actual  participation  or  secret  connivance,  it  had  borne  a  share,  had 
at  least  been  always  a  faithful  support  of  the  Papal  authority,  the 
upholding  of  which  had  been  the  principal  object  of  its  insti- 
tution. 

Louis  died  of  the  smallpox  in  the  spring  of  1774.  He  had 
reigned  almost  sixty  years,  and  had  been  in  full  possession  of  the 
royal  authority  for  nearly  fifty. ^  His  reign  presents  but  few 
marked  events ;  and  I  have  touched  upon  it  as  lightly  as  possible, 
because  there  is  neither  pleasure  nor  profit  to  be  derived  from 
the  contemplation  of  the  infamy  of  a  king  or  of  the  dishonour  of 
a  nation.  For  the  last  forty  years  Louis's  own  life  was  one  of  a 
profligacy  growing  coarser  and  fouler  day  by  day.  For  nearly  as 
long  the  power  and  renown  of  the  nation  was  hurrying  down  a^  ^^  Um 
rapid  descent ;  and  the  misery  of  all  but  the  wealthiest  class  was  g  *** 

steadily  augmenting.    With  Fleury  and  Saxe  everything  that  was 
wise,  or  upright,  or  gallant  in  the  nation  seemed  to  have  passec^^ifVr  J-v^. 
away  ;  and  the  sole  reason  for  touching  at  all  on  the  occurrences 
of  the  last  five-and-twenty  years  of  the  life  of  Louis  is  to  be  found 
iu  the  degree  in  which  they  serve  to  explain  the  animosity  against 

^  He  was  married  in  the  autumn  of  1725. 


CrwAjy, 


402  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1774. 

the  higher  orders,  against  the  nobles,  the  clergy,  and  the  king, 
which  a  large  portion  of  the  nation  displayed  in  the  next  reign. 

The  greater  part  of  all  this  evil  is  traceable  directly  to  the  con- 
duct of  the  Idng  himself.  The  pecuniary  distress  was  wholly 
caused  by  his  personal  extravagance,  for,  as  we  have  seen,  Fleury 
had  at  one  time  brought  the  finances  of  the  kingdom  into  a 
healthy  condition.  Yet  the  original  fault  of  Louis  was  rather 
weakness  than  wickedness.  And  the  unparalleled  profligacy  of 
his  life  is  to  be  traced  in  the  first  instance  to  his  submission  to  the 
arts  and  cajoleries  of  the  worthless  courtiers,  who  regretted  the 
license  of  the  regency,  rather  than  to  any  innate  appetite  for  vice. 
Indeed,  he  was  naturally  not  devoid  of  a  sort  of  passive  goodness, 
of  such,  at  least,  as  consists  in  a  feeling  of  respect' for  virtue  and 
holiness  in  others  :  of  a  desire  to  earn  praise  and  goodwill ;  and  of 
that  kind  of  moderate  humanity  which  pities,  if  it  does  not  take 
Ik  any  active  steps  to  relieve,  suffering.  Nor  was  he  destitute  of 
1  courage,  and  of  some  degree  of  political  foresight.  But  both  good- 
nature  and  good  sense  Wer*  neutralised  by  an  incurable  indolence, 
^/^^^^^  of  both  body  and  mind  ;  and  by  a  fatal  facility  of  temper  which 

jt  led  him  at  the  bidding  of  the  most  worthless  of  his  courtiers  to 

^  violate  all  his  public  and  private  duties ;  to  outrage  the  feelings 

of  a  beautiful  and  faithful  wife,  whom  at  first,  till  he  allowed 
them  to  alienate  him  from  her,  he  regarded  with  affection  and 
even  admiration  :  gradually  to  surrender  the  whole  government  of 
•  the  kingdom  to  the  caprices  and  rapacity  of  mistresses  -without 

education  or  sense  as  without  decency :  and  thus  to  stamp  his 
own  name  with  ineffaceable  infamy,  while  bequeathing  to  his 
amiable  and  virtuous  successor  a  heritage  of  trouble  and  misery, 
from  which  few  could  have  extricated  themselves,  and  with  which 
his  very  virtues  disqualified  him  from  contending. 


A.D.  ld52.]  CONSPIRACY  AGAINST  POLAND.  403 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 
A.D.  1772—1794. 

THE  Seven  Years'  War  had  been  waged  with  such  fierceness 
not  only  of  national  animosity,  but  of  personal  rancour,  be- 
tween the  sovereigns  themselves  ;  the  wounds  which  the  different 
belligerents  had  inflicted  on  each  other  had  been  so  deep,  and,  in  a 
military  point  of  view,  so  dishonouring  ;  the  conclusion,  too,  had 
been  so  mortifying  to  all,  that  ordinary  politicians  might  well  ^ 
have  supposed  that  it  was  but  a  hollow  peace  which  had  been  Ir 
signed  at  Huberstburg :  and  that  any  cordial  co-operation  between  '  ^^''J«%t^ 
the  antagonists Tn  that  terrible  conflict  could  never  be  looked  for,  at 
least  during  the  existence  of  the  generation  which  had  witnessed 
Kolin  and  Leuthen,  Kunersdof  and  Zorndof.  And  the  belief  might 
have  been  well  founded  if  the  feeling  and  policy  of  nations  were 
regulated  by  the  same  motives  which  sway  the  passions  and  in-» 
fluence  the  conduct  of  individuals.  But  ambition  has  a  short 
memory  for  past  grievances  ]  and  in  the  councils  of  statesmen 
ideas  of  expediency  and  mutual  interest  often  oven*ule  the  keenest 
impulses  of  resentment  or  pride.  And  so,  within  ten  years  of  the 
time  when  Austria  and  Prussia  had  dealt  Frederic  such  terrible 
blows  that  he  could  scarcely  bring  his  mind  to  survive  them,  and 
had  in  their  turn  sustained  at  his  hand  such  overthrows  as  efi'aced 
the  apparent  disgrace,  if  they  could  not  altogether  repair  the  real 
injury  which  his  defeats  had  brought  upon  his  kingdom,  the  three 
nations  combined  together  in  a  conspiracy  against  the  indepen- 
dence, and  finally  against  the  existence,  of  a  fourth,  which  the  public 
opinion  of  every  other  country  and  of  all  succeeding  generations 
has,  with  a  rare  unanimity,  branded  as  one  of  the  greatest  political 
crimes  ever  committed. 

In  a  former  chapter  we  have  seen  how  the  right,  or  rather  the 
power,  of  giving  a  sovereign  to  Poland  was  one  of  the  prizes  in 
the  contest  between  the  great  Czar  of  Russia  and  Charles  o^ 
Sweden,  and  the  eventual  triumph  of  Peter  gave  his  successors  a 
permanent  influence  in  the  affairs  of  that  country,  which  they 
gradually  expanded  into  the  assertion  of  a  positive  right  to  inter- 
fere in  its  concerns,  and  to  dictate  to  its  rulers,  not  only  on  ques- 


.CbmaV. 


404  MODEKN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1552. 

tions  of  their  foreign  policy,  but  on  matters  afFecting  the  internal 
regulation  and  administration  of  their  dominions.  There  had 
been  a  time  when  these  conditions  were  reversed :  when  Poland 
had  been  the  superior  in  power;  had  even  led  one  Muscovite 
monarch  in  captivity  to  Warsaw,  and  had  compelled  his  subjects 
to  receive  a  successor  to  him  from  the  ftimily  of  their  own  king.  In 
the  middle  ages,  indeed,  Poland  had  been  first  in  renown  and  power 
of  all  the  European  nations  on  the  east  of  the  Rhine.  The  pro- 
vince from  which  Frederic  derived  his  royal  title,  with  that  where 
Petersburg  now  stood,  were  both  held  as  fiefs  from  her  sovereign : 
who  more  than  once  was  invested  with  the  crowns  of  Hungary 
and  Bohemia  also,  because  both  those  nations  looked  on  Poland  as 
their  chief  bulwark  against  the  inroads  of  the  Infidel.  It  was  a 
king  of  Poland  and  Hungary  who  drove  back  the  victorious 
Amurath  from  the  Danube ;  compelling  him  to  restore  to  the 
Christians  more  than  one  province  of  which  he  had  made  himself 
master,-  thus  giving  a  respite,  though  brief,  to  Constantinople 
itself.  And  in  the  same  age  Poland  had,  also,  a  purer  fame  than 
that  derived  from  deeds  of  war.  French  and  Italian  scholars  con- 
fessed that  not  even  in  their  own  countries  was  education  more 
generally  diff'used,  or  carried  to  a  higher  pitch :  as  linguists, 
the  Poles  were  confessedly  unrivalled :  and  it  was  in  the  university 
of  Cracow  that  Copernicus  acquired  the  rudiments  of  that  scientific 
knowledge  by  which  he  afterwards,  in  his  turn,  taught  the  whole 
world  the  real  character  of  the  system  of  the  heavens.  An  honour 
of  equally  brilliant  and  still  rarer  lustre  is  shed  upon  the  nation 
by  the  circumstance  of  its  being  the  first  in  the  history  of  Chris- 
tendom to  recognise  the  great  duty  of  religious  toleration.  In 
the  year  1552,  while  the  valleys  of  the  Vaudois  still,  in  their 
desolation,  bore  testimony  to  the  ferocity  of  Francis ;  while  Mary 
of  England  was  waiting  for  her  brother's  death  to  enable  her  to 
kindle  the  fires  of  Smithfield ;  the  diet  of  Poland  formally  denounced 
persecution,  the  members  pledging  themselves  that  in  their  country 
arms  ^  should  never  be  taken  up  for  any  differences  of  religion ; 
nor  should  such  differences  ever  be  allowed  to  interfere  with  the 
common  rights  of  citizenship,'  possessed  by  all  alike,  whether 
Catholics  or  Protestants. 

Unhappily,  neither  literature,  nor  science,  nor  even  a  correct 
appreciation  of  every  free  man's  right  to  freedom  of  opinion  con- 
tribute more  to  the  prosperity  of  a  state,  than  vicious  political 
principles,  and  a  spirit  of  intrigue  and  faction  tend  to  its  undoing. 
And  in  no  country  has  a  more  incurably  vicious  system  of  govern- 
ment ever  been  devised,  or  have  theoretical  evils  been  less  coun- 
teracted by  the  practical  wisdom  of  the  people.  The  constitution 
was  an  attempt  to  combine  the  principles  of  a  monarchy  and  an 


A.D.  1572.]  CONSTITUTION   OF  POLAND.  405 

aristocratic  republic.  The  ldn<^  was  elected  by  the  nobles :  the 
nobles  could  only  be  counted  by  tens  of  thousands:  and  though 
there  were  two  assemblies,  the  senate  and  the  diet,  in  imitation  of 
the  two  British  Houses  of  Parliament,  the  machinery  was  so  de- 
fective that  the  members  of  both  belonged  to  the  same  class,  the 
nobles  :  a  body  whose  vast  numbers  prevented  any  one  from  feel- 
ing responsibility,  and  inevitably  opened  the  door  to  every  sort  of 
intrigue  and  corruption.  A  result  which,  in  the  middle  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  was  further  ensured  by  the  strange  provision 
which  required  absolute  unanimity  from  the  diet,  even  when  it 
was  attended  by  thousands  of  armed  voters.  So  high  and  so 
sacred,  according  to  the  contrivers  of  this  unexampled  regulation, 
were  the  privileges  of  every  freeman,  that  it  would  have  been  an 
intolerable  injustice  if  the  will  of  .a  single  individual  could  have 
been  overruled  or  constrained ;  and  they  did  not  see  that  the  powei 
thus  given  to  a  single  person  to  prevent  the  whole  body  from  coming 
to  a  decision,  and  thus  to  stop  the  whole  business  of  the  state, 
was,  in  fact,  to  subject  all  to  one ;  and  to  one  for  the  soundness  of 
whose  judgment,  or  the  purity  of  whose  motives  there  could  be 
no  security. 

Anarchy  and  disorder  could  not  fail  to  be  the  results  of  such  a 
constitution ;  but  even  before  the  establishment  of  this  crowning 
absurdity,  the  liberum  veto,  as  it  was  called,  a  death-blow  had 
been  given  to  the  independence  of  the  country Ty  the  election  of 
a  foreTgiT'kTBg.  By  the  death  of  Sigismund  II.,  which  took  place 
'  inlBV^,  tli^-  male  line  of  the  Jagellons,  the  family  which  had 
furnished  occupants  to  the  throne  for  so  many  generations,  that  it 
had  almost  come  to  be  regarded  as  their  birthright,  was  extin- 
guished ;  and  it  became  necessary  to  seek  elsewhere  for  his  suc- 
cessor ;  but  so  fully  were  all  parties  in  Poland  aware  that  their 
mutual  jealousies  would  prevent  the  success  of  any  noble  of  their 
own  nation  in  the  competition  for  the  vacant  throne,  that  among 
the  candidates  there  was  but  one,  the  Duke  of  Prussia,  who  had 
any  pretence  to  be  looked  on  as  a  native  prince.  Of  his  com- 
petitors one  was  an  Austrian,  one  a  Swede,  another  a  Frenchman, 
a  fourth  was  even  a  Muscovite :  and  after  a  protracted  contest,  in 
which  arguments  founded  on  state  policy  were  not  sparingly  rein- 
forced by  the  coarsest  methods  of  corruption,  the  choice  of  the 
electors  fell  on  the  least  worthy  of  all,  and  the  one  whose  last 
exploit  might  have  been  supposed  to  have  been  an  irremediable 
disqualification  in  the  eyes  of  a  nation  in  which  the  principles  ot 
religious  toleration  had  been  so  cordially  and  so  lately  adopted, 
and  which  numbered  so  many  Protestants  among  its  citizens,  as 
Poland.  It  fell  on  Henry,  duke  of  Anj^ou^  the  next  brother  and 
presumptive  TefFof  Charles  IX.j'ana  as  deeply  stained  as  he 


406  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1575. 

with  the  infamy  of  the  recent  massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew.  Cer- 
tainly, if  it  had  been  the  object  of  the  electors  to  astonish  the 
world  with  the  most  marked  contrast  between  the  new  king  and 
his  predecessor,  they  could  not  have  €elected  one  diflfering  in 
every  respect  more  widely  from  the  chivalrous,  humane,  and  en- 
lightened Sigismund,  than  the  unworthy  Valois  prince,  debased 
by  every  sort  of  vice,  and  for  ever  dishonoured  with  all  the  rest 
of  his  family  by  the  foulest  deed  of  blood  which  Europe  had  wit- 
nessed for  centuries.  And  the  plea  by  which  the  nobles  justified 
or  excused  their  choice  was,  if  possible,  more  degrading  to  the 
nation  than  the  choice  itself.  It  secured  to  the  country,  they 
said,  the  protection  of  France  j  and  aid  to  its  exchequer  from  the 
liberality  of  the  French  king,  or  of  his  mother,  who  ruled  the  base 
and  miserable  Charles.  Henry  did  not  long  remain  king.  As  if 
he  feared  that  his  subjects  were  bent  on  detaining  him  against  his 
will,  the  moment  he  received  intelligence  of  his  brother's  death, 
he  fled  by  night  stealthily  and  on  foot  from  his  castle  at  Cracow  : 
not  even  condescending  to  make  a  formal  abdication  of  the  crown 
which  his  mother  had  purchased.  His  late  subjects  had  just  self- 
respect  enough  left  to  declare  the  throne  which  he  had  thus  de- 
serted vacant ;  but  even  his  marked  contempt  for  them  could  not 
teach  them  the  wisdom  of  preferring  a  native  ruler.  Jealousy 
and  party  spirit  were  still  stronger  than  patriotism  :  they  crowned 
as  their  king  foreigner  after  foreigner,  who  could  hardly  be  ex- 
pected to  have  much  feeling  for  the  national  honour :  and  under 
whose  careless  and  corrupt  rule  the  old  martial  renown  of  Poland 
withered  away,  and  some  of  her  fairest  provinces  were  severed 
from  her  dominion. 

As  we  have  seen  in  a  former  chapter,  for  a  moment  the  heroism 
of  Sobieski  and  his  enthronement  as  her  sovereign  recalled  the 
memory  of  the  fame  and  power  of  her  ancient  princes  of  Polish 
blood;  and  encouraged  the  hope  that,  under  the  sway  of  a  native 
prince,  she  might  recover  the  proud  position  which,  under  her 
foreign  kings,  she  had  lost.  But  the  deliverer  of  Vienna  was  not 
spared  long  enough  for  his  people  to  derive  any  permanent  ad- 
vantage from  his  valour  or  his  wisdom.  And  the  disputes  to 
which  the  election  of  his  successor  gave  rise  eventually  afibrded 
a  nation,  whose  prince  a  century  before  could  not  obtain  a  pre- 
ference even  over  the  worthless  Henry  of  Anjou,*  the  means  of 
making  itself  virtual  master  of  the  country.  We  have  seen 
how  for  some  years  the  decision  who  should  be  King  of  Poland 
depended  on  the  issue  of  the  war  between  Russia  and  Sweden : 

'  ATnonjx  the  candidates  to  whom  ferred  was  Ivan  Basilowitz,  eldest 
the  Duke  of  Anjou  had  been  pre-      son  of  the  Duke  of  Muscovy, 


A.D.  1761.]  DEATH  OF  KING  AUGUSTUS.  407 

how  Charles's  victories  placed  Stanislaus,  a  Pole,  on  the  throne 
from  which  he  had  just  expelled  Augustus  the  Saxon ;  and  how 
Stanislaus,  in  his  turn,  fled  before  the  conqueror  of  Pultava ;  and 
Augustus  recovered  his  kingdom.  The  death  of  Charles  for  ever 
freed  Augustus  from  the  danger  of  any  further  change  of  fortune : 
but  it  gave  both  him  and  the  country  which  had  chosen  him  for 
its  king  a  master  of  a  more  settled  purpose  and  more  iron  gra«p 
than  the  Swede ;  and  for  the  next  half  century  Poland  was  little 
better  than  a  province  of  the  rapidly  growing  liussian  empire. 

In  former  times,  the  investing  a  King  of  Poland  with  the  sove- 
reignty of  Hungary  or  Bohemia  was  a  great  addition,  not  only  to 
the  dignity,  but  to  the  power  of  the  Polish  nation ;  and  one  from 
which,  as  we  have  seen,  it  reaped  no  little  glory :  but,  in  the  last 
century,  the  placing  the  Polish  crown  on  the  head  of  the  Electors 
of  Saxony  was  a  practical  misfortune,  since  the  king,  being  a 
foreigner,  not  unnaturally  preferred  for  his  residence  his  native 
capital,  Dresden,  to  Warsaw  ;  and,  since  his  absence  from  Poland 
and  neglect  of  Polish  interests  and  Polish  feelings  fomented  and 
exasperated  the  factious  divisions  which  had  long  been  the  curse 
of  the  country,  and  gave  all  parties  sufficient  grounds  for  com- 
plaint. The  anarchy,  which  thus  grew  more  and  more  complete 
every  day,  suited  the  views  of  the  Russian  sovereigns ;  who  had 
certainly,  before  the  middle  of  the  centuiy,  begun  to  entertain  the 
idea  of  annexing  the  whole  country  to  their  own  dominions.  The 
plan  wag  not  viewed  with  equal  complacency  by  other  nations ;  but 
the  country  which  first  proposed  to  interfere  was  too  vacillating  in 
its  counsels  and  too  low  in  reputation  to  give  Russia  any  great 
alarm,  while  the  shape  which  her  interference  was  designed  to 
take  was  only  calculated  to  turn  the  existing  jealousies  and  divi- 
sions of  Poland  into  another  channel,  and  in  no  respect  to  allay, 
much  less  to  extinguish  them.  About  1754,  the  health  of 
Augustus  III.,  elector  of  Saxony  and  king  of  Poland,  was  known 
to  be  failing,  and  the  statesmen,  or  rather  the  courtiers  and  profli- 
gate women  who  at  that  time  swayed  the  counsels  of  France,  con- 
ceived the  idea  of  procuring  the  succession  once  more  for  a 
countryman  of  their  own,  the  Prince  of  Conti.  The  projectors  of 
that  scheme  were  too  capricious  to  persevere  in  it ;  but,  before  the 
death  of  Augustus,  which  did  not  take  place  till  1763,  a  change  in 
the  affkirs  of  Russia  had  taken  place,  which,  had  the  French 
ministers  been  ever  so  resolute  or  skilful,  would  have  probably 
been  sufficient  to  baffle  their  designs. 

We  have  seen,  in  a  former  chapter,  that  the  Empress  Elizabeth 
of  Russia  died  in  the  winter  of  1761.  She  was  succeeded  by  her 
nephew,  Peter  III. ;  a  prince  whose  education,  studiously  ne- 
glected, had  not  been  such  as  to  qualify  him  for  the  exercise  of 


408  MODERN   HISTORY.  [a.d.  1762. 

the  authority  which  had  now  descended  to  him,  and  who  was 
still  more  unfortunate  in  being  married  to  a  princess  of  great  capa- 
city and  energy,  but  stained  with  the  foulest  vices.  Her  contem- 
porary, Louis  of  France,  was  not  more  shamelessly  licentious  : 
Frederic  of  Prussia  was  not  more  ambitious :  and  no  sovereign  of 
any  country  was  ever  more  ruthless  in  trampling  down  every  con- 
sideration of  religion  or  humanity  which  might  interfere  with  the 
gratification  of  her  ambition.  No  princess  was  ever  more  elated 
at  succeeding  to  a  crown;  but  she  had  no  inclination  for  the 
nominal  dignity  of  an  empress-consort.  She  resolved  to  rule 
alone :  she  despised  her  husband,  to  whom  she  had  already  given 
numerous  rivals  ;  and,  from  the  first  moment  of  her  elevation,  she 
began  to  plot  his  destruction.  Amorous  and  munificent,  she 
found  no  difficulty  in  organising  a  conspiracy  against  him.  He 
had  been  Emperor  scarcely  six  months,  when  he  was  seized  and 
murdered ;  and  Catharine  was  saluted  by  the  army,  and  acknow- 
ledged by  the  nobles,  as  sole  Empress.  Another  deed  of  blood 
seemed  necessary  to  her  complete  security.  Ivan  III.,  a  child 
who  had  succeeded  to  the  throne  above  twenty  years  before,  and 
had  been  deposed  to  make  room  for  Elizabeth,  was  still  alive. 
She  despatched  assassins  to  murder  him  also.  And  having  thus 
removed  all  partners  and  all  rivals,  she  proceeded  to  govern  her 
vast  empire  w^ith  an  authority  which,  for  more  than  thirty  years, 
no  one  dared  to  question,  much  less  to  resist.  Not  even  when 
her  son  Paul,  who  was  eight  years  old  at  his  father's  death,  came 
of  age,  did  anyone  venture  to  raise  a  voice  in  support  of  his  claims 
to  the  crown ;  admiration  for  her  administrative  ability,  and  terror 
at  her  ferocity,  alike  contributing  to  make  the  nation,  not  yet  civi- 
lised enough  to  be  delicate,  acquiesce  in  the  supremacy  of  one  who 
was  a  disgrace  to  her  people  and  to  her  sex. 

It  was  not  likely  that  a  sovereign  so  arbitrary,  so  fearless,  and 
so  unscrupulous  would  be  inclined  to  allow  a  country  so  little  to 
be  feared  or  respected  as  France  had  now  become  to  pretend  to  an 
influence  in  the  affairs  of  Poland,  which  the  mere  distance  of  her 
frontier  must  have  prevented  her  from  exercising,  except  through 
the  complaisance  of  these  nearer  to  the  scene  of  action.  Accor- 
dingly, the  French  ambassador  had  no  sooner  begun  to  sound  her 
on  the  subject,  and  to  hint  at  the  projects  that  had  been  agitated 
in  his  own  country,  than  she  silenced  him  by  the  assertion,  that 
'  to  her  alone  it  belonged  to  give  a  king  to  Poland : '  a  declaration 
which  she  presently  followed  up  by  compelling  the  diet  to  elect 
Stanislaus  Poniatowski,  one  of  her  own  discarded  lovers;  but 
who,  as  a  native  Pole,  was  certainly  a  sovereign  whom  the  nation 
could  accept  with  less  dishonour  than  a  Saxon  or  a  Frenchman. 
Even  had  he  been  less  bound  to  her  by  his  previous  career, 


A.D.  1762.]    ALLIANCE  OF  RUSSIA  WITH  PRUSSIA.        409 

Stanislaus  would  have  been  for  her  a  fit  tool  with  which  to  work 
out  the  llussian  scheme  of  gradually  absorbing  Poland  into  her 
empire:  for,  though  humane,  amiable,  and  courteous,  he  was 
utterly  devoid  of  foresight  or  firmness.  But  though  she  had  no 
opposition  to  fear  from  her  enemies,  nor  from  the  ruler  of  the 
country  itself,  she  soon  learnt  that  she  had  an  ally  who,  though 
by  no  means  unwilling  to  see  Poland  crippled  or  extinguished, 
would  expect  a  share  of  the  plunder.  Elizabeth,  as  we  have  seen, 
had  united  her  forces  to  those  of  Austria  in  the  Seven  Years' 
War,  and  her  army  had  borne  its  share  in  the  most  splendid  of  its 
victories.  But  her  nephew  Peter  had,  on  the  contrary,  conceived 
an  enthusiastic  admiration  for  the  Prussian  monarch  ;  and  in  the 
very  first  month  after  his  accession,  before  his  wife  had  time  to 
plot  against  him,  had  broken  off  the  alliance  with  the  empress- 
queen,  and,  by  ostentatious  courtesies,  had  laboured  to  ingratiate 
himself  with  Frederic.  Catharine  had  no  personal  admiration  for 
a  man  who  prided  himself  on  being  a  woman-hater,  and  who  was 
above  fifty  years  old ;  but  she  adopted  her  husband's  policy  towards 
him ;  and,  though  no  formal  treaty  of  alliance  was  signed,  it  soon 
came  to  be  understood  that  the  two  potentates  had  established  a 
cordial  understanding. 

The  precise  details  and  immediate  causes  of  the  events  that 
followed  neither  the  most  careful  research  nor  the  most  penetrat- 
ing sagacity  of  historians  of  many  countries  can  enable  us  to  relate 
with  both  fulness  and  certainty.  The  actors  themselves  were  so 
ashamed  of  the  transaction,  that  each  endeavoured  to  represent  his 
accomplices  as  the  chief  movers  in,  or  the  original  proposers  of, 
what  was  done.  But  if  ever  there  was  a  case  in  which  general  belief 
may  be  accepted  in  the  place  of  distinct  evidence,  it  is  the  parti- 
tion of  Poland  which  was  the  first  fruits  of  this  new  friendship 
between  nations  which  had  lately  been  such  deadly  enemies. 
Catharine  and  Frederic  were  not  long  in  discerning  each  other's 
views  with  respect  to  Poland ;  now  weaker  and  more  distracted, 
because  her  ruler  was  more  inextricably  committed  to  obedience 
to  a  foreign  niaster  than  at  any  former  time.  Catharine  did  not 
conceal  from  Frederic's  ministers  any  more  than  she  had  concealed 
from  those  of  Louis,  her  desire  to  become  mistress  of  Poland. 
And  he  was  equally  resolved  not  .to  allow  Poland  to  be  crushed, 
and  Russia  to  be  aggrandised  by  her  subjection,  without  obtaining 
some  corresponding  advantage  for  himself  and  his  dominions.  In 
fact,  there  was  a  portion  of  Poland  which,  as  it  would  complete  his 
possession  of  the  country  properly  called  Prussia,  and  would  give 
him  access  to  the  Baltic,  was  coveted  by  him  with  far  greater  eager- 
ness than  any  particular  district  was  desired  by  Catharine.  And  it 
seemed  to  him  that  it  ought  not  to  be  diflicult  to  convince  her 
19 


410  MODERN  HISTOKY.  [a.d.  1G04. 

that  the  course  most  permanently  advanta<^eous  to  her  would  bo 
the  incorporation  with  her  own  dominions  of  tho.«e  Polish  pro- 
vinces which  lay  nearest  to  her  frontier.  The  mere  establishment 
of  an  influence,  which,  however  predominant,  could  have  no  formal 
recognition,  was  evidently  liable  to  be  impaired  at  any  time,  since 
its  maintenance  must  depend  partly  on  the  character  of  the  Polish 
sovereign,  (and  future  kings  might  not  be  as  compliant  as  Stanis- 
laus) and  partly  on  the  acquiescence  or  submission  of  other  states. 
A  partition  of  the  Polish  provinces  was  no  new  idea:  above  a 
century  before,  in  the  time  of  the  Great  Elector  of  Brandenburgh, 
the  Swedish  ambassador,  Count  Stippenbach,  had  proposed  to 
that  prince  that  he,  the  Emperor,  and  his  own  master  the  King  of 
Sweden  should  divide  the  whole  country  between  them.  But  the 
mutual  jealousies  of  the  three  potentates,  and  a  fear  of  giving 
France  a  pretext  for  interfering  in  the  affairs  of  the  east  of  Europe, 
prevented  the  adoption  of  such  a  scheme  at  that  time.  It  was 
revived  in  a  more  modified  form  by  the  King  of  Poland  himself, 
Augustus  IL,  who,  alarmed  at  seeing  the  competition  between 
himself  and  Stanislaus  Leczinski  converted  into  a  subject  of  quarrel 
between  Charles  XII.  and  Peter,  and,  fearing  not  unreasonably 
that,  like  the  earthen  pot  in  the  fable,  he  himself  might  be  crushed 
in  the  collision  between  such  powerful  enemies,  was  willing  to 
sacrifice  one  half  of  his  kingdom  and  allow  it  to  be  divided  be- 
tween them,  if  they  in  return  would  add  the  other  half  to  Saxony 
as  the  perpetual  inheritance  of  his  family.  The  animosity,  how- 
ever, between  Sweden  and  Kussia  then  was  a  still  more  insur- 
mountable obstacle  to  the  reception  of  his  proposal  than  the 
jealousies  which  had  bafiied  Stippenbach  fifty  years  before,  and 
Poland  was  still  left  entire.  But  the  recollection  of  these  old 
projects  had  imdoubtedly  prepared  the  minds  of  all  the  statesmen 
in  the  North  for  the  consideration  of  some  similar  plan  whenever 
it  should  appear  practicable  :  while  the  extent  to  which  it  occu- 
pied their  minds  increases  the  difficulty  of  pronouncing  with  cer- 
tainty, who,  in  1770,  first  put  the  proposal  into  words.  The  Em- 
peror Francis  died  in  1764,  and  was  succeeded  on  the  throne  of 
Germany  by  his  son  .Toseph,  who  had  long  entertained  a  personal 
admiration  for  Frederic,  which  outweighed  his  sense  of  the  injuries 
which  his  mother  and  his  kingdom  had  suffered  from  the  Prussian 
king's  unprovoked  hostility.  In  1760  he  paid  Frederic  a  visit  at 
Neiss,  which  Frederic  returned  a  few  months  afterwards,  and  the 
state  of  Poland  was  one  of  the  subjects  discussed  at  these  inter- 
views. Five  years  later  Frederic's  brother,  Prince  Henry,  visited 
Catharine  :  and  in  their  conversations  the  design  of  stripping 
Poland  of  a  third  part  of  her  territory  began  to  take  a  more  de- 
finite shape.     But  both  empress  and  prince  feared  the  interposition 


A.D.  1772.]  PAETITION  OF  POLAND.  411 

of  Austria,  as  I'er  husband's  death  had  deprived  Maria  Teresa  of 
no  part  of  her  leal  authority,  and  it  did  not  seem  impossible  that 
she  might  be  inclined  to  renew  her  alliance  with  France  to  pre- 
vent the  aggrandisement  of  neighbours,  both  of  whom  she  bad  far 
more  reason  to  fear  than  to  trust.^ 

Unhappily  for  the  fame   of    the  Empress-queen  just  at  tbat 
moment  she  had  listened  to  the  suggestions  of  her  minister  Kaunitz 
to  advance   pretensions  to  some  rdish  districts,  known  as  the 
Lordships  of  Zips,  to  which  her  claim  was  not  unlike  that  which 
Fiederic  thirty  years  before  had  advanced  to  Silesia.    Zips  had 
at  one  time  belonged  to  the  kingdom  of  Hungary ;  but  at  least 
three  hundred  years  before  had  been  mortgaged  or  sold  to  the 
King  of  Poland,  without  any  attempt  having  since  been  made 
to  reclaim  it.     But  Poland  now  had  a  weak  king:   her  people 
were  more  than  usually  divided  by  religious  dissensions ;  some  of 
her  southern  provinces  were  suffering  from  a  pestilence  of  great 
severity ;  when  Maria  Teresa  not  only  demanded  the  cession   of 
the  Lordships,  but  at  the  same  moment  poured  her  armies  over 
the  district,  and  showed  a  resolution  to  permit  neither  resistance 
nor  interference  to  deliver  from  her  grasp  what  she  had  thus  ac- 
quired.   The  confederates  in  the  North  saw  at  once  that  such  an  act 
of  open  aggression  disabled  her  from  opposing  the  designs  which 
they  by  this  time  had  completed.     It  was   rather  the  greatest 
possible  encouragement  to  them,  proving,  as  it  did,  how  easily 
such  a  spoliation  could  be  effected:  so  that,  as  Catharine  re- 
marked, '  Poland  seemed  a  country  where  one  had  only  to  stoop 
to  pick  up  whatever  was  needed ; '  and  in  this  view  they  now 
proposed  to  the  Austrian  ministers  to  join  in  the  act  on  which  they 
had  determined,  and  to  share  the  spoil.     After  a  decent  pretence 
of  coyness,  the  proposal  was  accepted.     In  the  beginning  of  1772 
a  treaty  was   formally  concluded,  which   divided   one-third   of 
Poland  between  the  three  allies;  specifying  with  precision  the 
share  which  was  to  be  assigned  to  each  power.     Frederic  s  portion 
was  the  smallest  both  in  extent  and  population.     It  was  West 
Prussia  and  Pomerelia,   with   the   exception   of  the   seaport  of 
Dantzic  and  the  inland  fortress  of  Thorn.     Kussia  was  to  have 
Polish  Livonia  and  the  rich  provinces  to  the  east  of  the  Dwina ; 
the  acquisitions  of  Austria,  though  less  extensive  than  those  of 
Russia,  in  population  exceeded  those  of  both  her  allies  united ; 
And  were  of  sufficient  importance  to  receive  a  new  name  as  the 
kingdom  of  Gallicia.     And,  in  the  autumn  of  the  same  year,  the 
three  Powers,  with  an  audacity  so  monstrous  as  to  be  almost 
comical,  not  only  announced  to  the  Poles  the  resolution  which  they 
bad  adopted,  in  a  manifesto  in  which  the  injuries  which  Poland 

^  See  note  in  Coxe,  v.  201. 


412  MODEKN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1772. 

had  in  bygone  days  inflicted  on  the  countries  of  her  spoilers,  and 
their  consequent  right  to  recover  what  had  been  wrongfully 
wrested  from  them,  were  oddly  combined  with  an  enumeration  of 
the  advantages  which  Poland  herself  was  to  derive  from  the  pro- 
posed measure  as  one  which  would  give  her  a  more  natural  and  sure 
boundary  than  she  had  enjoyed  before ;  and  which  required  Poland 
herself  to  sanction  her  own  mutilation  by  a  formal  vote  of  her 
own  diet. 

For  a  moment  it  seemed  as  if  so  arrogant  a  demand  had  re- 
stored union  to  the  national  councils.  Stanislaus  himself,  with  a 
spirit  hardly  to  be  expected  from  a  minion  of  Catharine,  drew  up  an 
indignant  and  well-argued  protest  against  the  spoliation ;  appealing 
to  the  other  sovereigns  of  Christendom  for  support,  and  at  first 
evinced  a  resolution  to  refuse  to  convoke  a  diet,  or  to  take  any 
step  which  could  imply  any  co-operation  on  his  part  in  the  dis- 
memberment of  his  kingdom.  But  he  soon  learnt  that  no  aid  was 
to  be  expected  from  foreign  princes ;  and  it  was  too  plain  that 
Poland  unsupported  could  not  for  a  moment  resist  the  mighty 
league  which  was  thus  formed  against  her.  Nor  were  the  con- 
federates inclined  to  allow  him  the  briefest  respite.  Treating  his 
delay  in  obeying  their  summons  to  convoke  the  diet  as  a  contuma- 
cious insult,  they  at  once  poured  troops  into  the  country,  and  a 
combined  force  of  30,000  men  marched  upon  Warsaw  to  compel 
an  instant  assemblage  of  the  diet,  and  to  overawe  it  when  it  should 
be  assembled.  Even  when  the  king  had  consented  to  convoke 
the  diet,  the  three  sovereigns  took  not  the  least  trouble  to  disguise 
the  constraint  under  which  it  was  to  sit,  or  the  fact  that  it  was 
summoned  not  to  deliberate,  but  to  submit.  They  interfered  with 
the  elections  :  they  introduced  a  new  regulation  that  unanimity  in 
its  resolutions  should  not  be  necessary,  but  that  the  voice  of  the 
majority  should  be  conclusive.  And,  while  they  openly  bribed 
all  the  members  who  were  willing  to  be  corrupted,  they  spared  no 
means  to  terrify  those  who  were  of  a  higher  spirit,  quartering  large 
bodies  of  troops  upon  them,  and  threatening  some  of  the  most  in- 
fluential with  confiscation  of  their  property.  Yet  all  their  exer- 
tions could  only  obtain  a  bare  majority.  After  nearly  six  months 
of  discussion,  but  fifty-two  members  yielded  to  foreign  gold  and 
toreign  menaces,  while  fifty  members  still  refused  their  sanction 
to  the  dismemberment  of  their  country.  But  scanty  as  the 
majority  was,  it  was  sufficient  for  those  who  hfid  already  made 
themselves  masters  of  the  spoil.  And,  though  many  of  those  who 
had  voted  in  the  minority  still  formally  protested  against  what  had 
been  done,  the  partitioners  could  afford  to  disregard  their  de- 
nunciations, 'the  last  pangs  and  convulsions  of  expiring  libert}',' as 
Burke  ^  has  called  them,  since  the  vehemence  of  their  complaints 

'  Annual  Register,  1773,  p.  40. 


A.D.  1773.]  DEATH  OF  FKEDERIC  II.  413 

only  made  it  more  manifest  that  no  foreign  power,  neither  Eng- 
land, nor  France,  nor  Sweden,  nor  Holland,  could  be  induced  to 
interpose. 

The  certainty  of  such  indifference  on  the  part  of  all  not  imme- 
diately interested,  and  the  ease  and  impunity  with  which  the 
spoliation  had  been  perpetrated,  were  alone  sulficient  to  ensure  a 
repetition  of  it.  For  enough  had  been  left  to  Poland  on  this  occa- 
sion to  render  her  still  a  tempting  object  of  plunder.  She  had 
still  seaports ;  she  had  still  provinces  of  great  richness  and  fer- 
tility ;  and  she  had  still  ten  millions  of  people :  and  there  can  be 
little  doubt  that,  from  the  very  moment  that  Stanislaus  had  signed 
the  treaty  which  deprived  him  of  one-third  of  his  dominions,  those 
who  had  taken  it  began  to  contemplate  the  time  when  they  should 
appropriate  the  rest.  They  had,  indeed,  gone  through  the  form  of 
framing  a  new  constitution  for  what  was  left  of  Poland,  which, 
however,  retained  most  of  the  vices  of  the  old  one  ;  and  which,  in 
the  eyes  of  all  Europe,  only  served  to  convict  them  of  shame- 
less duplicity,  in  formally  guaranteeing  a  system  which  they  did 
not  for  a  moment  intend  to  endure  ;  and,  in  less  than  twenty  years, 
without  a  single  subject  of  complaint  having  been  afforded  by 
Poland  herself,  whose  only  fault  was  that  she  had  latterly  greatly 
advanced,  not  only  in  wealth,  but  in  political  wisdom,  and  was 
showing  a  disposition  to  renounce  the  old  principles  and  customs 
which  had  formerly  proved  so  dangerous  to  her  tranquillity,  Russia 
and  Prussia  unblushingly  undid  their  own  work,  broke  down  the 
constitution  which  they  had  guaranteed,  and  seized  the  whole 
country. 

The  chief  agents  in  the  second  spoliation  were  no  longer  the 
same.  Frederic  had  died  in  1780,  having,  in  the  twenty-three 
years  which  had  passed  over  his  head  since  the  close  of  the  Seven 
Years'  War,  done  much  to  build  himself  up  a  purer  fame  than  _^ 
could  be  earned  by  military  skill  or  warlike  triumphs,  even  had  -f^^^Jl^  - 
his  successes  been  far  less  chequered  than,  as  we  have  seen,  they 
had  been.  Except  on  the  subject  of  his  own  literary  talents,  and  /3e.-«-«-w 
of  religion,  he  was,  for  a  king,  unusually  open  to  conviction  ;  he 
was  well  aware  how  fearfully  every  part  of  his  kingdom  had 
suffered;  and,  during  the  latter  years  of  his  reign,  he  laboured 
unremittingly,  and  for  the  most  part  with  excellent  judgment,  to 
heal  the  wounds  which  his  wars  had  inflicted  on  her.  By  im- 
proving the  internal  communications  of  the  country,  by  opening 
roads  and  cutting  canals,  he  encouraged  the  growth  of  her  home 
trade  ;  he  established  manufactures  in  all  the  principal  towns,  in 
many  of  which  articles  were  fabricated  that  had  hitherto  been  un- 
known in  Prussia  as  native  productions.  He  instituted  banks, 
which  for  a  time  he  aided  with  the  capital  and  security  of  the 


414  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1773. 

Btate  :  he  also  induced  numbers  of  English  farmers  to  settle  in  his 
dominions,  in  the  hope  of  teaching  his  subjects  a  more  skilful 
system  of  agriculture :  and  in  these  wise  improvements  no  part  of 
his  kingdom  participated  more  than  his  Polish  provinces.  His 
ruling  passion,  indeed,  still  betrayed  itself  by  the  assiduity  with 
which,  above  all  other  objects,  he  laboured  at  the  augmentation 
and  organisation  of  his  army ;  and,  more  laudably,  by  the  care  he 
took  of  his  disabled  veterans,  and  by  the  noble  military  hospital 
which  he  founded  at  Berlin,  in  imitation  of  our  own  institution  at 
Chelsea,  with  the  inscription,  not  more  honorable  than  true, 
*  Laeso  sed  invicto  militi.'  * 

The  education  of  the  people  was  also  a  subject  in  which  he  took 
an  unceasing  interest ;  founding  schools  and  colleges  in  most  of 
the  provinces ;  though  he  retained  his  own  strange  indifference  to 
the  national  language  to  the  end  of  his  life,  never  acquiring  suffi- 
cient familiarity  with  it  to  read  the  works  of  the  great  German 
authors,  his  contemporaries,  of  Klopstock,  Lessing,  Wieland,  and 
their  fellow-labourers,  who  were  already  vindicating  the  claims  of 
Germany  to  an  honorable  place  in  the  literature  of  nations.  His 
personal  favour  and  friendship  was  still  confined  to  the  French, 
and  unhappily  to  the  most  infidel  writers  of  that  country  For, 
painful  as  it  is  to  say  so  of  a  man  so  highly  gifted,  and  in  many 
respects  so  anxious  for  the  welfare  of  his  prople,  his  antipathy  to 
religion  grew  stronger,  or  at  least  more  ostentatious,  every  day. 
The  Prince  de  Ligne,  who  was  in  attendance  on  the  Emperor 
Joseph  during  Frederic's  visit  to  him  at  Neustadt,  in  spite  of  all  his 
admiration  for  the  king,  as  *  one  of  the  greatest  men  of  the  age,' 
could  not  help  remarking  that  he  overdid  his  parade  of  exultation 
.it  ^  being  doomed  to  everlasting  fire.'  '  Not  to  hint  at  the  dis- 
honesty of  the  freethinking  gentlemen,*  who  are  very  often 
thoroughly  afraid  of  the  devil,'  it  struck  the  prince  as  *  at  least 
bad  taste,'  to  boast,  as  he  did,  of  his  disbelief  in  a  life  to  come, 
and  of  the  certainty  of  his  own  damnation,  if  there  were  such  a 
being  as  a  Supreme  Judge.  Though  so  entirely  did  his  ardour  in 
the  cause  of  education  overpower  his  antipathy  to  religion,  that 
when  Clement  XIV.,  in  1773,  suppressed  the  Order  of  Jesuits 
altogether,  he  gave  them  an  asylum  in  Prussia,  because  he  looked 
on  them  as  peculiarly  skilful  in  tuition. 

In  his  later  years  he  was  extremely  popular  among  his  subjects, 
mingling  freely  and  affiibly  with  all  classes,  and  encouraging  them 
to  seek  access  to  him  on  all  occasions.  And  his  memory  was 
naturally  revered,  and  his  example  followed,  by  his  nephew,  who 

^  *For  the  disabled  but  uncon-  ter  of  the  Prince  de  Ligne  to 
quered  soldier.'  Stanislaus,   dated    1785.  —  Memoires 

'  *  Messieurs  les  esprits  forts.'  Let-      ec  Melanges  historiques,  i.  3. 


A.D.  1787.]  CHAEACTER  OF  SOUVAROF.  415 

succeeded  him,  Frederic  III.,  to  whom  he  bequeathed  a  kingdom 
whose  extent  he  had  doubled,  whose  revenues  he  had  trebled  ;  a 
treasury  in  which  he  had  accumulated  a  large  fund  for  future 
emergencies  ;  and  an  array  of  200,000  men,  inferior  to  no  force  in 
Europe  in  discipline,  efficiency,  and  reputation.  If  he  can  in  no 
respect  be  regarded  as  a  good  man,  it  is  not  easy,  looking  at  him 
in  his  public  capacity  alone,  as  warrior  and  statesman,  to  deny 
that  he  was  a  great  king. 

Unfortunately,  together  with  his  military  and  financial  re- 
sources, he  had  bequeathed  to  his  successor  his  grasping  ambition 
and  unscrupulous  spirit  of  aggression,  while,  if  the  military  skill 
which  had  guided  the  Prussian  armies  seemed  for  a  time  to  have 
departed  with  himself,  the  want,  in  the  next  and  more  deadly 
attack  upon  Poland,  was  supplied  by  Russia,  whose  good  fortune 
found  the  greatest  soldier  whom  as  yet  she  had  ever  produced, 
Souvarof,  in  her  ranks  at  the  very  moment  when  she  had  the 
most  urgent  need  of  military  capacity  in  her  generals  that  had 
ever  pressed  upon  her  since  the  time  of  the  great  Peter  Souvarof 
was  old  enough  to  have  won  distinction  as  a  field  officer  in  the 
Seven  Years'  War ;  but  after  the  accession  of  Catharine,  promo- 
tion was  slow  in  the  Russian  army  for  any  officer  who  was  not 
recommended  by  beauty  of  person,  and  Souvarofs  ugliness  of 
features  was  remarkable  even  for  one  of  his  countrymen ;  so  that 
he  was  more  than  forty  before  he  was  promoted  to  the  rank  of 
general.  Nor  was  it  till  1787,  when  he  was  nearly  sixty  years  of 
age,  that,  on  the  occasion  of  the  Turks  declaring  war  against  his 
mistress  and  the  Emperor,  he  received  the  command-in-chief  of  an 
army.  Such  a  post  was  never  entrusted  to  a  stranger  commander. 
He  aflfected  the  character  of  a  jester,  alike  with  the  Empress,  to 
whom  he  wrote  important  despatches  in  doggrel  rhyme,^  and  with 
the  common  soldiers,  whom  he  would  drill  in  person,  stripped 
to  his  shirt,  and  himself  going  through  the  manual  exercise 
which  he  was  teaching  them,  varying  his  lessons  in  the  use  of 
the  bayonet  with  horseplay  and  rude  jokes,  and  even  allowing 
those  who  were  brave  and  skilful  to  pass  jests  upon  himself  j  a 
practice  of  which  men  in  authority,  however  jocose  themselves, 
are  not  always  tolerant.  He  at  once  showed  himself  equally 
skilful  in  the  conduct  of  sieges  and  of  battles  iu  the  open  field : 
since  the  great  day  of  Zenta,  no  heavier  blow  had  been  dealt  the 

1  When  he  took  Juterkai,  a  fortress  iu  Bulgaria,  he  reported  his  success  to 
the  Empress  in  four  lines  : 

Slava  Boga,  Glory  to  God, 

Slava  vam  :  Glory  to  you  : 

Juterkai  vzala,  Juterkai  is  taken, 

I  ya  tam.  I  am  there. 


416  MODEKN  HISTOKY.  [a.d.  1789. 

Turks  than  his  victory  on  the  Rimniks ;  where,  after  a  long  contest, 
100,000  Turks  fled  before  a  fifth  of  their  number  of  llussians  and 
Austrians,  a  triumph  of  which  the  credit  was  entirely  his  own;  for 
the  Austrian  division,  under  the  unskilful  Prince  of  Coburg-,  though 
more  numerous  than  that  of  the  Russians,  was  completely  beaten, 
and  was  only  saved  from  destruction  through  the  skilful  tactics  and 
fiery  intrepidity  by  which  at  last  Sou varof  changed  the  fortune  of  the 
day.  And  the  eighteenth  century,  fertile  as  it  had  been  in  examples 
of  blockades,  assaults,  and  storms,  beheld  no  more  brilliant  exploit 
of  the  kind  than  the  capture  of  the  great  Turkish  fortress  of  Ismail. 
As  the  key  of  the  Lower  Danube,  it  had  been  fortified  with  all  the 
devices  of  modern  art,  for  which  the  Turks  had  not  trusted  to  their 
own  ofiicers ;  but  had  sought  the  services  of  a  Spanish  engineer  of 
deserved  celebrity.  Two  thick  and  lofty  walls  surrounded  the  town, 
with  two  wide  and  deep  ditches,  into  which  the  waters  of  the 
Danube  could  be  admitted  in  a  few  moments,  so  as  to  render  them 
impassable :  the  ramparts  bristled  with  above  300  guns :  and  they 
were  garrisoned  by  more  than  30,000  men,  the  very  flower  of  the 
Sultan's  army.  A  powerful  squadron  was  stationed  in  the  river, 
which  was  commanded  for  some  miles  on  either  side  of  the  town 
by  well-placed  and  well-armed  batteries. 

Such  a  place  might  well  have  been  looked  upon  as  impregna- 
ble to  any  force  that  an  assailant  whose  resources  were  as  distant 
as  those  of  Russia  could  bring  against  it.  Yet,  with  one  inferior 
in  numbers  to  the  garrison,  Souvarof  took  it  in  less  than  a  week. 
Catharine's  latest  lover.  Prince  Potemkin,  had,  in  October  1790, 
assumed  the  supreme  command  of  all  the  forces  employed  against 
Turkey,  and  on  the  eleventh  of  December  he  sent  orders  to 
Souvorof ;  couched  in  terms  as  memorable  for  their  brevity  as 
for  their  sternness,  enjoying  him  to  take  Ismail  whatever  might 
be  the  cost.^  Before  Christmas  his  order  was  obeyed ;  Souvarof, 
hastened  to  the  Danube  with  30,000  men,  and  every  day  witnessed 
the  achievement  of  some  important  success.  One  day  the  Turkish 
squadron  was  overpowered  by  a  flotilla  of  boats  which  the  in- 
defatigable Russian  obtained  from  the  towns  higher  up  the 
Danube.  Another  day  the  batteries  on  the  banks  of  the  river 
were  taken  and  destroyed.  Having  thus  rendered  himself  master 
of  all  the  ground  surrounding  and  commanding  the  town,  Souvarof 
began,  in  his  turn,  to  construct  batteries,  and  furnaces  for  heating 
the  shot,  in  imitation  of  those  with  which  Eliott  had  so  recently 
defended  Gibraltar.     And,  on  the  twenty-second,  only  eight  days 

'  *La  lettre  du  prince  Potemkin  prendrez  Ismail  h  quel  prix  que    ce 

B^t  tres-courte.     Elle  peint  le  carac-  soit."  ' — Hist,  tie  la  Nouvelk-Itussiey 

tbre    des    deux    personnages.      La  p.  205. 
voici  dans  toute  sa  teneur :  "  Vans 


A.D.  1790.]  ISMAIL  IS  STORMED.  417 

after  he  had  come  in  sight  of  the  fortress,  he  prepared  for  the 
grand  attack.  His  orders  to  his  troops  were  as  concise  as  those 
which  he  had  himself  received  from  Potemkin ;  and  even  more 
undisguised  in  their  ferocity.  ^  My  brothers,'  with  this  name  or 
that  of  *  My  children/  it  was  his  habit  to  address  his  men,  '  My 
brothers,  no  quarter,  provisions  are  dear.'  Undoubtedly  they 
would  have  received  no  quarter  from  their  enemies,  but  the 
reasons  which  would  have  prompted  the  cruelty  of  the  Infidel 
were  less  sordid  than  those  with  which  this  Christian  chief  sought 
to  rouse  the  avarice  as  well  as  the  barbarity  of  his  followers.  They 
were  worthy  of  him  in  cruelty  as  well  as  in  audacity.  In  all 
operations  of  war,  his  main  reliance  was  on  celerity  of  movement, 
and  on  the  multiplication  of  his  attacks  in  every  quarter  at  the 
same  time.  And  now,  even  before  the  day  broke,  the  batteries 
began  to  pour  their  red-hot  shot  on  the  devoted  town.  There  had 
been  no  time  to  breach  the  walls ;  but  at  eight  different  points, 
where  either  some  slight  damage  had  been  done  by  the  previous 
cannonade,  or  where  from  some  other  cause  the  ramparts  seemed 
most  assailable,  eight  storming  parties  mounted  to  the  assault. 
Turks  have  always  fought  gallantly  behind  walls ;  and  on  this 
occasion  they  did  not  belie  their  character  for  stubborn  bravery. 
Assault  after  assault  was  repulsed.  So  great  was  the  slaughter  in 
the  Kussian  ranks  that  Souvarof  dismounted  some  regiments  of 
cavalry,  and  drove  hussars  and  dragoons  on  foot  to  the  charge. 
They,  too,  were  beaten  back  more  than  once ;  at  last,  almost  de- 
spairing of  success,  he  seized  a  standard,  and  in  person,  leading  on 
a  fresh  storming  party,  planted  the  flag  on  a  Turkish  battery. 
The  Turks  fell  back  in  dismay  before  such  heroic  intrepidity  :  his 
own  men,  encouraged  as  much  as  the  garrison  was  daunted,  rushed 
on  to  his  support  with  an  impetuosity  that  at  last  was  irresistible  ; 
and,  after  thirteen  hours  ofincessantfighting,whichhad  begun  hours 
before  the  sun  rose,  and  was  protracted  long  after  it  had  set,  the 
town  was  won.  It  was  a  splendid  exploit.  Had  it  been  adorned 
with  mercy  to  the  conquered,  it  might  have  vied  wdth  the  most 
brilliant  achievements  of  the  kind  that  the  annals  of  war  can 
show.  But  the  general's  fierce  edict  of  destruction  had  been  issued 
to  troops  as  merciless  as  himself:  and  the  Russian  regiments  now 
poured  into  the  streets  with  no  object  but  that  of  indiscriminate 
slaughter,  in  which  women  and  children  were  as  little  spared 
as  the  armed  and  blood-stained  soldier.  The  Turks  did  not  ask 
quarter.  Many  rushed  on  the  Russian  swords  or  bayonet',  looking 
on  instant  death  as  more  tolerable  than  submission  ;  many  of  less 
hardy  courage,  but  of  equal  despair,  plunged  into  the  Danube,  and 
were  unresistingly  overwhelmed  beneath  its  turbulent  wave?. 
In  the  assault  and  the    subsequent   massacre   not  fewer  than 


118  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1790. 

31,000  Turks  perished  :  they  did  not  fall  unavenged.  So  heavy 
had  been  the  loss  of  the  Russians  themselves  that  they  took  un- 
usual pains  to  conceal  its  magnitude.  But  it  gradually  became 
known  that  at  least  10,000  men,  one-third  of  the  besieging  army,  had 
also  fallen.  Heav}^  however,  as  this  loss  was,  it  neither  diminished 
the  exultation  with  which  the  capture  of  so  important  a  fortress  was 
received  by  the  Empress,  nor  the  reputation  which  it  gave  the 
victorious  general  throughout  Europe ;  and  when,  four  years  after- 
wards, he  was  placed  at  the  head  of  the  army  sent  to  act  against 
Poland,  it  was  at  once  taken  for  granted  that  his  presence  in  com- 
mand was  sufficient  to  make  resistance  hopeless,  even  had  his 
force  not  been,  as  it  was,  overwhelming  in  number. 

It  was  not  without  considerable  cessions  that  Turkey  could 
obtain  peace,  which  was  finally  concluded,  at  Jassy,  in  the  first 
month  of  17^2.  But  the  war  was  as  unfortunate  for  Poland  as 
for  the  Porte,  since  the  knowledge  of  the  Russian  armies  being  so 
fully  engaged  in  the  south,  and  the  belief  that  the  war  would  be 
a  long  one,  emboldened  the  Polish  statesmen,  and  for  almost  the 
first  time  in  her  history  Poland  had  men  worthy  of  the  name, 
to  adopt  a  domestic  policy  and  measures  of  reform,  which  Catharine 
made  a  pretext  for  a  fresh  attack  upon  the  country,  that  ended  in 
its  extinction  as  an  independent  state. 

Whichever  power  was  the  proposer  of  the  original  partition,  it 
is  beyond  a  doubt  that  the  second,  which  indeed  was  not  a  parti- 
tion, but  a  complete  destruction,  was  the  work  of  Russia.  Prussia 
was,  indeed,  a  willing  accomplice  ;  and  on  this  occasion,  gave  the 
first  instance  of  that  treachery  which,  in  after  years,  tainted  her 
grasping  policy  with  a  still  deeper  disgrace ;  concluding,  as  late 
as  the  spring  of  1790,  a  formal  treaty  with  Poland,  by  which  she 
bound  herself  to  come  to  her  assistance  if  any  ^  other  Power  should 
claim  a  right  of  interfering  in  her  internal  affairs,'  and  still  more, 
'  if  hostilities  should  ensue ; '  and,  at  the  very  moment  that  the 
treaty  was  signed,  making  arrangements  to  induce  the  Poles  to 
cede  to  her  Dantzic  and  Thurn ;  and  to  seize  upon  them  by  force 
should  Stanislaus  refuse  to  strip  his  kingdom  of  cities  of  such 
importance.  But  in  the  first  steps  which  were  taken  Austria  bore 
no  part.  Maria  Teresa  had  died  in  1780,  leaving  behind  her  a 
character  for  energetic  patriotism  and  enlightened  humanity,  on 
which  her  share  in  the  lirst  dismemberment  of  Poland  is  the  only 
stain.  Ten  years  afterwards  she  was  followed  to  the  grave  by  her 
eldest  son,  the  Emperor  Joseph,  whose  blind  reverence  for  the 
exploits  of  Frederic  had  probably  had  no  small  share  in  wringing 
from  her  her  consent  to  that  spoliation.  And  his  successor,  his 
brother  Leopold  II.,  made  the  establishment  and  maintenance  of 
peace  the  keystone  of  his  policy,  and  was  therefore  unalterably 


A.D.  1791.]  EP:F0KMS  in  POLAND.  419 

averse  to  provoking  an  unnecessary  war  by  wanton  attacks  od 
others. 

But  ever  since  1772  the  policy  of  Russia  had  been  steadily 
directed  to  the  object  of  extending  her  encroachments  in  Poland. 
By  incessant  intrigues,  she  had  established  an  ascendency  in  the 
state  council ;  and  she  kept  a  large  force  on  the  borders  which  did 
not  always  confine  itself  within  its  own  territories.  No  Pole 
could  be  blind  to  her  designs;  but  it  was  a  common  belief  that  the 
overthrow  of  the  Sultan  and  the  conquest  of  Constantinople  were 
objects  still  more  desired  by  her  than  the  conquest  of  Poland : 
and,  as  has  just  been  mentioned,  in  the  autumn  of  1790,  the  Polish 
nobles  themselves,  thinking  that  the  concentration  of  her  efforts 
on  the  Danube  afforded  them  an  opportunity  for  free  action,  which 
might  not  occur  again,  undertook  the  noble  task  of  reforming 
their  constitution  :  the  leaders  were  in  earnest ;  they  saw  the 
necessity  of  union  and  promptitude ;  but  there  was  so  little  pre- 
cipitation in  their  rapidity  that  the  new  constitution,  which  was 
proclaimed  at  Warsaw  on  the  third  of  May  1791,  left  little  to  be 
desired  by  a  people  who  appreciated  above  all  things  their  own 
freedom  and  iudependence,  and  who  had  no  ambition  to  combine 
with  these  blessings  anything  that  could  be  accounted  dangerous 
or  offensive  by  its  neighbours.  The  crown  was  made  hereditary  ; 
the  liberum  veto  was  abolished :  the  state  council,  as  a  body, 
whose  existence  was  a  mere  temptation  to  foreign  intrigues,  was 
suppressed,  but  a  free  representation  of  the  people  was  substituted 
for  it;  and  judicious  arrangements  for  a  gradual  extinction  of 
serfdom  were  set  on  foot.  It  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  at  that 
time  in  no  other  country  of  Europe  but  our  own  had  a  constitution 
been  established  which  contained  so  great  a  promise  of  good  govern- 
ment. It  gave  Poland  tranquillity ;  and  if  tranquil,  she  was  still 
sufficiently  powerful  to  have  the  means  of  prosperity  within  herself. 

But  that  she  should  be  tranquil,  prosperous,  and  powerful,  was 
the  very  last  thing  which  Russia  desired.  On  the  contrary,  she  had 
found  and  meant  to  find  in  the  factions  and  divisions  of  the  countiy 
a  pretext  for  her  constant  interference,  and  the  eventual  establish- 
ment of  her  own  authority ;  and,  even  before  she  had  terminated 
her  warfare  with  the  Porte,  she  showed  her  intention  of  treating 
the  new  Polish  constitution  as  an  insult  to  herself.  Nor  was 
faction  so  dead  in  the  country  but  that  some  traitors  to  its  best 
interests  could  be  found  willing  to  supply  her  with  a  pretext  for 
once  more  interposing  in  its  affairs.  A  small  band  still  attached 
to  the  principles  of  elective  monarchy  and  the  veto,  in  the  spring 
of  1792,  formed  a  confederation  to  protest  against  their  abolition ; 
and  appealed  to  Catharine,  as  the  protectress  of  the  old  constitution. 
She  gladly  received  the  appeal,  which  she  had  probably  dictated  j 


420  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1791. 

and  aniiounced,  in  reply,  that  she  would  instantly  march  an  army 
into  Poland,  to  restore  its  liberties ;  while  the  King  of  Prussia,  though 
a  year  before  he  had  openly  expressed  hia  warm  approval  of  the 
act  of  1791,  now  did  not  scruple  to  affirm  that  it  was  a  revolution 
80  complete  and  mischievous  as  of  itself  to  release  him  from  the 
treaty  with  Stanislaus  which  he  had  so  recently  concluded.  The 
rapidity  with  which  the  Ilussians  commenced  operations,  and  the 
scale  on  which  they  were  conducted,  sufficiently  showed  the 
concert  that  had  existed  between  Catharine  and  the  malcontent 
nobles  before  they  appealed  to  her.  The  existence  of  the  con- 
federation was  only  announced  on  the  twelfth  of  May,  but  before 
the  end  of  the  month  100,000  Kussians  entered  Poland:  and 
Stanislaus,  bewildered  by  the  magnitude  of  the  danger,  disbanded 
his  army,  and  threw  himself  on  Catharine's  mercy,  seeking  to 
propitiate  her  by  a  proposal  to  appoint,  as  his  successor,  one  of  her 
grandsons,  the  archduke  Constaotine,  a  boy  as  yet  .only  thirteen 
years  of  age.  The  mercy  which  he  obtained  consisted  in  a 
seizure  of  half  of  his  remaining  dominions,  which  were  instantly 
divided  between  Russia  and  Prussia :  the  more  extensive  provinces 
being  appropriated  by  the  Empress ;  but  those  which  were  com- 
mercially more  valuable,  as  including  the  port  of  IJantzic  and  a 
long  strip  of  the  shore  of  the  Baltic,  being  given  to  Prussia.  Less 
than  four  millions  of  subjects  were  now  left  to  Stanislaus;  and 
though  he  could  hardly  flatter  himself  that  this  remnant  of  the 
people  would  long  be  allowed  to  retain  their  independence,  he 
seems  to  have  hoped  to  avert  any  farther  blow  from-  his  own 
head,  and  in  1793  convoked  a  diet  at  Grodno,  professedly  to  ratify 
the  cession  of  two-thirds  of  his  remaining  dominions. 

He  himself  was  intimidated,  but  those  Poles  who  were  worthy 
of  the  name  were  not  so  easily  beaten  down.  Even  though  the 
diet  was  carefully  packed,  the  chief  framers  and  champions  of  the 
constitution  of  1791  being  rigorously  excluded;  though  Grodno 
was  surrounded  by  Russian  bayonets;  and  though  the  Russian 
envoy  did  not  spare  the  king  himself  the  most  sweeping  threats, 
but  announced  his  orders  to  seize  even  the  royal  domains  if  the  diet 
demurred  at  executing  the  Empress's  will  without  delay,  it  was  not 
till  the  close  of  the  year  that  he  was  able  to  obtain  the  vote  which 
he  required  from  a  scanty  majority;  and,  while  the  diet  was  thus 
gaining  time,  others  of  Poland's  sons  were  organising  a  resistance 
which,  as  they  hoped,  should  soon  nullify  the  legislation  of  terror. 

General  Thaddeus  Kosciusko,  a  noble  Lithuanian,  in  the  prime 
of  life,  had  learned  the  theory  of  war  in  France,  under  that  most 
eccentric  of  all  war  ministers,  the  Count  of  St.-Germains ;  he  had 
acquired  a  practical  experience  of  its  duties  in  America,  where  he 
had  served  as  a  volunteer  in  the  army  with  which  Washington 


A.D.  1794.]      PEEVIOUS   CAREEPt  OF  KOSCIUSKO.  421 

taught  our  own  genemls  the  difference  between  carrying  on  war 
in  the  soldiers'  own  country  and  waging  it  three  thousand  miles 
from  their  supplies  and  reinforcements;  and,  having  returned  to 
his  own  country,  after  the  peace  of  Versailles,  with  a  mind  well 
stored  with  military  science ;  a  heart  deeply  imbued  with  those 
principles  of  liberty  and  independence,  of  which  he  had  witnessed 
the  triumph  in  another  hemisphere;  a  courage  proof  against 
dangers ;  and  a  patriotic  firmness  invincible  alike  to  threats  and 
temptations,  he  had  eagerly  taken  arms  for  his  country  in  the 
brief  campaign  of  1792 ;  and,  as  the  commander  of  a  small  force  of 
4,000  men,  had  distinguished  himself  in  several  actions :  on  one 
occasion  keeping  at  bay  a  force  more  than  three  times  as  numerous 
as  his  own,  throughout  an  entire  day,  and,  under  cover  of  the 
night,  withdrawing  them  with  comparatively  little  damage.  To 
him  the  eyes  of  those  who  had  resolved  to  make  one  more  effort 
to  save  their  country  naturally  turned  as  their  leader.  He  was  as 
zealous  in  the  cause  as  they ;  and  his  zeal  made  him  even  believe 
in  the  possibility  of  success.  At  the  beginning  of  March  1794  he 
raised  the  standard  of  war  at  Cracow,  and  at  once  took  the  field, 
though  he  could  not  number  above  5,000  followers,  and  many  of 
them  had  neither  the  equipment  nor  the  training  of  soldiers,  but 
were  rudely  armed  with  scythes,  hatchets,  and  other  rustic 
weapons.  Fortunately,  however,  as  it  seemed  at  first,  the  only 
Russian  force  at  hand  was  still  weaker,  being  a  mere  brigade  of 
3,000  men,  whom  he  attacked  and  defeated  with  great  slaughter, 
at  Wraslawice ;  and  this  trivial  success  not  only  furnished  his  men 
with  arms,  but  roused  the  enthusiasm  of  the  whole  people  to  such 
a  degree  that  province  now  vied  with  province  in  the  eagerness  with 
which  it  proclaimed  its  resolution  to  expel  the  intruding  spoilers 
from  the  country.  At  first  Warsaw,  the  capital,  had  been  kept  down 
by  the  influence  of  the  nobles  in  Catharine's  interest,  and  of  the  king 
himself.  But,  the  moment  that  the  intelligence  of  Kosciusko's 
victory  reached  them,  the  citizens  could  no  longer  be  restrained ; 
they  joined  in  the  movement,  and  fell  upon  a  small  combined  force 
of  Russians  and  Prussians,  encamped  under  the  walls  to  overawe 
all  vrho  were  suspected  of  patriotism,  drove  them  from  their 
position  with  a  loss  of  half  their  numbers,  and,  having  thus  cleared 
the  district  of  foreign  enemies,  they  poured  down  to  the  south  to 
range  themselves  under  Kosciusko's  banner.  Before  May  had 
passed  his  force  was  trebled ;  and  his  next  action,  though  unsuc- 
cessful, increased  the  excitement  in  his  favour.  Quick  to  perceive 
their  danger,  Russia  and  Prussia  poured  their  armies  on  Warsaw ; 
and,  in  the  first  week  of  June,  40,000  of  the  allies  fell  on  him  and 
his  army,  which,  though  increased  and  rapidly  increasing,  did  not 
exceed  15^000  men.     In  ordinary  circumstances  he  would  gladly 


422  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1794. 

have  avoided  a  combat,  for  reinforcements,  which  would  have 
placed  the  two  armies  on  an  equality,  were  on  their  way  to  join 
him ;  but,  in  a  war  like  that  in  which  he  was  engaged,  impression 
is  everything,  and  to  decline  a  combat  often  seems  to  imply  greater 
weakness  than  to  be  defeated.  As  was  inevitable,  though  he 
fought  with  admirable  skill  and  great  tenacity,  he  was  at  last 
beaten  back ;  but  he  had  prepared  an  entrenched  camp,  in  which 
for  above  two  months  he  kept  his  enemies  at  bay,  till,  at  last,  they 
retreated,  abandoning  all  attempt  to  force  their  way  into  Warsaw 
while  the  lion-hearted  general  covered  it.  But  the  time  during 
which  he  thus  remained  besieged  in  his  camp,  though  honorably 
employed  by  the  bulk  of  his  countrymen,  was  ruinous  to  them. 
It  gave  time  for  the  flame  of  resistance  to  spread ;  and  the  different 
captains,  who  were  raising  troops  to  join  him,  before  the  end  of 
September  had  collected  nearly  80,000  men.  Eut,  on  the  other 
hand,  it  also  gave  the  Russians  time  to  bring  up  the  skilful  and 
dreaded  Souvarof;  and  the  ill-equipped  Polish  levies  were  no 
match  for  his  veterans.  As  usual,  he  lost  not  an  hour :  he  fell 
upon  division  after  division,  driving  all  before  him,  and  dealing 
the  heaviest  blows  on  those  who  made  the  stoutest  resistance; 
and  Kosciusko,  who  had  moved  up  to  Warsaw  to  defend  the 
capital  from  another  Russian  army  which  was  threatening  it,  saw 
himself,  at  the  beginning  of  October,  obliged  to  attack  that  force, 
lest,  on  Souvarof 's  arrival,  he  should  be  crushed  between  the  two. 
His  own  army  was  but  slightly  weaker  in  numbers,  but  was  so 
greatly  inferior  in  every  other  circumstance  on  which  the  efficiency 
of  an  army  depends,  that,  after  a  stubborn  conflict,  he  was  utterly 
defeated.  All  that  the  most  self-devoted  courage  could  do  to 
avert  the  disaster,  he  did ;  and,  when  he  saw  defeat  was  inevitable, 
he,  with  his  staff,  plunged  into  the  thickest  of  the  fight,  apparently 
hoping  by  death  at  least  to  escape  the  harder  fate  of  witnessing  the 
enslavement  of  his  whole  country,  which  he  foresaw.  But  those 
who  thus  seek  death  rarely  find  it :  he  was  struck  down,  and, 
severely  wounded,  was  taken.  It  was  said  that,  w^hen  he  found 
himself  in  the  hands  of  his  enemies,  he  murmured  a  few  faint 
words,  that  there  was  an  end  of  Poland ;  and  they  were  speedily 
verified.  But  a  few  days  elapsed  before  Souvarof  himself  reached 
the  scene  of  action,  and  at  once  invested  Warsaw,  into  which  the 
relics  of  Kosciusko's  army,  and  all  the  different  divisions  which  he 
himself  had  defeated  on  his  march,  had  thrown  themselves.  They 
raised  the  numbers  of  the  garrison  to  26,000  men :  his  troops  did 
not,  probably,  reach  double  that  number,  but  they  were  flushed 
with  the  recollection  of  unvaried  victory.  The  Poles  were  without 
a  leader,  and  again  divided  by  intestine  quarrels.  Even  while 
Kosciusko  led  their  armies  the  ruinous  spirit  of  faction  had  broken 


\.D.  1794.]  THE  STORMING   OF  TIIAGA.  423 

out,  and  lie  had  found  his  own  countrymen  more  formidable  thnn 
the  Russians.  Discomfiture  and  despair  naturally  increased  their 
jealousies,  and  not  a  few  opened  communications  with  Souvarof  as 
soon  as  he  came  in  sight.  The  main  body  of  the  soldiers  were, 
however,  true  to  the  cause  of  their  country,  and,  even  when  all 
hope  was  gone,  made  a  stout  resistance;  but  their  gallantry 
only  exasperated  their  assailant,  and  gave  him  some  pretext,  if, 
indeed,  the  slaughterer  of  the  garrison  of  Ismail  needed  a  pretext, 
for  the  indulgence  of  his  savage  cruelty.  His  operations  were 
even  more  rapid  than  those  on  the  Danube.  Coming  up  from  the 
south-east,  he  reached  the  city  on  the  side  of  Praga,  a  large  suburb 
on  the  right  bank  of  the  Vistula,  and  connected  by  several  bridges 
with  Warsaw  itself.  It  was  not  till  the  second  of  November  that 
he  came  under  its  w^alls ;  a  single  day  sufficed  him  to  erect  batteries 
and  to  breach  the  rampart,  which,  in  many  places,  was  decayed ; 
and,  on  the  fourth,  he  stormed  the  city  with  his  whole  army.  A 
fearful  scene  ensued  ;  most  of  the  houses  in  Praga  were  made  of 
wood ;  they  soon  took  fire  ;  the  flames  spread  to  the  bridges,  which 
were  of  the  same  material,  and  equally  prevented  the  garrison  of 
Praga  from  retreating  and  the  troops  in  Warsaw  from  coming  to 
their  assistance.  Thousands  were  burnt ;  thousands  threw  them- 
selves into  the  river,  and  were  drowned :  and  Souvarof 's  soldiers, 
ordered,  as  at  Ismail,  to  give  no  quarter,  slaughtered  everyone 
who  fell  into  their  hand,  speaceful  citizens,  women,  and  children, 
sparing  neither  sex  nor  age,  till  the  number  of  those  who  perished, 
in  Praga  alone,  exceeded  30,000.  The  destruction  of  the  bridges 
saved  Warsaw  itself  from  instant  assault,  and,  before  they  could 
be  repaired,  the  king  capitulated.  His  submission  did  not  save 
him.  Catharine,  who  took  the  decision  of  all  matters  relating  to 
Poland  into  her  own  hands,  compelled  him  to  sign  his  abdication 
of  the  throne,  on  which  she  had  formerly  placed  him ;  and,  even 
before  the  deed  was  drawn,  she  had  left  him  no  tenitories  to 
resign.  Of  what  remained  to  Poland  since  1792  she  appropriated 
the  greater  portion  herself;  the  western  provinces,  with  Warsaw, 
were  given  to  Prussia;  and,  as  the  successor  of  the  Emperor 
Leopold,  who  had  died  in  1792,  Francis  II.,  did  not  inherit  his 
indifference  to  acquisitions  of  territory,  Austria  received  Cracow 
and  the  districts  nearest  to  Gallicia ;  and,  as  Kosciusko  had  said, 
Poland  had  come  to  an  end. 

The  distribution  of  Polish  territory  was  not  permanent.  In  the 
unparalleled  disturbances  of  the  next  twenty  years  the  country 
and  the  rights  of  its  people  were  treated  by  the  great  warrior  and 
unscrupulous  statesman  who  had  made  himself  the  master  of  con- 
tinental Europe,  sometimes  as  a  plaything,  sometimes  as  a  bait, 
till  all  hopes  which  the  most  sanguine  patriots  could  have  enter- 


424  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1794. 

tained  of  re-establishing  the  independence  of  any  portion  were 
rendered  more  desperate  than  ever  by  the  transference  to  Russia 
of  several  of  the  provinces  formerly  allotted  to  her  accomplices. 
And  though  the  outrageous  tyranny  of  the  Russian  Archduke, 
Constantine,  who  governed  it  as  viceroy,  did  eventually  drive  a 
large  portion  of  the  people  into  revolt  and  insurrection,  the  en- 
deavour ended,  as  it  was  from  the  first  inevitable  that  it  should 
end,  in  the  ruin  of  all  concerned  in  it ;  and  in  rivetting  the  chains 
which  bound  down  the  nation  more  firmly  than  ever. 

Poland  was  not  crushed  without  her  fate  exciting  a  warm  sym- 
pathy in  other  countries,  and  in  none  a  deeper  and  warmer  feeling 
than  in  England :  and  one  who  deservedly  ranks  among  the  most 
popular  poets  of  the  present  century,  bewailed  her  fate  the  more 
earnestly  because,  as  he  affirmed,  she  fell  '  without  a  crime.' ' 
But  a  statesman  cannot  take  the  same  view  of  her  innocence  as 
the  minstrel,  for,  in  truth,  the  Poles'  innate  insubordination  of 
temper,  their  impatience  of  all  restraints  of  law  and  authority, 
their  mutual  jealousies  and  intestine  quarrels  had  long  made  them 
a  standing  cause  of  disquietude  and  anxiety  to  all  their  neigh- 
bours. And  these  defects  of  character  do  constitute  a  grave 
offence  against  the  commonwealth  of  nations.  The  Poles  prided 
themselves  upon  being  a  nation  of  cavaliers.  But  among  the 
graceful  virtues  of  chivalry  Burke  truly  places  '  a  generous  loyalty, 
a  proud  submission,  a  dignified  obedience,  which  keeps  alive,' 
even  in  the  most  adverse  circumstances,  '  the  spirit  of  an  exalted 
freedom.'  And  such  feelings  were  at  no  period  of  her  history  ac- 
knowledged in  Poland.  Not  knowing  how  to  obey,  she  was  inca- 
pable of  enjoying  true  liberty ;  and  by  her  frantic  efforts  to  grasp 
the  phantom  of  equality  which  she  mistook  for  it,  she  turned  all 
Europe  against  her  :  not  only  her  aggressive  neighbours,  who  pro- 
fited by  her  ruin,  but  even  those  who,  though  their  situation 
debarred  them  from  sharing  her  spoils,  could  hardly  regret  the 
extinction  of  a  nation  which  was  a  constant  source  of  intrigue 
and  mutual  ill-will  among  other  states.  And  so  clear  is  this  that 
one  of  the  most  dispassionate  and  judicious  of  historical  critics 
shows  an  inclination  to  pronounce,  that  '  after  all,  the  situation  of 
Poland  was  such  as  almost  to  afford  an  exception,  perhaps  a  single 
exception,  to  those  general  rules  of  justice  that  are  so  essential  to 
the  great  community  of  nations.'^ 

Stanislaus  did  not  long  survive  the  ruin  of  his  kingdom. 
Catharine  had  so  entirely  forgotten  her  former  feelings  of  regard 
\)r  him  that  she  treated  him  personally  with  great  severity,  allow- 

1  Oh,  bloodiest  picture  in  the  book  of  Time, 
Sarmatia  fell,  unwept,  without  a  crime. 

Campbell,  Pleasures  of  Hope,  i.  375. 

2  Professor  Smvth's  Lectures  on  3[odeni  History,  Lecture  29. 


A.u.  1791.]  DEATH  OF  KOSCIUSKO.  425 

itg  him,  indeed,  a  small  pension,  but  refusinj^  him  any  of  the 
honours  usually  paid  to  fallen  royalty,  and  forbiddinj^  the  people 
of  Grodno,  where  he  was  ordered  to  live,  to  treat  him  with  more 
respect  than  was  shown  to  any  ordinary  citizen.      He  died  in 
1798 ;  and  was  forgotten  even  before  he  was  dead.     Kosciusko, 
as  his  exertions  for  his  country  and  his  resistance  to  her  enemies 
had  been  more  formidable,  was  treated  at  first  with  greater  severity. 
Even  before  his  wounds  were  healed,  he  was  sent  to  St.  Peters- 
burg, and  confined  in  one  of  the  dungeons  of  ordinary  criminals  ; 
and  there,  while  Catharine  lived,  he  remained.     Iler  son  and 
successor,  Paul,  as  ferocious  as  herself,  but  capricious  both  in  his 
cruelty  and  occasional  fits  of  humanity,  released  him  ;  and  after 
a  year   or  two,  spent  in  travelling  in   England  and  revisiting 
America,  he  settled  in  France ;  but  steadily  abstained  from  taking 
any  part  in  public  affairs.     In  the   height  of  his  hostility  to 
Russia,  Napoleon  tried  to  profit  by  his  residence  in  his  dominions, 
using  his  name  to  excite  the  Poles  to  revolt  and  join  him  in  the 
campaign  which  ended  in  Friedland  and  Tilsit,  even  going  to  the 
length  of  forging  proclamations   in  his  name,  addressed  to  his 
countrymen :   and   after  Napoleon's  fall,  Alexander,  hoping  per- 
haps thus  to  reconcile  the  Poles  to  his  authority,  invited  him  to 
return  to  his  native  land.   But  he  was  as  little  inclined  to  be  made  a 
tool  of  by  one  despot  as  another ;  and  remained  in  France  till  his 
death  in  1817.  Then,  at  last,  he  returned  to  the  country  which  he 
loved  so  well  and  served  so  zealously.     His  remains  w^ere  con- 
veyed to  Cracow,  and  buried  with  great  solemnity  by  the  side  of 
Sobieski,  the  last  of  the  Polish  kings  whom  the  nation  could 
remember  with  pride,  or  regard  as  a  fitting  companion  for  him. 
By  those  of  his  countrymen  who  still  cling  to  the  name  of  Poles 
his  memory  is  still  cherished  with  affectionate  reverence :  in  no 
land  is  it  mentioned  without  respect;  and,  perhaps,  a  greater  en-  , 
couragement  to    others  may  be   derived   from  the  fact   of  this 
homage  being  paid  to  one  whose   proudest  hopes  were  baffled, 
whose  most  vigorous  exertions  were  defeated,  than  if  it  were  a 
recognition  of  the  most  unvarying  triumph.     For  that  Catharine 
should  now  be  execrated  and  Kosciusko  reverenced  is  a  testimony 
as  striking  as  events  can  aflbrd  :  that,  however  fortune  may  for  a 
time  smile  on  the  unworthy  and  depress  the  virtuous,  posterity  and 
history  redress  the  balance  ;  and,  rising  above  the  influences  of  the 
pjissing  hour  and  the  delusions  of  success,  reserve  their  durable 
praises  and  admiration   for  humanity  and  courage  and  the  un- 
selfish devotion  of  patriotism.^ 

1  The  authorities  for  this  chapter  son's  History  of  Europe,  vol.  iii ,  the 

are  the   different  Memoirs  of  Fred-  Memoirs  of  the  Prince  de  Ligne,  and 

eric  the    Great,    Coxe's    Hovse    of  Rulpiere's  Histoire  de  V Anarchic  de 

Austria,    The   Annual  Register  for  la  Pologne. 
the  years  1771,  1772,  1791-94,  All- 


426  \      MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1774. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 
A.D.  1774—1789. 


jLi  bodings  that  a  crop  of  heavy  troubles  was  ripening  throughout 
France  during  his  reign,  which  it  would  be  difficult  for  his  suc- 
cessor to  avoid  reaping.  It  had  been  in  no  small  degree  strength- 
ened in  its  growth  by  his  own  vices ;  to  which  no  stronger  con- 
trast could  possibly  have  been  afforded  than  that  which  was 
presented  to  them  by  the  virtuous  purity  of  his  grandson,  Louis 
XVI.  He  himself  had  been  steeped  in  every  kind  of  wickedness, 
and  the  women  about  the  court  who  cajoled  him  out  of  his 
authority  were  such  that  their  influence  was  felt  to  be  a  degrada- 
tion to  the  whole  country.  Very  different  were  the  young  king 
and  queen  whom  his  death  placed  on  the  throne.  No  man  with 
purer  mind,  more  sincere  humanity,  or  more  earnest  zeal  for  the 
welfare  of  his  subjects,  had  ever  swayed  a  sceptre  in  any  country. 
As  far  as  the  happiness  of  a  people  depended  on  the  personal  vir- 
tues and  purity  of  intention  of  the  sovereign,  it  might  have  been 
expected  to  be  fully  secured.  Unhappily,  though  singularly  free 
from  vices,  Louis  XVI.  had  many  defects ;  and  it  may  almost  be 
doubted  whether  even  the  profligacy  of  the  grandfather  accelerated 
the  downfall  of  the  monarchy  more  than  the  weakness  of  his  suc- 
cessor. In  such  a  court  as  that  of  France  it  was  even  of  some 
importance  that  Louis  XVI.  did  not  look  like  a  king.  His  grand- 
father, while  a  young  man,  had  been  eminently  handsome ;  and 
had  always  a  royal  dignity  and  courtesy  of  manner :  he  knew 
when  to  be  stately  and  when  to  be  affable  ;  but  Louis  XVI.  was 
awkward  both  in  person  and  demeanour ;  his  figure  was  heavy, 
his  gait  was  slouching,  his  voice  thin  and  squeaking ;  in  his 
manners  he  was  reserved,  or  even  shy,  and  incurably  taciturn ;  in 
lis  dress  he  was  slovenly,  and  not  even  always  clean.  One  of  his 
favourite  amusements  was  working  a  blacksmith's  forge,  and  he 
constantly  presented  himself,  even  in  the  queen's  apartments,  when 
she  was  surrounded  by  her  ladies,  begrimed  with  soot,  and  reeking 
with  perspiration  like  an  ordinary  mechanic.     Matters  such  as 


A.D.  1774.]  MARIE  ANTOINETTE.  427 

these,  never  unimportant  at  courts,  had  especial  influence  in  the 
eyes  of  a  people  so  addicted  to  pomp  and  parade  as  the  Frencli. 
And  he  had  even  graver  defects  than  these.  He  had  a  singular 
incapacity  for  appreciating  the  talents  and  characters  and  views 
of  those  with  whom  he  had  to  deal,  and  the  importance  of  events. 
He  had  neither  self-reliance  to  form  opinions,  nor  firmness  to  adhere 
to  those  which  he  had  adopted ;  and  this  weakness  of  character 
inevitably  made  the  new  court  as  much  a  scene  of  intrigue  and 
faction  as  it  had  been  in  the  preceding  reign.  In  a  happier  age 
his  deficiencies  of  every  kind  might  have  been  less  remarked,  his 
virtues  might  have  made  a  greater  impression  j  he  might  have 
earned  the  blessings  of  his  subjects  and  the  grateful  recollectiom 
of  posterity  as  a  good  king.  It  was  his  misfortune  that  he  came 
to  the  throne  at  a  time  when  hardly  a  great  king  could  have 
successfully  grappled  with  the  difficulties  that  surrounded  it  j  and 
of  greatness  he  had  no  element  in  his  composition. 

Very  different,  except  in  the  purity  of  her  life  and  the  benevo- 
lence of  her  intentions,  was  his  queen,  Marie  Antoinette,  the 
youngest  daughter  of  Maria  Teresa.  In  person  she  was  handsome 
and  stately ;  in  her  manners  a  princely  dignity  was  happily  com- 
bined with  an  innocent  simplicity  of  taste  and  condescending 
kindness  to  all  who  approached  her.  Her  apprehension  was  quick ; 
her  character  fearless,  energetic,  and  resolute.  Devoted  to  her 
husband  and  her  adopted  country,  full  of  eager  humanity  and 
sympathy  for  his  people,  she  lacked  nothing  but  that  sobriety  and 
soundness  of  judgment  which  could  hardly  be  looked  for  in  a  prin- 
cess who  was  not  yet  nineteen  years  of  age ;  but  of  which  her  occa- 
sional want  led  her  into  mistakes  which  in  some  instances  had  a 
prejudicial  influence  on  her  husband's  fortunes.  She  had  a  desire, 
prompted  perhaps  by  a  recollection  of  the  vigorous  rule  of  her 
mother,  and  by  a  forgetfulness  of  the  fact  that  Maria  Teresa  was  a 
sovereign  in  her  own  right,  to  exercise  a  leading  influence  on  the 
political  affiiirs  of  the  kingdom  ;  and  aware,  as  she  could  hardly 
fail  to  be,  of  her  superiority  to  Louis,  in  force  botli  of  intellect  and 
character,  slie  began  to  exert  and  display  her  power  over  him  from 
the  first  day  of  her  accession  to  the  throne.  She  succeeded  in 
persuading  him  to  dismiss  his  grandfather's  ministers,  who  were, 
indeed,  quite  unfit  to  direct  the  destinies  of  the  nation ;  though 
she  was  baffled  by  the  intrigues  of  his  aunts  in  her  endeavours  to 
nominate  their  successors.  And  thus  she  at  once  brought  into 
view  the  fact  that  there  were  two  parties  in  the  court  and  in  the  ^ 
royal  family  itself,  and  made  herself  a  mark  for  the  hostility  of  ^iO-^*^^-*^ 
one  of  them.  Her  arrangement  of  what  may  be  called  domestic  < 
matters,  though  strictly  within  her  own  province,  excited  even 
more  general  discontent.   The  home  of  the  great  Empress-queen 


428  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1774. 

at  Schonbrunn,  where  she  had  been  brought  up,  had  been  distin- 
guished from  that  of  other  sovereigns  by  an  almost  total  absence 
of  parade ;  and  Marie  Antoinette  had  brought  with  her  a  prefer- 
ence for  the  unaffected  manners  and  simple  pleasures  of  her 
mother's  court  over  the  theatrical  and  tedious  etiquette  which  had 
chilled  the  halls  of  Versailles  from  their  first  foundation.  While 
only  dauphiness  she  had  been  forced  to  repress  her  own  taste,  but 
on  becoming  queen  she  resolved  to  gratify  it ;  and  at  once  began 
to  abridge  the  pompous  and  extravagant  ceremonies  of  the  court, 
which  had  been  established  during  the  last  two  reigns. 

She  could  hardly  have  given  greater  offence.  A  large  party, 
as  was  natural,  regretted  the  change  of  ministry,  and  imputed  to 
her  not  only  the  dismissal  of  the  minister  whom  they  regretted, 
but  the  appointment  of  his  successor,  in  which  she  had  been  out- 

\  witted  and  overruled.  But  for  one  person  in  France  who  cared 
who  was  minister,  hundreds  regarded  the  length  of  the  trains  to 
be  worn  at  court,  and  the  question  who  should  sit  on  chairs, 
who  on  stools,  and  who  should  not  presume  to  sit  at  all  in  the 
royal  apartments,  as  matters  of  vital  importance.  Tlie  courtiers 
united  with  the  politicians  in  ill-will  to  one  who  made  so  light 
of  their  prejudices;  and  the  malice  even  of  persons  so  despicable 
was  not  powerless.  To  a  large  portion  of  the  people  her  marriage 
itself  had  been  unpalatable,  as  a  confirmation  of  that  alliance  with 
Austria  which  had  borne  no  pleasant  fruit  in  the  Seven  Years' 
War,  and  which  was  a  plain  departure  from  the  old  principles  of 
policy  adopted  by  Henry  IV.,  Richelieu,  and  Louvois,  which  had 
led  to  so  many  triumphs.  And,  in  retaliation  for  her  own  jests 
on  pomp  and  etiquette,  the  malcontents  nicknamed  Marie  An- 
toinette *  the  Austrian ; '  and  the  name  itself  reciprocally  breeding 
a  belief,  than  which  none  was  ever  more  false,  that  she  preserved 
a  preference  for  the  interests  of  her  native  land  over  those  of  her 
adopted  country,  there  came  a  day  when  it  had  no  slight  share  in 
producing  the  bitterest  calamities  to  herself  and  to  all  connected 
with  her. 

Thus,  almost  from  the  first,  both  king  and  queen  were  un- 
popular ;  and  there  never  had  been  a  time  when  it  was  more 
desirable  that  they  should  be  supported  by  the  affections  of  an 
united  people.  For  not  even  at  the  beginning  of  the  late  reign 
was  the  state  surrounded  with  such  difficulties  and  dangers  as 
required  instant  attention  now.  The  finances  were  in  a  state  of 
inextricable  disorder,  if  not  of  hopeless  bankruptcy :  the  destitution 

t-y>of  the  lower  classes  in  the  towns,  and,  in  the  agricultural  districts, 
of  all  but  the  very  highest,  was  universal  and  insupportable.  The 
discontent  was,  as  a  matter  of  course,  coextensive  with  the  dis- 
tress :  and,  even  of  those  who  were  not  exasperated  by  personal 


A.D.  177-1.]      RESTOEATION  OF  THE  PARLIAMENT.         429 

privations,  three  most  influential  classes  were  as  Mtter  enemies  of 
the  government  as  those  whose  animosity  was  sharpened  by  star- 
vation. The  lawyers  were  indignant  at  the  recent  suppression  of 
the  parliaments:  the  clergy  resented  the  expulsion  of  the  Jesuits: 
while  the  literary  men  were  hostile  to  all  institutions  which,  by 
their  mere  existence,  seemed  to  stand  in  the  way  of  their  theories, 
whether  political  or  religious,  which  they  were  bent  on  propaga- 
ting. To  deal  with  the  affairs,  so  full  of  peril  and  anxiety,  re- 
quired something  more  than  amiability  in  the  monarch.  It 
required  a  clear-headed  man,  a  bold  man,  a  firm  man.  And  Louis 
was  so  far  from  being  endowed  with  even  the  most  ordinary  de- 
gree of  these  qualities  that  he  could  not  avail  himself  of  even  the 
few  favorable  circumstances  which  might  have  facilitated  his  p 
task.  As  we  have  seen,  Louis  XV.  had  abolished  the  parliaments.  \<n/U.,,^ 
The  act  had  certainly  not  been  dictated  by  statesmanlike  motives^; 
but  no  measure  more  calculated  for  the  maintenance  of  tranquillity 
could  have  been  adopted.  For,  for  centuries,  the  parliaments  had 
been  hotbeds  of  faction  and  sedition,  constantly  aiming  to  en- 
croach on  the  royal  authority,  and  affording  a  rallying  point  for 
all  the  malcontents  of  the  kingdom.  Yet  before  the  end  of  the 
year  Louis  XVI.  restored  them :  and,  what  was  hardly  less  mis- 
chievous than  the  act  itself  was  the  circumstance  that  he  did  so, 
not  only  against  the  advice  of  his  ablest  ministers,  and  against  the 
strongest  remonstrances  of  his  brother  the  heir  presumptive,  but 
against  his  own  convictions,  in  compliance  with  the  entreaties  of 
the  queen  herself.  It  was  an  evil  augury  for  his  reign  that  he 
should  thus  make  public,  at  the  very  outset,  that  he  had  not 
stability  of  mind  to  adhere  to  his  own  opinion  and  the  advice  of 
his  wisest  ccuncillors  on  matters  the  importance  of  which  he  did 
not  disguise  from  himself.  >t- 

Another  piece  of  singular  good  fortune  befell  him  in  the  open- 1 
ing  of  his  reign,  which  also  he  had  not  the  sense  and  resolution  to 
preserve.     The  new  prime  minister,  Maurepas,  at  all  times  inca- 
pable, and  now  superannuated,  for  he  had  begun  his  official  life 
under  Louis  XIV.,  had  felt  the  necessity  of  procuring  efficient 
assistance  to  the  government  from  some  new  quarter ;  and,  learn- 
ing that  M.  Turgot,  the  inteudant  of  the  Limousin,  had  not  only 
brought  that  province  to  an  exceptional  degree  of  prosperity,  but 
had  made  himself  popular  among  and  respected  by  all  classes  oi  M 
the  people,  he  removed  him  to  Paris,  placing  him,  first,  at  the  ^^dAvM^y 
of  the  marine,  from  which,  after  a  week  or  two,  he  was  trans- 
ferred to  the   office   of   the  controller-general   of   the   finances. 
He   soon  proved   himself  the   ablest  financier  that  France  had 
ever  had ;  endowed  with  a  wider  knowledge  than  Sully,  with  a 
more  comprehensive  glance  than  Colbert.     But  he  was  something 


430  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1774. 

more  than  a  financier ;  he  was  a  statesman :  not,  like  Richelieu, 
looking  on  statesmanship  as  best  employed  in  making  and  sub- 
duing enemies,  in  planning  and  executing  conquests;  but  con- 
sidering its  most  honorable  as  well  as  most  useful  occupation  to 
lie  in  domestic  government;  in  the  reform  of  abuses,  so  that  they 
should  not  revive ;  in  putting  the  different  departments  of  the 
state  on  a  sound  footing ;  in  emancipating  the  working  classes 
from  burdens  which  kept  them  down  without  benefitting  any 
other  class ;  in  relieving  both  the  home  and  foreign  trade  from 
needless  shackles.  And  he  had  such  confidence  in  the  amplitude 
of  the  resources  of  the  country,  that  he  believed  it  possible,  critical 
as  the  state  of  affairs  was,  to  bring  it  back  to  at  least  the  prosperity 
which  it  enjoyed  under  Fleury.  No  reformer  can  escape  cabals 
against  him :  no  enforcer  of  economy  can  fail  to  make  enemies. 
And  though  Louis  and  Marie  Antoinette  cordially  co-operated 
with  him  in  the  reduction  of  the  expenses,  or  rather  of  the  waste- 
fulness of  the  court,  Louis  even  refusing  to  accept  the  large  sum 
of  money  which  it  had  been  customary  to  offer  to  a  sovereign  on 
his  accession,^  the  courtiers  were  furious.  They  filled  the  saloons 
of  Versailles  with  libels  on  the  honest  minister,  whose  honesty 
was  not  only  a  reproach  to  themselves,  but  a  reduction  of  their 
gains.  The  parliament,  whose  restoration  he  had  opposed  in  a 
most  convincing  memorial,  thwarted  all  his  measures  to  the  utmost 
of  their  power ;  on  one  occasion  even  exciting  formidable  riots  in 
Paris,  when  the  price  of  bread  rose,  and  the  rise  was  attributed  to 
his  removal  of  some  of  the  impediments  to  a  free  trade  in  corn. 
So  clearly  did  such  an  outbreak  menace  all  authority  that  Turgot 
was  able  to  persuade  Louis  to  send  down  troops  to  quell  it ;  and  it 
may  be  that  the  violence  which  such  an  order,  however  indispensa- 
ble, did  to  the  king's  feelings,  tended  in  some  degree  to  weaken  his 
attachment  to  the  minister,  whose  wisdom  he  constantly  ac- 
knowledged, and  whom  he  repeatedly  assured  of  his  unshrinking 
support.  But  another  measure  roused  up  against  Turgot  a  still 
more  formidable  enemy,  before  whom  at  last  he  fell,  though  he 
probably  had  given  no  advice  more  completely  in  accordance  with 
the  feelings  and  views  of  propriety  of  Louis  himself.  In  the 
summer  of  1775,  the  king  was  crowned,  at  Rheims,  with  great 
solemnity  and  magnificence,  and  Turgot  earnestly  recommended 
the  removal  from  the  coronation  oath  of  the  undertaking  '  to  exter- 


minate  heretics.'  The  whole  body  of  the  clergy,  and  especially 
those  oi'  the  nig-hest  rank,  took  the  alarm.  They  even  drew  up  a 
remonstrance  to  Louis,  in  which  they  traced  many  of  the  evils 
of  the  state  to  the  toleration  which  the  Huguenots  had  latterly 

'  Called  'Lo  don  dejoyeux  avenement.' 


A.D.  1776.]  DISMISSAL  OF  TURCOT.  431 

enjoyed.  Nothing  was  so  distasteful  to  Louis  as  religious  persecu- 
tion :  and  he  might  well  have  been  excused  from  paying  any  atten/- 
tion  to  the  clerical  remonstrance,  for,  as  if  those  who  framed  it  had 
designed  to  throw  ridicule  on  it,  of  the  three  prelates  who  were 
deputed  to  present  it,  one,  the  Abbd  of  Talleyrand  Perigord, 
though  but  a  youth,  was  already  known  as  one  of  the  most  dis- 
solute men  in  France;  another,  Lomenie  de  Brie  "ue, 'archbishop 
of  Toulouse,  was  an  avowed  unbeliever. 

Yet  the  new  attack  greatly  shook  the  king's  resolution  to  up- 
hold the  minister :  and  presently  his  enemies  formed  a  new  ground 
of  attack  which  coincided  with  one  of  his  own  prejudices.  Fully 
aware  that  the  evils  which  menaced  the  kingdom  were  too  deeply 
seated  to  be  eradicated  by  partial  reforms  in  a  few  details,  Turgot 
conceived  the  idea  of  one  great  comprehensive  constitutional  re?orni. 
Hitherto,  as  he  truly  urged,  in  an  elaborate  memorial,  wliicii  lie  sub-  r  I  i^ 
mitted  to  his  royal  master,  France  had  had  no  constitution  at  all.  ^^f*^  ' 
He  aspired  to  give  her  one ;  and  he  drew  up  an  elaborate  scheme, 
which  should  put  the  financial  arrangements  and  the  whole  legisla- 
tive system  of  the  kingdom  on  a  new  and  sound  footing ;  abolishing 
many  of  the  old  customs  and  regulations  which,  though  originally 
intended  for  the  protection  of  trade,  had  been  found,  in  their  prac- 
tical working,  to  be  the  greatest  restraints  upon  and  impediments 
to  its  development :  and  providing  for  the  erection  of  a  great  legis- 
lative assembly,  whose  authority,  though  he  had  not  as  yet  defined 
its  precise  limits,  nor  its  mode  of  operation,  would  be  a  support  to 
honest  ministers,  a  check  on  incompetent  or  corrupt  ones,  and  in 
both  respects  an  efficient  aid  and  trustworthy  bulwark  to  the  crown 
itself.  13 ut  the  latter  part  of  his  scheme  he  was  not  allowed  time 
to  complete  in  his  own  mind,  much  less  to  explain.  As  soon  as 
the  first  details  of  his  plan  were  known,  his  enemies,  among 
were  some  of  his  own  colleagues,  persuaded  Louis  that  h( 
seeking  to  establish  English  principles  of  government ;  and  there 
was  no  feeling  so  rooted  in  the  king's  mind  as  a  dislike  of  England,  ^.^>t  .^i 
and  English  customs,  which  he  identified  to  a  great  extent  with 
the  school  of  philosophers  among  his  own  subjects  who  were  con- 
tinually extolling  them.  When  Turgot  tried  to  stimulate  his 
firmness  in  support  of  proposals  whicn  he  had  previously  sanc- 
tioned, for  Louis  had  not  himself  discerned  their  peculiarly  En- 
glish character,  and  to  draw  warnings  from  the  example  of 
Charles  I.  of  England  who,  as  the  minister  read  his  history,  had 
perished  through  his  want  of  that  most  kingly  and  statesmanlike 
virtue,  Louis  regarded  his  exhortations,  so  enforced,  almost  in  the 
light  of  a  menace,  and  secretly  resented  them.  And  shortly  > 
afterwards  sent  him  a  curt  letter  of  dismissal ;  which,  though  it 
looked  like  an  act  of  studied  discourtesy,  was  probably  dictated 


ioon  as  " 

1  ♦i^,^«.^  I 


432  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1781. 

by  the  shy  timidity  which  rendered  the  king  averse  to  confront 
anyone.  Had  he  lived  he  would  probably  have  subsequently 
been  restored  to  his  post;  but  he  died  not  long  time  afterwards; 
and  with  his  fall  every  chance  for  the  prosperity  of  the  kingdom, 
if  not  for  the  preservation  of  the  monarchy  itself,  was  extinguished. 
Shortlived  as  his  administration  had  been,  he  had  made  great  pro- 
gress in  relieving  the  treasury  from  its  pecuniary  embarrassments. 
He  had  greatly  diminished  the  national  debt,  and  lowered  the 
interest  of  money.  He  had  pointed  out  to  those  who  might  suc- 
ceed him  with  unimpeachable  clearness  the  course  by  which,  and 
by  which  alone,  the  state  could  be  relieved  from  its  present  dif- 
ficulties. But  among  the  numerous  ministers  who  in  the  course 
of  the  next  thirteen  years  filled  his  office,  not  one  was  capable  of 
taking  an  equally  large  view  of  all  the  circumstances  of  the  nation ; 
and  but  one  was  influenced  by  public  spirit  or  made  the  least 
pretence  to  either  public  or  personal  integrity. 

Necker,  who  succeeded  to  his  post  before  the  end  of  the  year, 
and  who  had  previously  been  a  Parisian  banker,  was  indeed  honest 
well  intentioned,  and  possessed  of  a  considerable  knowledge  of 
finance.  He  to  a  certain  extent  adopted  Turgot's  principles,  and 
followed  out  the  system  on  what  that  minister  had  begun  to  act ; 
and  certainly  during  his  tenure  of  office,  which  lasted  for  five  years, 
he  made  great  progress,  though  far  less  than  he  boasted,  in  reliev- 
ing the  treasury  from  its  pecuniary  difficulties.  But  he  was  vain, 
devoted  to  the  pursuit  of  popularity ;  and,  like  all  such  persons, 
vacillating  and  changeable ;  he  was  narrow  minded,  incapable, 
perhaps  from  his  early  training,  of  conceiving  that  any  political 
considerations  were  of  equal  importance  with  questions  of  finance ; 
and  he  was  so  prone  to  place  implicit  belief  in  abstract  theories 
as  to  overlook  the  difficulties  in  the  way  of  their  practical  adoption 
which  either  past  experience  or  the  slightest  insight  into  human 
character  suggested.  He  resigned  in  1781,  anticipating  the  dis- 
missal which  he  foresaw  that  the  cabals  of  his  enemies  prepared 
for  him :  and  aware  that  he  also  had  alienated  the  king  himself 
by  his  undisguised  approval  of  many  parts  of  the  English  system 
of  government.  But  seven  years  afterwards  Louis  recalled  him, 
because,  even  he  could  not  avoid  perceiving  the  incompetency  and 
corruption  of  all  the  successors  whom  he  had  given  him,  except 
Calonne.  And  Calonne,  though  a  man  of  great  natural  ability,  of 
prompt  fertility  of  resource,  and  of  great  courage,  had  been  so 
wasteful,  so  unscrupulous,  and  so  negligent  in  the  performance  of 
his  duties;  had  so  completely  limited  his  objects  to  eluding  and 
postponing  difficulties,  instead  of  grappling  with  and  mastering 
them,  that  his  administration  had  been  in  fact  more  disastrous  to 
the  state  than  that  of  any  other  previous  minister  during  the  reign. 


A.D.  1778.]       TKEATY  WITH  THE  AMERICANS.  433 

Necker  had  undoubtedly  overrated  his  own  abilities,  and  exagge- 
rated his  achievements ;  but^  even  had  his  success  in  improving 
the  financial  arrangements  of  the  kingdom  been  as  great  as  he 
affirmed,  it  would   have  been  neutralised  by  the  policy  of  the 
only  minister  among  his  colleagues  who  had  any  definite  views, 
except  that  of  enriching  himself  at  the  expense  of  the  state,  or  ^ 
any  capacity  for  administration,  the  Count  de  Yergennes.     He  ^^-^w— w^ 
was  the  secretary  for  foreign  affairs ;  and,  as  such,  regarded  the         ' 
civil  war  which,  before  Tuvgot's  dismissal  from  oilice,  had  broken 
out  between  Britain  and  her  colonies  in  North  America,  not  only 
with  deep  interest,  but  with  an  earnest  desire  to  aid  the  colonists, 
and  he  pressed  upon  Louis  his  advice  to  conclude  a  treaty  of  alliance 
with  the  Americans,  as  a  measure  which  would  afford  him  an 
opportunity  of  retrieving  the  losses  and  discredit  of  which  France  /  I 
had  incurred  from  the  Seven  Years'  War,  and  the  treaty  of  ITOp^^^^^^f^'*^^ 
Louis  was  in  a  great  strait :  he  hated  England  ;  but  he  had  sufla- 
cient  penetration  to  perceive  that  the  dangerous  spirit  which  he 
already  knew  to  exist  among  a  portion  of  his  own  subjects  could 
not  fail  to  be  fostered  and  encouraged  by  the  example  of  successful 
insurrection   against  a  neighbouring  sovereign,   especially  if  its 
success  should  in  any  degree  be  attributable  to  their  assistance. 
And  his  brother-in-law,  the  Emperor  of  Germany,  who  visited 
Paris  while  the  matter  was  under  discussion,  took  the  same  view, 
and  strongly  urged  him  to  remain  neuter  in  a  quarrel  in  which  he 
could  have  no  pretence  to  interfere.     He  made  up  his  mind ;  told 
de  Vergennes  that  he  entirely  disapproved  of  the  proposed  treaty;  ft)  a  k^^^'llyy 
then,  as  usual,  allowed  his  deliberate  judgment  to  be  overruled,  \ji/dA^ 
and,  at  the  beginning  of  1778,  signed  the  very  treaty  which  he    hfu^  ,  M 
condemned  ;  and  sent  a  body  of  troops  to  New  York,  and  the  best  ^^ 
appointed  fleet  that  had  ever  borne  the  French  flag  to  the  West 
Indies,  to  strip  England  of  her  settlements  in  those  waters.    As 
France  never  entered  into  any  war  more  destitute  alike  of  plea 
and  of  object,  it  was  but  a  righteous  retribution  that  she  never 
engaged  in  one  which   brought  her   greater   discredit   or  more 
disaster.     The  army,  or  division,  for  it  does  not  deserve  a  more 
important  name,   which   was    sent  to   America,  under  General     q 
Rochambeau,  did  no  service  whatever  to  the  colonists ;  who,  in  fact, 
had  no  need  of  TTencTTaid,  for,  three  montlis  befofe'the  treaty  was 
signed,  the  Convention  of  Saratoga  had  practically  ensured  their 
success  and  their  independence.     His  fleet  was  defeated  in  a  great 
battle  ;  and,  in  spite  of  the  united  efforts  of  himself,  and  Spain,  the 
British  flag  remained  immoveable  on  the  rock  of  Gibraltar,  which 
witnessed  the  discomfiture  and  destruction  of  the  mightiest  force 
hat  had  ever  yet  been  assembled  for  the  reduction  of  a  single  fortress. 
But  these  defeats  and  disgraces  were  far  from  being  the  most 
20 


434  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1778, 

pernicious  of  the  fruits  which  France  reaped  from  the  war,  into 
which  she  had  rushed  with  such  wanton  levity.     The  expenses 

''  were  enormous :  and  a  vast  addition  was  made  to  the  national 

VA.'V*-^  f„^y^  debt,  which  previously  had  overtaxed  all  the  ability  of  the  go- 
vernment to  grapple  with  it.  There  had  for  years  been  a  great 
annual  deficit  j  and  that  was  now  raised  to  such  a  height  that 
to  stave  off  a  national  bankruptcy  any  longer  seemed  absolutely 
impossible.  While  yet  more  mischievous  than  the  imminence 
of  even  such  dishonour  was  the  circumstance,  that  the  troops 
which   had   been   employed  in   America  had    caught    the    con- 

t»  4HC^»*-a»  -^  tagion  of  the  republican  spirit  of  the  colonists,  and  had  brought 
^  back  with  them  a  leaning  to  forms  of  government  such  as  they 

had  seen  established  in  that  country,  which  was  calculated  to 
prove  a  serious  embarrassment  to  any  statesman  who  might  seek, 
as  Turgot  had  sought,  and  as  even  Necker  had  made  some  weak 
show  of  attempting,  to  introduce  constitutional  reforms  on  the 
/    *  basis  of  maintaining  the  king's  legitimate  authority.  In  fact,  before 

A^  the   main  body    of    French    troops  had    crossed  the    Atlantic, 

J-  *"  even  before  the  treaty  of  alliance  was  signed,  one  young  noble, 
l»'yjA^<^  the  Marquis  de  la  Fayette,  had  joined  Washington  as  a  volunteer, 
f  and  had  devoted  some  of  his  wealth,   for  he  was  very  rich,  to 

raising  troops  for  the  service  of  the  colonists.  Though  he  was 
utterly  devoid  of  any  sort  of  ability,  civil  or  military,  the 
Americans  were  so  pleased  at  having  their  part  thus  openly  taken 
by  a  member  of  one  of  the  proudest  families  in  France,  that 
Congress  voted  him  their  formal  thanks  for  his  exertions:  the 
army  which  he  joined  on  its  arrival,  and  those  French  at  home 
who  sympathised  with  the  Americans,  a  great  majority  of  the 
nation,  were  proud  that  one  of  their  countrymen  should  have 
rendered  the  cause  that  had  triumphed  services  worthy  of  so  public 
a  recognition :  and  thus,  having  been  thanked  by  the  Congress 
because  he  was  a  Frenchman,  and  having  become  popular  among 
his  countrymen  because  he  had  been  thanked  by  the  Congress, 
he  now  returned  home,  inflated  with  measureless  vanity  and  self- 
importance,  and  a  sworn  foe  to  all  the  ancient  institutions  of  his 
country,  because,  according  to  his  own  estimate  of  his  own  actions,  he 
had  had  no  small  share  in  establishing  a  republic  in  North  America. 
Matters  now  went  rapidly  from  bad  to  worse  :  in  their  despair 
the  present  and  the  past  finance  ministers  began  to  wrangle  with 
one  another,  on  the  question  of  who  was  principally  accountable 
for  the  yearly  increasing  disproportion  between  the  expenditure 
and  the  revenue.  The  nation  was  irritable,  and  distrustful  of 
every  one ;  and  was  inclined  to  welcome  any  new  suggestion  : 
when  one  was  suddenly  put  before  it  in  the  cry  that  one  or  two 
voices  in  the  parliament  raised  for  the  convocation  of  the  states- 


A.D.  1787.]      DEMAND  FOR  THE  STATES-GENERAL.        435 

general.  It  was  not  a  cry  founded  on  the  recollection  or  traditions 
of  any  service  rendered  by  former  meetings  of  that  body  :  for 
before  it  fell  into  disuse  its  ineflicacy  for  any  useful  purpose 
bad  become  proverbial ;  and  its  meetings  had  been  discontinued 
for  nearly  180  years,  with  the  universal  acquiescence  of  all 
parties.  But  so  desperate  did  the  condition  of  the  country 
truly  seem  to  all  who  now  took  the  trouble  to  acquaint  themselves 
with  the  posture  of  aifairs,  and  so  futile  had  all  the  expedients 
proved  which  had  been  designed  to  extricate  it  from  its  diificulties, 
that  the  only  chance  of  safety  seemed  to  be  in  novelty :  and  the 
resuscitation  of  a  body  so  long  defunct  had  as  great  a  character 
of  novelty  about  it  as  could  attach  to  any  other  proposal.  The  N  'V^ 
minister  at  the  moment  was  Lomenie  de  Brienne,  archbishop  •*/«  '  ^^^ 
of  Toulouse,  the  most  profligate,  and  the  most  incompetent  of  all 
those  who  had  risen  to  power  during  the  reign.  Utterly  unable  to 
devise  any  scheme  himself,  and  indifferent  to  any  consideration 
but  that  of  prolonging  his  occupation  of  office,  which  he  was  using 
as  a  means  of  enriching  himself  and  all  his  relations,  he  recom- 
mended Louis  to  consent  to  the  demand;  and  the  convocation  of 
the  states-general  was  promised.  But  the  promise,  which  was  in- 
tended  to  extricate  the  government  from  its  perplexities,  in  fact 
only  laid  the  foundation  of  a  fresh  series  of  troubles.  There  can  n 
be  no  greater  proof  of  the  universal  contempt  into  which  the  t^  J 

old  states-general  had  fallen,  than  is  afforded  by  the  fact  that,  ^^'^'^^^  "^ 
when  those,  on  whom  it  devolved  to  make  arrangements  for  the 
convocation,  and  the  proceedings  of  the  new  assembly,  began  to 
search  for  precedents,  the  most  careful  search  could  neither  ascer- 
tain who  were  entitled  to  be  elected,  nor,  what  was  pei^iaps  of  still 
more  consequence,  who  had  a  right  to  vote  as  electors,  nor,  in  fact, 
anything  beyond  the  rudest  outline  of  the  ancient  proceedings. 

Unluckily,  shortly  after  the  announcement  of  the  king's  inten- 
tion, Necker  resumed  his  office,  which,  at  such  a  financial  crisis, 
as  indeed  it  had  often  been  before,  was  that  of  prime  minister  in  all 
but  name.  And  though  it  manifestly  belonged  to  the  king  to 
settle  all  the  details  relating  to  the  elections  of  the  representatives, 
and  to  their  proceedings  when  elected,  Necker,  moved  partly- his  /jL^ 
own  childish  vanity  and  desire  for  popularity,  and  partly /^d^-^i — -^  ^W 
certain  unreasoning  reliance  which  he  always  professed  on  the  ' 

power  of  virtue  and  of  reason,^  gave  up  all  the  king's  prerogatives, 

1  The  Marquis  de  Bouille  tells  us,  les  yeux  an  ciel,  qn'il  fallait   bien 

in  his  3Iemoires,  that  he  himself  ex-  compter  sur  les  vertus  morales  dea 

postulated  warmly  with  Necker  on  hommes '  {Mem.  p.  70)  ;   and  Nee  - 

the  inevitable  consequences  of  some  ker's    own    daughter,    Madame    de 

of  his  measures,  which,  in  the  eyes  Stael,  confesses  that  he  was  '  se  fiant 

of  the  Marquis,  must  tend  to  arm  the  trop,  il  faut  I'avouer,  h  rempire  de 

populace  against  the  higher  chases  :  la  raison.' — Consid.  sur  la  Rev.  fr.^ 

•  II  me  repondit  froidement,  en  levant  i.  171. 


436  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.b.  1783. 

one  after  the  other,  and  finally  arranged,  or  suffered  the  majority 
to  arrange,  the  whole  of  the  proceedings  in  such  a  way  that  the 
predominance  of  the  representatives  of  the  third  estate,  or  the 
people,  over  those  of  the  nobles  and  clergy,  should  be  at  all  times 
assured ;  and  that,  practically,  the  whole  power  of  the  state  should 
be  at  once  placed  in  their  hands.  He  granted  the  demand,  for 
which,  in  the  whole  history  of  the  states-general,  there  was  not  a 
single  precedent  that  the  number  of  the  representatives  of  the 
commons  should  equal  that  of  the  representatives  of  both  the 
other  orders  together ;  and  with  a  second  demand,  that  the  whole 
body  of  members  should  sit  in  one  chamber  and  vote,  not  by  order, 
but  by  head,  he  dealt,  if  possible,  worse  than  if  he  had  conceded  it, 
not  deciding  it  by  the  king's  authority,  but  leaving  it  to  be  deter- 
mined by  the  deputies  themselves,  at  their  first  meeting,  when  it 
was  certain  that  the  commons  would  be  able  to  overbear  both 
clergy  and  nobles.  Such  an  arrangement  was,  in  fact,  ensuring 
precipitation  and  violence  at  a  crisis  when  the  utmost  deliberation 
and  calmness  were,  above  all  things,  requisite,  since  the  states 
were  to  have  a  task  entrusted  to,  or  imposed  upon  them,  such 
as  that  body  had  never  previously  been  called  upon  to  perform. 
It  was  understood  that  the  questions  on  which,  as  the  representa- 
tives of  the  nation,  they  were  to  be  consulted,  were  not  to  be 
limited  to  the  solution  of  the  financial  difficulties  of  the  kingdom, 
but  were  to  embrace  the  framing  of  a  new  constitution.  Hitherto, 
as  Turgot  had  truly  pointed  out,  France  could  hardly  be  said 
to  have  any  constitution  at  all.  There  had  been  no  limitations  of 
the  absolute  power  of  the  king :  there  had  been  no  security  for  the 
liberty  of  the  subject :  no  machinery  by  which  redress  of  griev- 
ances could  be  obtained,  nor  any  precautions  taken  against  the  con- 
tinuance of  the  most  cruel  abuses.  The  feudal  system  still  existed 
in  the  country,  in  many  of  its  most  intolerable  features ;  in  its 
disdain  of  all  the  untitled  classes,  and  in  the  preposterous  privileges 
allowed  to  all  who  could  claim  nobility :  the  exemptions  from 
different  taxes  to  which  they  were  entitled,  and  which  of  course 
necessitated  the  imposition  of  heavier  burdens  on  those  who  could 
claim  no  such  privileges,  were  bad  enough  ;  but  the  power  which 
every  territorial  noble  had  a  prescriptive  right  to  exercise  over 
every  resident  on  his  domains  was  infinitely  more  unendurable. 
It  wag  hardly  an  exaggeration  to  say,  that  the  middle  and  lower 
classes  had  no  rights  at  all,  save  such  as  the  humanity  or  caprice  of 
some  great  lord  might  chance  to  allow  them.  The  peasants  might 
not  weed  their  plots  of  ground,  lest  they  should  disturb  the  young 
game,  nor  manure  the  land  with  anything  which,  it  was  fancied, 
might  injure  their  flavour :  other  grievances  pressed  on  their  daily 
life,  and  means  of  subsistence  still  more  heavily  j   they  were 


A.D.  1789.]   CHARACTER  OF  THE  REPRESENTATIVES.    437 

forced  to  grind  their  corn  at  the  lord's  mill,  to  bake  their  bread 
in  his  oven,  to  press  their  grapes  at  his  wine-press,  paying  for 
each  act  whatever  dues  he  might  think  fit  to  impose  :  and  often 
having  their  bread  or  their  wine  spoilt  by  the  delays  which  such  a 
system  could  not  fail  to  create.  Some  of  the  rights  of  seigniory, 
(as  they  were  called),  can  hardly  be  mentioned  in  the  present 
more  decorous  age ;  some  were  so  ridiculous  that  it  is  inconceiva- 
ble how  their  very  absurdity  had  not  led  to  their  extinction.  In 
the  marshy  districts  of  Brittany,  when  the  lady  was  confined, 
the  peasantry  and  small  farmers  were  bound  to  spend  their  whole 
time  in  the  marshes,  beating  the  waters  to  keep  the  frogs  quiet, 
that  the  invalid  might  not  be  disturbed  by  their  croaking.  It  was 
plain  that  no  reform  would  be  worth  anything  which  did  not 
wholly  sweep  away  customs  like  these  for  which  abuses  was  too 
mild  a  word. 

But  the  difficulties  which  surrounded  the  minister  did  not  arise 
in  any  degree  from  the  apprehensions  of  opposition  in  any  quarter 
to  their  abolition.     The  nobles  themselves  perceived  the  necessi  ty 
of  surrendering  privileges  which  were  not  only  unreasonable  and 
odious,  but  which  might  become  even  dangerous  to  themselves  if 
their  abolition  should  be  regarded  as  incompatible  with  the  main- 
tenance of  their  order  :  and,  before  the  close  of  the  year  1788,  both  (y^JLi^ju^i^ 
nobles  and  clergy  presented  an  address  to  the  king  declaring  their    , 
willingness  to  renounce  every  one  of  their  exclusive  privileges,  and  /%}^u,^^ 
to  bear  their  share  of  whatever  public  burdens  the  necessities  of  / 

the  state  might  require  to  be  imposed,  on  a  footing  of  complete 
equality  with  all  their  fellow-subjects. 

Such  an  address,  dictated  by  a  loyal  patriotism,  and  breathing 
at  least  some  portion  of  statesmanlike  foresight,  would  have 
sufficed  to  remove  many  of  the  greatest  difficulties  from  the  minis- 
ter's path,  if  he  had  not  been  bent  on  making  others  for  himself. 
And  to  a  mere  superficial  observer,  it  might  have  appeared  as  if 
the  higher  classes  had  no  special  reason  to  fear  the  temper  of  the 
states-general,  because  of  the  representatives  of  the  commons 
hardly  one  was  drawn  from  the  classes  which  had  suffered  most 
from  the  privileges  to  which  allusion  has  been  made ;  and  who, 
therefore,  might  be  expected  to  retain  an  angry  memory  of  them, 
even  after  they  were  surrendered.  They  were  taken,  with  scarcely 
an  exception,  from  the  inhabitants  of  the  diiferent  towns ;  from 
the  provincial  lawyers,  doctors,  and  artists,  with  a  few  obscure, 
though  busy,  literary  men,  who,  if  conscious  of  no  particular 
claim  which  prelates  or  dukes  or  counts  had  on  their  gratitude, 
were,  in  all  likelihood,  equally  unable  to  allege  any  past  injuries 
which  they  might  be  excused,  at  least  to  themselves,  for  desiring 
to  avenge.     But  the  evil  lay  deeper.    The  animosity  excited  by 


438  MODEEN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1788. 

inj  uries  inflicted  by  a  single  individual,  or  by  many  individuals, 
might  have  been  allayed  or  extinguished :  feelings  of  contempt 
for  and  animosity  to  a  w^hole  class  could  not  be  so  easily  eradicated. 
One  act  of  disinterested  abnegation  and  liberality  on  the  part  of 
the  existing  generation  of  nobles  could  not  efface  the  impression 
made  by  almost  three  centuries  of  selfishness,  insolence,  cruelty, 
and  profligacy.  That  long  period  had  witnessed  one  unceasing 
crusade  against  all  that,  in  any  country  or  in  any  age,  had  been 
regarded  as  holy,  or  virtuous,  or  even  respectable.  The  kings  had 
set  an  uniform  example  of  the  grossest  vices :  the  nobles  of  both 
sexes  had,  with  equal  shamelessness,  vied  with  each  other  in  the 
accuracy  with  which  they  imitated  their  royal  masters.  Nor  had 
the  lives  of  the  higher  clergy  reproved  the  licentiousness  of  the 
laymen.  Even  of  those  who  had  kept  their  own  lives  pure,  few 
indeed  had  thought  it  their  duty  to  reprove  vice  when  practised 
by  the  princes  of  the  land  :  while,  at  the  existing  moment,  the 
men  most  conspicuous  in  the  whole  kingdom  for  immorality  and 
avowed  infidelity  sat  in  the  highest  places  of  the  Church.  It  was 
not  strange  that  such  uninterrupted  iniquity  should  have  spread 
one  general  demoralisation  over  the  whole  nation;  nor  that, 
among  the  middle  and  lower  classes,  it  should  have  taken  the 
form  of  bitter  hatred  towards  those  of  higher  rank,  whom,  as  a 
body,  they  could  not  but  despise.  How  great  that  demoralisation 
was,  in  what  appalling  ferocity  that  hatred  was  about  to  show 
itself,  by  what  savage  ferocity  and  loathsome  impiety  it  was 
to  proclaim  its  scorn  of  a  Church  which  could  complacently 
reckon  men  like  Lomenie  and  Talleyrand  among  its  highest  dig- 
nitaries, none  could  anticipate. 

Yet  it  was  not  among  the  middle  or  lower  classes  that  the  most 
forward  and  dangerous  of  the  assailants  of  the  old  institutions 
were  at  first  found.  There  was  one  person  especially  who  seemed 
to  add  to  his  political  opposition  to  the  minister  a  personal  hatred 
of  the  king  and  queen,  and  he  was  a  member  of  the  royal  family 
itself;  the  prince  nearest  the  throne,  with  the  exception  of 
Louis's  sons  and  brothers,  the  Duke  of  Orleans.  Every  prince  of 
that  house  but  one  had  earned  an  infamous  notoriety  by  his  vices ; 
and  the  existing  duke,  while  equalling  the  worst  in  licentiousness 
and  the  open  avowal  of  infidelity,  added  to  his  private  iniquities 
olfences  against  the  public,  disloyalty  and  treason,  from  which 
they  had  been  free.^     He  was  especially  bitter  against  the  queen, 

^  Gaston,  duke  of  Orleans,  in  the  with  him,  and  was  revived  by- 
time  of  Ridielieu  and  Mazarin,  had  Louis  XIV.  for  his  own  brother,  the 
been  guilty  of  repeated  treason  ;  but  husband  (and  probably  the  mur- 
the  latter  Dukes  of  Orleans  were  not  derer)  of  the  Princess  Mary  of  Eng- 
his  descendants.    The  title  perished  land. 


I.D.  1788.]  THE  DUKE   OF  ORLEANS.  439 

whom,  as  was  commonly  believed,  he  had  dared  to  approach  with 
the  language  of  love,  by  whom  he  had  been  repulsed  with  just 
disdain,  and  on  whom  he  thirsted  for  revenge.  Jle  had  also  con- 
ceived the  idea  of  supplanting  the  king  himself,  either  by  his 
dethronement  or  abdication,  and  of  placing  the  crown  on  his  own 
head:  and  with  this  object  he  had  been  industrious  in  fomenting 
the  growing  discontent  in  different  parts  of  the  country.  In  Paris, 
and  even  in  the  parliament,  so  unwisely  restored,  he  had  agents  in 
his  pay ;  and  many  of  the  most  factious  and  disloyal  acts  on 
which  the  parliament  had  lately  ventured  were  so  clearly  traced 
to  his  influence,  that  at  one  time  Louis  had  banished  him  from 
Paris,  though  he  was  prevailed  on,  after  a  few  months,  to  cancel 
the  sentence,  and  even  to  receive  him  at  Versailles.  lie  was 
enormously  rich :  and,  as  the  time  fixed  for  the  meeting  of  the 
states-general  drew  near,  exerted  himself  more  vigorously  than 
ever  to  secure  instruments  of  different  sorts  for  the  accomplish- 
ment of  his  ends.  He  patronised  clubs  where  measures  incom- 
patible with  the  security  of  the  government  were  openly 
advocated,  and  where  a  system  was  organised  for  controlling  the 
election  of  representatives.  He  hired  pamphleteers  to  deluge  the 
capital  with  libels  upon  everybody  and  every  measure  which 
misrepresentation  could  be  expected  to  render  odious  :  and  he  kept 
in  his  pay  gangs  of  desperadoes,  who,  in  one  widespread  and  fatal 
riot,  in  the  very  week  that  preceded  the  meeting  of  the  state-s, 
gave  fearful  proof  of  their  readiness  to  perpetrate  any  crime  which 
might  be  commanded  by  their  paymaster.  One  of  the  clubs  which 
were  formed  under  his  auspices  bore  the  significant  name  of  I^es 
Enrages.  But  another,  with  which,  after  a  time,  it  coalesced, 
became  the  most  powerful  of  all  the  agents  in  the  Hevolution, 
and  the  direct  promoter  of  its  most  sanguinary  atrocities.  At  first 
it  was  called  the  Breton  club,  from  its  founders,  who  were  some  of 
the  deputies  from  Brittany  ;  but  when  the  assembly  removed  to 
Paris,  and  it  obtained  for  its  meetings  an  adjacent  convent,  for- 
merly belonging  to  the  Dominican  or  Jacobin  friars,  it  took  the 
name  of  Jacobin ;  while  the  lead  in  it  passed  from  its  original 
founders  into  the  hands  of  Robespierre,  a  deputy  from  Arras,  of 
that  very  class  from  whose  predominance  in  the  states-general 
the  sagacity  of  Burke,  from  the  first,  foreboded  so  much  mischief; ' 
attorneys  without  practice  or  character,  habitually  eager  to  make 
a  base  profit  by  fomenting  disturbance.  But  even  Burke  could 
not  have  foreseen  the  insane  thirst  for  bloodshed  which  became 
the  morbid  characteristic  of  him  and  so  many  of  his  legal  brethren ; 
for  it  is  remarkable  that  not  only  he,  but  Danton,  Vergniaud, 

1  Burke's  Works,  v.  93,  ed.  1803. 


i40  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1788. 

Petioii,  and  Fouclid  were  all  members  of  the  same  profession ;  and 
the  history  of  no  country  since  the  creation  of  the  world  is 
written  in  characters  of  such  indelible  infamy  as  the  annals 
of  France  while  these  men  had  the  chief  influence  over  her 
councils. 

One  thing  d'Orleans  wanted  :  an  orator  to  aid  his  designs  in  the 
assembly  itself;  and  what  he,  perhaps,  could  not  have  obtained 
for  himself,  the  imprudence  and  mismanagement  of  Necker 
drove  into  his  arms ;  and  the  man  who  now  became  his  spokes- 
man was  for  the  next  two  years  so  far  the  most  conspicuous 
person  in  the  kingdom,  that  we  must  say  a  few  words  about  his 
previous  career  and  character.  The  Count  de  Mirabeau  was  born, 
in  1749,  as  the  eldest  son  of  a  Provencal  noble  of  Italian  origin, 
great  wealth,  and  a  ferocious  eccentricity  of  character  which  made 
him  the  worst  possible  instructor  for  a  youth  of  brilliant  talents, 
unbridled  passions,  and  a  vehemence  of  disposition  which  would 
have  severely  tested  the  most  judicious  patience  to  restrain  or 
regulate.  His  early  years  were  passed  in  a  career  of  unsurpassed 
licentiousness,  which,  from  time  to  time,  was  visited  by  his  father 
with  a  severity  of  punishment  which,  for  one  of  his  rank  of  life, 
was  equally  unprecedented.  Though  unusually  ugly  (he  himself 
compared  his  face  to  that  of  a  tiger  who  had  had  the  small-pox), 
he  was  irresistible  with  women.  At  first  he  was  placed  in  the 
army,  which  he  had  not  joined  six  months  before  he  seduced  his 
colonel's  mistress,  fought  more  than  one  duel  with  his  brother 
officers,  and  was  finally  committed  to  piison  at  the  request  of  his 
own  father.  Being  presently  released,  he  served  a  campaign 
in  Corsica ;  and,  having  involved  himself  in  debt  in  that  island, 
he  outri vailed  all  other  suitors  for  the  hand  of  a  wealthy  heiress 
in  the  Limousin.  He  treated  her  with  the  grossest  neglect  and 
cruelty,  dishonoured  several  respectable  families  by  his  licentious 
gallantries,  fought  more  duels,  and,  at  his  father's  desire,  was 
again  thrown  into  prison ;  being  committed  first  to  the  Chateau 
d'lf ;  and  afterwards,  when  it  was  discovered  that  he  had  prevailed 
on  the  wife  of  one  of  the  officers  of  the  castle  to  aid  and  share  in 
his  escape,  to  the  castle  of  Roux,  on  the  frontier  of  Switzerland. 
Here  he  won  the  goodwill  of  the  governor  of  the  fortress,  the 
Count  de  St.-Mauris,  and  repaid  it  by  running  away  with  a  lady 
whom  he  met  at  his  table,  the  Marchioness  de  Monnier.  Once  more 
he  was  arrested  and  imprisoned  at  Dijon ;  but  he  escaped  into  Hol- 
land, and  there  supported  himself  and  Madame  de  Monnier  by  his 
pen.  The  pair  were  prosecuted  by  the  marquis,  and,  after  a  time, 
were  kidnapped  by  agents  employed  by  him  and  by  Mirabeau's 
father,  and  were  both  committed  to  separate  prisons ;  Mirabeau 
himself  beinsr  confined  at  Vincennes.     Madame  de  Monnier  com- 


A.B.  1788.]  MIRABEAU.  441 

mitted  suicide  in  her  prison ;  but,  at  the  end  of  three  years,  Mirabeau 
was  released  from  his :  and,  having  prevailed  on  a  young  lady  of 
exquisite  beauty  to  leave  her  convent  for  his  sake,  he  quitted  the 
kingdom  with  her,  flying  first  to  Prussia,  where  Frederic  the 
Great,  equally  glad  to  receive  him  as  a  Frenchman,  a  profligate, 
and  a  genius,  took  him  for  a  time  into  high  favour.  Like  everyone 
else  who  came  in  contact  with  him,  the  count  was  greatly  struck 
with  the  king's  character;  but  it  is  remarkable  that  the  effect 
which  it  seems  to  have  produced  upon  him  was  a  decided  pre- 
ference of  peace  to  war. 

While  at  the  court  of  Berlin,  he  began  to  apply  himself  to  poli- 
tical studies,  and  drew  up  a  paper  on  the  situation  of  Europe,  and 
of  France  in  particular,  in  which  he  suggested  the  conclusion  of  a 
commercial  treaty  with  England,  as  '  a  sublime  revolution  which 
would  ensure  the  peace  of  the  world,'  and  which  he  forwarded  to 
Culonne,  who  was  then  in  office,  not  being  aware  that  that 
minister  had  recently  listened  to  a  proposal  of  such  a  measure 
from  Mr.  Pitt,  and  was  at  that  very  time  engaged  in  negotiations 
on  the  subject.  Frederic  had  probably  supported  him  to  some 
extent  at  Berlin  ;  but  as,  after  his  death,  that  source  of  supply  was 
lost  to  Mirabeau,  he  quitted  Prussia,  and  for  a  year  or  two  roamed 
about  in  a  condition  but  little  removed  from  penury,  visiting 
Switzerland,  Holland,  and  England,  and  being  driven  from  each 
country  by  his  creditors ;  till,  at  the  beginning  of  1789,  hearing 
of  the  approaching  meeting  of  the  states-general,  he  resolved  to 
return  to  Provence,  to  offer  himself  as  a  candidate  for  a  seat  in 
that  assembly.  Worthless  as  he  was,  no  heavier  misfortune  could 
have  befallen  the  count  than  that  he  should  have  been  dis- 
appointed in  his  hopes,  as  he  was  disappointed.  He  wished  to  be 
returned  by  the  nobles  of  the  province  as  their  representative,  in 
which  case  imdoubtedly  he  would  have  stood  forward  as  their 
champion ;  but  they  were  unwilling  to  favour  the  ambition  of  one 
who  had  earned  so  disreputable  a  notoriety :  and  having,  in  defi- 
ance of  the  royal  edict,  which  had  declared  everyone  eligible,  esta- 
blished a  rule  of  their  own,  by  which  the  possession  of  a  fief  was- 
rendered  an  indispensable  qualification,  they  preferred  another 
candidate.  Full  of  indignation,  and  burning  to  revenge  himself 
on  those  who  had  rejected  him,  Mirabeau  turned  to  the  third 
estate  of  the  province,  and  sought  the  suffrages  of  the  electors  of 
that  class ;  avowing  himself  now  an  opponent  of  the  ministry,  and 
an  uncompromising  enemy  of  the  privileges  of  the  nobles,  and,  in 
announcing  his  candidature,  he,  for  the  first  time,  gave  proof  how 
greatly  he  was  qualified  by  nature  for  the  part  which  he  was  pre- 
paring to  play. 

His  speeches  during  his  canvass  gave  the  first  token  of  that 


442  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1789. 

commanding  and  fiery  eloquence  whicli  a  few  months  afterwards 
caused  the  destinies  of  the  whole  country  and  of  every  class  to 
depend  upon  his  voice.  On  the  people  of  the  provinces,  who  had 
never  before  been  addressed  in  the  language  of  independence,  it 
had  .in  electric  effect;  and,  wherever  the  fame  of  his  oratory 
reached,  his  popularity  became  irresistible.  His  reception  at  Aix 
r»sembled  that  of  a  sovereign  returning  from  victory.  The  com- 
mons, whose  suffrages  he  was  seeking,  poured  forth  from  the 
gates  to  escort  him  into  the  town,  while  a  train  of  horsemen  and 
carriages  a  mile  long  proved  that  the  enthusiasm  was  not  con- 
fined to  the  lowest  classes.  The  road  was  strewed  with  flowers, 
and  it  was  amid  the  roar  of  100  guns,  and  the  acclamation  of  the 
whole  populace,  which  drowned  even  the  thunder  of  the  guns, 
that  the  rejected  of  the  nobles  entered  the  capital  of  Provence. 
So  great  did  he  feel  his  influence  to  be  over  the  whole  district, 
that  a  few  days  afterwards  he  ventured  even  to  risk  his  popularity 
by  aiding  in  the  suppression  of  a  riot  at  Marseilles,  which  the  gar- 
rison had  proved  unable  to  quell.  He  was  returned  unanimously, 
by  the  citizens  of  both  Aix  and  Marseilles,  as  the  representative  of 
the  commons ;  and  he  hastened  to  Paris  to  take  his  seat  in  the 
assembly,  in  his  heart  almost  as  sore  at  his  success  with  them,  as 
he  had  been  indignant  at  his  repudiation  by  the  nobles.  For, 
even  while  vowing  to  revenge  himself  on  them,  he  was  proud  of 
belonging  to  their  order,  and  was  as  deeply  imbued  with  their 
prejudices  as  with  their  vices;  while,  with  those  who  had  chosen 
him  to  represent  their  views,  he  had  not  a  single  feeling  in 
common. 

Even  after  he  had  formally  enrolled  himself  among  the  demo- 
cratic part}^,  he  made  one  more  eflbrt  to  escape  from  it.  The  mea- 
sures adopted  in  the  assembly  in  its  first  sittings  alarmed  him  ;  as 
they  could  not  fail  to  alarm  every  man  of  penetration.  More  than 
once  he  put  himself  forward  in  opposition  to  the  proposals  of 
some  of  the  more  violent  leaders ;  and  when  he  had  thus  shown 
the  use  to  which  he  was  inclined  to  put  his  ability  and  his  in- 
fluence, he  made  overtures  to  Necker,  offering  to  support  the 
government,  if  the  ministers  on  their  part  would  place  confidence 
in  him.  If  no  other  act  of  Necker's  showed  his  unfitness  for  his 
ofiice,  it  would  be  sufficiently  proved  by  his  treatment  of  this  pro- 
posal. For  the  discussions  that  had  taken  place,  few  as  they 
were,  had  been  already  amply  sufficient  to  show  that  there  was 
not  one  man  whose  adhesion  it  was  so  important  to  gain.  But  of 
men  and  their  feelings  Necker  knew  nothing :  all  his  notions  of 
them  he  had  derived  from  books.  He  was  a  theorist,  and  nothing 
but  a  theorist.  His  head,  or  all  of  it  that  was  not  occupied  with 
the    multiplication-table,  was  filled  with   abstract  principles  of 


A.D.  1789.]     KECKER  BEQUESTS  MIRABEAU'S  AID.         443 

government,  without  its  ever  occurring  to  him  that  they  might 
not  be  equally  fit  at  all  times  for  all  people ;  and  without  his 
having  even  informed  himself  correctly  of  their  effect  in  any  case 
in  which  they  had  been  tried.  To  Mirabeau*8  offers  of  co-opera- 
tion he  replied  coldly,  that  the  difference  between  his  and  the 
count's  general  views  must  prevent  them  acting  in  unison :  Mira- 
beau,  he  said,  wished  to  govern  by  policy,  he  himself  by  morality : 
and,  with  this  aphorism,  he  rejected  the  alliance  of  the  most 
powerful  speaker  and  ablest  man  in  the  assembly,  though  he  could 
have  no  doubt  that  the  effect  of  his  rejection  must  be  to  throw 
him  into  the  arms  of  the  enemies  of  the  court  and  the  ministry. 
Jealousy  of  the  capacity  which  Mirabeau  had  already  exhibited, 
and  of  his  popularity,  which  Necker  always  desired  to  engross  to 
himself,  had  probably  as  great  a  share  in  influencing  his  decision 
as  the  views  of  morality  which  he  alleged  as  his  reason  ;  but  no 
more  fatal  mistake  was  ever  made.  The  Proven9al  nobles  can 
hardly  be  blamed  for  declining  to  choose  as  their  representative  the 
most  notorious  profligate  in  the  whole  kingdom ;  nor,  when  they 
did  so,  was  his  ability  known :  now  that  it  was  known,  Necker 
had  it  in  his  power  to  neutralise  the  consequences  of  their  resolu- 
tion ;  and  it  may  well  be  that  on  his  decision  depended  the  whole 
course  of  subsequent  events.  The  whole  future  of  France,  and, 
for  many  years,  of  continental  Europe,  would,  it  is  highly  pro- 
bable have  been  widely  different  from  what  it  was,  had  it  been 
for  Mirabeau's  interest,  either  as  a  representative  of  the  nobles,  or 
as  a  recognised  supporter  and  champion  of  the  government,  to  repel 
the  encroachments  of  the  representatives  of  the  commons,  instead 
of  prompting  and  urging  them  on  with  his  unrivalled  energy  and 
eloquence  as  their  mouthpiece  and  leader. 

lie  was  bitterly  disappointed.  He  had  undoubtedly  not  been 
wholly  disinterested  in  the  offer  of  his  services  to  Necker.  As  his 
profligacy  had  made  him  needy,  he  wanted  money ;  as  it  had 
lowered  both  his  character  and  his  influence,  he  was  still  more 
desirous  to  attain  a  situation  where  he  could  display  the  capa- 
city, both  for  speaking  and  acting,  of  which  he  was  conscious,  to 
its  full  extent,  as  the  acknowledged  bulwark  of  a  great  party. 
The  king's  was  the  party  which  he  would  have  chosen,  but  he 
could  not  afford  to  be  independent ;  and,  on  being  rebuffed  by 
Necker's  imprudent  and  pedantic  vanity,  he  had  no  resource  left 
but  that  of  connecting  himself  with  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  by  whom 
he  was  received  with  open  arms ;  and,  for  the  next  four  months, 
till  he  learnt  how  cowardly  and  despicable  the  duke  was,  and,  as 
such,  how  incapable  of  profiting  even  by  the  boldness  of  his 
partisans,  he  was  the  chief  adviser  of  his  secret  councils,  the  open 
instrument  of  his  designs  in  the  assembly.     Every  step  in  the 


444  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1789. 

history  of  those  four  months  is  marked  with  blood  and  crime. 
The  object  of  d'Orleans,  as  we  have  mentioned,  was  to  dethrone 
his  kinsman,  and  to  reign  in  his  stead ;  and  this  project  was  not 
altogether  inconsistent  with  Mirabeau's  own  opinions,  who  had 
studied  the  history  of  England  and  of  her  constitution,  and,  as  a 
statesmen,  honestly  desired  to  see  the  establishment  of  a  similar 
form  of  government  in  his  own  country.  Had  not  Necker  repulsed 
him,  he  would  have  been  content  to  see  the  existing  dynasty  inau- 
gurate it ;  but  he  was  not  insensible  to  the  advantage  to  the  nation 
of  its  sovereign's  authority  resting  on  a  parliamentary  title,  and  he 
now  began  cordially  and  zealously  to  labour  for  the  elevation  of 
the  prince  whose  connection  with  the  reigning  Bourbons  bore 
some  analogy  to  AVilliam's  relationship  to  the  Stuarts.  "When  he 
had  taken  his  part,  his  fiery  temper  was  neither  daunted  nor 
shocked  at  the  crimes  into  which  the  populace  allowed  itself  to  be 
hurried  ;  though  many  of  them,  in  their  details,  showed  an  innate 
ferocity  of  temper  such  as  had  never  been  witnessed  before  in  the 
history  of  civilised  nations. 

Had  the  object  of  the  opponents  of  the  government  been  the 
redress  of  abuses,  that  was  partly  secured  by  the  measures  an- 
nounced, by  the  king  himself,  in  a  royal  sitting  before  the  end  of 
June.  He  abolished  all  the  most  burdensome  and  odious  imposts. 
He  extinguished  the  peculiar  privileges  of  the  nobles,  their  ex- 
emption from  taxation,  and  all  those  seignorial  rights  which  were 
a  degradation  of  the  vassals.  He  opened  all  military  and  civil 
appointments  to  the  nation  at  large.  He  ordained  that  for  the 
future  the  states-general  should  be  constantly  reassembled  at 
fixed  intervals :  and  that  the  whole  revenue,  both  in  the  sources 
from  which  it  should  be  raised  and  in  its  expenditure,  should  be 
regulated  by  them.  He  renounced  the  practice  and  power  of 
arbitrary  imprisonment ;  and  finally,  he  granted  the  liberty  of  the 
press.  So  complete  was  the  reform  that,  twenty-five  years  later, 
when  the  miseries  and  struggles  and  convulsions  of  a  quarter  of  a 
century  had  ended  in  the  restoration  of  the  old  family  to  the 
throne,  the  Charter  with  which  Louis  XVIII.  inaugurated  his 
reign,  framed  on  consultation  with  the  ablest  of  the  survivors^  of 
the  Revolution,  was  identical  in  all  its  leading  principles  with  the 
constitution  now  promulgated  by  his  brother.'^  But  no  concessions 
could  satisfy  the  demagogues  whose  one  object  was  to  quarrel 
with  him  who  made  them.  That,  in  themselves,  they  were  suf- 
ficient Mirabeau  himself  could  not  deny ;  and  his  sole  resource 

1  M.  de  Talleyrand.  of  the  two  kings  :  adding,  '  On  fremit 

2  Lacretelle  {Histoire  de  la  France  en  pensant  au  long  et  epouvantable 
pendant  le  ISmeSiecle,  vii.  36)  admits  circuit  que  nous  avons  eu  h  faire  pour 
the  close  resemblance  of  the  measures  revenir  presqu'au  point  du  depart.' 


A.i>.  1789.]  THE  NATIONAL  ASSEMBLY.  445 

was  to  neutralise  their  effect  by  a  complaint  that  they  proceeded 
from  the  king's  liberality,  not  from  the  people's  will.  *  Louis,'  he 
affirmed,  *  was  still  a  despot,  and  the  presents  of  despots  were 
dangerous.'  And  he  complained  of  his  coming  down  to  the 
assembly  with  an  escort  of  guards ;  as  if  that  ordinary  portion  of 
every  state  ceremony  had  been  intended  to  overawe  their  delibera- 
tions. Nor  could  M.  Bailly,  the  president  of  the  assembly  and 
mayor  of  Paris,  who,  in  both  capacities,  took  every  opportunity  of 
offering  personal  insults  to  the  king,  deny  the  ample  sufficiency 
of  the  securities  now  promised  for  future  liberty.  *  Nothing,'  he 
admitted,  ^was  wanting,  but  that  the  people  should  itself  have 
taken  them,  and  that  the  king  should  not  have  given  them.'^  And 
they  had  already  proclaimed  this  feeling  to  the  world  by  an  act  of 
strange  and  lawless  assumption ;  taking  upon  themselves  to  change 
the  ancient  legal  title  of  '  the  States  General '  into  the  novel  and 
unheard-of  name  of  '  the  National  Assembly,*  and  persisting  in  the 
use  of  this  new  appellation,  in  spite  of  the  formal  prohibition  of 
the  king,  who  rightly  felt  bound  to  condemn  an  act  which  had  no 
motive  but  a  defiance  of  his  own  authority.  But  those  who  felt 
this  felt  also  the  danger  that  the  liberal  policy  thus  announced 
might  procure  the  government  supporters  among  those  in  whose 
eyes  order  and  tranquillity  were  the  first  of  political  blessings. 
And  they  saw,  therefore,  the  necessity  of  rousing  the  populace  to 
acts  of  outrage  to  intimidate  the  citizens  in  general ;  while,  at  the 
same  time,  a  gang  of  the  very  dregs  of  the  people,  in  the  pay 
of  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  was,  day  after  day,  introduced  into  the 
assembly  to  terrify  any  champion  of  reason  or  of  humanity  who 
might  dare  to  lift  up  his  voice  there.  This  is  not  a  history  of  the 
Revolution :  and  I  do  not  purpose  here  to  dwell  on  any  of  its  scenes, 
except  on  such  as  show  the  character  of  Louis  himself;  the  insults 
and  perils  to  which  Louis  was  personally  exposed,  and  the  patient 
magnanimous  courage  with  which  he  endured  or  confronted  them ; 
and  which  only  lacked  a  corresponding  energy  to  quell  and  chas- 
tise the  guilty  to  entitle  him  to  the  character  of  a  hero.  Un- 
luckily his  irresolution,  when  called  upon  to  act,  was  fully  equal 
to  his  fortitude  when  only  required  to  suffer.  lie  could  never  be 
brought  to  see  that  to  resist  lawlessness  and  to  punish  crime  is 
itself  the  very  first  of  a  sovereign's  duties,  and  that  the  greater  the 
danger  with  which  the  performance  is  accompanied,  the  plainer  is 
the  duty.  Riot  and  outrage  tlierefore  went  on  unchecked.  One  day 
the  Orleanists  excited  a  mutiny  among  the  troops  who  formed  the 

^  Accordinfir  to    De    Tocqiieville,  iierent  plus  kd^sirer  que  leursaffiiires 

this  feeling  was  of  older  date,  and  fiissent  mieux  faites :   lis  commen- 

existed  even   before    the    death    of  9aient  k  vouloirlesfaire  eux-memes.' 

Voltaire.    *  Les  Frangais  ne  se  bor-  —UAncien  Regime,  p.  245. 


146  MOUEEN  HISTOKY.  [a.d.  1789. 

garrison  of  the  city ;  another  day  they  roused  a  ferocious  mob  to 
attack  the  Bastille,  the  great  prison  fortress  of  the  capital,  de- 
servedly odious  to  all  in  its  first  character,  and  unluckily  in  its 
second  too  extensive  to  be  held  by  the  handful  of  troops  which 
had  never  been  intended  as  a  defence  for  a  stronghold  that  no 
one  had  ever  supposed  liable  to  attack.  A  guard  of  less  than  120 
men,  of  whom  two-thirds  were  superannuated  veterans,  was 
scarcely  sufficient  to  watch  its  vast  extent  of  towers,  ramparts, 
inner  and  outer  courts;  and  utterly  inadequate  to  maintain  a 
single  outpost  against  assault.  The  fortress  was  stormed,  and  the 
victorious  populace  gave  a  sad  omen  of  the  savage  barbarity  which 
was  to  distinguish  all  their  successes  by  massacreing  the  garrison, 
and  even  mutilating  the  dead  bodies,  and  bearing  their  heads  and 
dissevered  limbs  in  ghastly  triumph  through  the  streets. 

The  author  of  these  horrors  hoped,  probably,  to  terrify  the  king 
and  queen  into  fleeing  from  Versailles,  in  which  case  they  would 
at  once  have  placed  d'Orl^ans  on  the  throne;  and  Marie  An- 
toinette, fearing  not  for  herself  but  for  her  husband,  did  at  once 
urge  his  withdrawal  to  the  head-quarters  of  the  army  in  Picardy, 
while  his  younger  brother,  the  Count  d'Artois,  showed  his  ap- 
proval of  the  plan  by  at  once  quitting  the  country ;  thus  setting  the 
example  of  that  emigration  of  the  royalist  nobles  which  was  con- 
tinued throughout  the  summer  and  autumn,  and  to  which  no 
small  portion  of  the  calamities  and  disgraces  which  ensued  is 
manifestly  to  be  attributed.  But  Louis,  who  was  as  little  accessi- 
ble to  personal  fear  as  the  queen,  decided  on  a  manlier  course.  He 
refused  to  take  a  step  which  would  have  the  effect  of  leaving  the 
field  open  to  his  enemies ;  and  determined  rather  to  act  upon  a 
suggestion  that  had  been  made  to  him  by  a  party  of  the  Parisians, 
which,  however,  was  not  composed  of  his  friends,  to  visit  the  city, 
and  to  endeavour,  by  his  presence,  to  shame  the  citizens  back  to 
decency,  if  not  to  loyalty.  It  was  a  bold  determination,  not 
adopted  without  a  full  consciousness  of  the  danger  to  which  it 
exposed  him,  for  he  had  been  warned  of  the  existence  of  a  plot  to 
assassinate  him.  Before  he  set  out  he  burnt  all  his  papers,  signed 
a  deed  by  which,  in  the  event  of  his  detention  by  the  citizens  as 
a  prisoner,  or  of  his  murder,  he  appointed  his  next  brother,  the 
Count  de  Provence,  regent  of  the  kingdom  during  his  son's 
minority ;  and  took  leave  of  the  queen  as  of  one  whom  he  might 
never  see  again.  But  he  was  deceived.  Bailly,  indeed,  again  took 
the  opportunity  to  offer  him  more  than  one  wanton  insult,  little 
foreseeing  that  in  outraging  the  most  humane  of  kings  he  was 
but  building  up  a  scaffold  on  which  his  own  head  should  hereafter 
fall ;  but  he  overshot  his  mark,  and  when  he  forced  on  the  king 
the  tricoloured  cockade,  which  the  assembly  had  recently  adopted, 


A.D.  1789.]      DISTURBANCES  IN  THE  PKOVINCES.  447 

as  the  national  colour,  in  place  of  the  time-honoured  lilies  of  the 
ancient  kings,  and  when  Louis,  in  compliance  with  the  rule  which 
he  had  prescribed  to  himself,  of  complying  with  everything  and 
enduring  everything,  accepted  the  revolutionary  emblem  and  fixed 
it  in  his  hat,  the  impulsive  populace  seemed  inspired  with  a  sudden 
fit  of  returning  loyalty,  and,  though  they  had  been  strictly  for- 
bidden to  utter  their  old  loyal  cry  of  ^  Vive  le  Roi  1'  it  now  burst 
forth  from  a  thousand  throats,  and  the  king's  return  to  the  barrier, 
on  his  way  back  to  Versailles,  was  a  complete  procession  of 
triumph. 

D'Orleans  and  Mirabeau  had  missed  their  blow.  They  began 
to  plan  another ;  and  to  organise  an  attack  on  the  palace  at  Ver- 
sailles, from  which  it  should  be  impossible  for  the  sovereigns  to 
escape.  Meanwhile,  they  spread  over  the  whole  country  stories 
whose  manifest  absurdity  did  not  prevent  their  obtaining  a  ready 
belief:  that  the  court  had  attacked  the  people,  that  the  queen  her- 
self had  formed  a  plot  to  blow  up  the  National  Assembly  by  a 
mine,  and  when  that  was  destroyed,  to  march  the  army  instantly 
on  Paris,  and  massacre  the  citizens ;  ^  that  she  had  been  convicted 
of  a  design  to  poison  the  king  himself,  and  to  blow  up  the  Palais 
Royale,  the  residence  of  the  Duke  of  Orleans.  And  by  thus  in- 
flaming the  minds  of  the  people,  they  had  excited  formidable  and 
bloody  riots  in  many  of  the  provinces.  In  Normandy,  Alsace,  and 
Provence  the  poorer  citizens  rose  against  the  wealthy  townsmen, 
the  peasants  against  their  landlords,  burning  houses,  and  mas- 
sacreing  the  inhabitants  with  circumstances  of  unheard-of  bar- 
barity. Some  were  torn  in  pieces,  some  were  roasted  alive,  some 
actually  had  portions  of  their  flesh  torn  off"  and  eaten  by  their 
murderers  before  the  blow  was  given  which  terminated  their 
agonies ;  their  sex  did  not  save  ladies  from  being  at  times  the 
victims  of  similar  atrocities,  nor  did  it  prevent  women  from  being 
the  actors  in  them.  These  months  of  summer  recorded  such 
scenes  of  horror,  terrible  in  themselves,  still  more  terrible  as  indi- 
cations of  the  fiendish  temper  which  prevailed  among  the  people 
in  general,  as  might  well  have  made  any  man  of  statesmanship, 
of  honesty,  or  of  common  humanity  weigh  carefully  his  every 
action  and  every  word  lest  the  eftect  should  be  further  to  excite 
the  passions  or  to  strengthen  the  hands  of  the  classes  who  had 
shown  how  fearfully  they  were  inclined  to  misuse  the  briefest 
moment  of  power. 

But  considerations  like  these  had  no  weight  with  the  leading 

1  Arthur  Young  heard  both  these  therefore  admitting  of  no  doubt.    See 

stories.     One  was  affirmed,   at   the  his  Travels  during  1787,  1788,  1789, 

table  d'hote  at  Colmar,  as  a  fact  cer-  date  July  24  and  July  31,  1789. 
tified  by  one  of  the  deputies,  and 


448  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.i>.  1789. 

spirits  of  the  assembly  ;  still  less  with  d'Orleans  and  his  parasites, 
who  sought  nothing  but  the  elevation  of  their  chief,  feeling 
assured  that  his  utter  want  of  any  kind  of  ability  would  in  effect 
place  the  power  of  the  state  in  their  hands  :  and  they  were  strangely 
helped  by  the  very  classes  who  were  the  chief  objects  of  their 
hostility;  but  who,  in  the  strange  delirium  of  the  times,  were 
as  unreasoning  and  impetuous,  though  in  a  veiy  different  way,  as 
the  lowest  of  the  populace.  As  a  meeting  of  the  assembly  only 
three  weeks  after  the  destruction  of  the  Bastille,  a  singular  fit  of 
timidity  and  liberality  combined  seized  the  whole  body  of  deputies. 
A  noble  proposed  the  instant  abolition  of  all  the  privileges  of  the 
nobility  :  a  bishop  moved  for  the  extinction  of  tithes.  Deputies 
from  the  different  provinces  rose  one  after  another,  renouncing  the 
peculiar  privileges  of  each.  There  were  rights  and  immunities 
which  Brittany,  Burgundy,  Provence,  Dauphiny,  with  all  the 
pride  of  an  honest  if  narrow-minded  patriotism,  had  maintained 
ever  since  their  annexation  to  the  crown,  as  the  token  and  recog- 
nition of  their  ancient  independence,  alike  against  the  imperious 
despotism  of  R-ichelieu,  the  ceremonial  liberalism  of  Colbert,  and 
the  gentle  seductions  of  Fleury  ,•  these  were  all  abandoned  by  the 
possessors  in  a  single  night,  without  a  word  of  discussion.  Such 
a  fever  of  destruction  had  seized  the  whole  body  that  they  would 
not  listen  to  one  of  their  members  who  sought  to  draw  a  distinc- 
tion between  different  kinds  of  rights.  The  mere  existence  of  any 
peculiar  privilege  or  custom  was  held  to  be  a  sufficient  reason  for 
its  abolition  in  the  strange  race  of  equality  upon  which  the  new 
legislators  had  entered. 

Such  a  sweeping  annihilation  of  old  institutions  could  not  fail  to 
stimulate  the  appetite  of  the  revolutionary  party  for  further  en- 
croachments, while  it  had,  in  at  least  an  equal  degree,  weakened 
the  power  of  the  government  to  resist  them.  None  saw  the 
advantage  that  had  been  gained  more  clearly  than  Mirabeau,  who 
now  began  studiously  to  curtail  the  respectful  or  complimentary 
expressions  previously  used  in  the  assembly  when  the  royal 
person  or  authority  was  mentioned ;  and  presently  to  denounce 
the  possession  of  property  of  any  kind  by  any  class  or  indi- 
vidual as  an  act  of  robbery.  And  he  proceeded  energetically  in 
the  organisation  of  an  attack  on  Versailles,  which  his  party  had 
begun  to  plan,  and  which,  he  doubted  not,  would  lead  to  the 
accomplishment  of  their  main  design,  the  enthronement  of 
d'Orleans.  Whether  he  desired  that  the  scene  which  he  was  pre- 
paring, and  which  he  had  already  designated  to  a  friend  as  *  a 
terrible  event,'  should  also  lead  to  the  murder  of  the  king  and 
queen  may  be  doubtful.  To  the  probability  of  such  a  crowning 
crime,  he  could  not  have  been  blind.     But  whether  he  would  have 


A.i).  1789.]  MADAME   ROLAND.  449 

preferred  such  a  consummation  or  not,  there  were  already  some  for 
whom  the  idea  had  no  horrors ;  and,  to  the  lasting  disgrace  of  the 
sex,  the  first  avowal  of  such  a  feeling  came  from  a  woman.  In 
many  of  the  fiercest  scenes  of  the  next  four  years  women  showed 
themselves  as  sanguinary  and  pitiless  as  the  worst  of  men.  And, 
as  early  as  July  of  the  year  we  are  speaking,  a  Madame  Roland, 
the  wife  of  an  inspector  of  factories  at  Rouen,  with  premature 
ferocity,  began  to  demand  that  the  king  and  queen  should  be 
brought  to  trial ;  or  that  some  '  generous '  assassin  ^  *  should  risk 
his  life  to  take  theirs.'  The  spurious  sentimentality  which, 
because  the  Girondins  were  skilful  to  veil  their  wickedness  beneath 
the  mask  of  a  philosophical  philanthropy,  has  laboured  to  extol  as 
pure  in  motive  a  party  between  whom  and  the  Jacobins  no  differ- 
ence whatever  existed,  except  that  the  Girondins  were  devoid  of 
the  hardihood  and  energy  of  action  which  was  the  distinguishing 
feature  of  the  fiercer  rulfians,  has  selected  Madame  Roland  as  the 
especial  object  of  its  panegyric.  But,  in  reality,  no  actor  in  the 
Revolution,  of  either  sex,  had  a  mind  more  thoroughly  impreg- 
nated with  the  impiety,  the  indecency,  and  the  ferocity  of  the 
age  ',  nor  was  there  one  neck  on  which  the  axe  of  the  guillotine 
more  deservedly  fell  than  that  of  the  coarse-minded  and  merciless 
woman  who,  before  the  shedding  of  innocent  blood  had  become 
the  special  and  characteristic  crime  of  the  nation,  dared  to  urge 
the  murder  of  the  most  blameless  king  that  France  had  seen  since 
St.-Louis,  and  of  the  worthy  daughter  of  the  noblest  ornament  of 
her  sex  that  ever  swayed  a  sceptre. 

1  Decius  she  called  him,   in   the  Her  letter  (to  M.   Bosc)  is   dated 

strange  pedantry  with  which  it  was  July  26,  1789,  and  is    quoted    by 

the  fashion  of  the  demagogues  of  the  Croker,  in  his  Essay*  on  the  French 

day  to  pretend  to  find  their  models  Revolution^  p.  176. 
among  the  heroes  of  Koman  history. 


450  MODERN   HISTORY.  U-d.  178'J. 


CHAPTER     XX. 
A,D.   1789. 

MIRABEAU  had  taken  so  little  care  to  conceal  his  machina- 
tions, if  indeed  he  did  not  prefer  to  make  them  public  in  the 
hope  that  the  royal  family  would  flee  from  the  menaced  attack,  and 
60  leave  the  field  open  to  him  and  the  wealthy  patron  to  whose 
cause  he  had  bound  himself,  that,  for  weeks  before,  the  day  on  , 
which  the  intended  attack  on  Versailles  was  to  be  made  was 
known  in  Paris,  and  in  the  assembly.  The  assembly  itself  was 
in  greater  alarm  than  the  court.  The  members  saw  that  one  object 
of  the  intended  outbreak  was  to  enslave  then!  to  the  demagogues 
and  mob  of  the  capital;  and  a  strong  party  of  the  ablest  and 
honestest  deputies,  even  of  those  who  were  most  zealous  for  a  con- 
stitutional reform,  addressed  themselves  to  Necker  with  an  earnest 
recommendation  that  the  king  should  baffle  the  intended  insur- 
rection, by  removing  the  court  and  the  assembly  to  Tours.  Necker 
and  the  rest  of  the  ministers  approved  of  the  suggestion ;  but 
Louis  at  once  rejected  it.  He  feared  that  a  step  so  manifestly 
designed  to  thwart  and  defeat  the  objects  of  his  enemies  might 
lead  to  civil  war.  As  if  he  could  have  had  a  fairer  issue  on  which 
to  appeal  to  the  nation  than  his  right  to  exercise  his  most  un- 
questioned prerogative  of  fixing  the  place  for  the  assembly's 
meetings.  He  feared  lest  his  edict  might  not  command  universal 
obedience,  and  lest  those  deputies  who  should  refuse  to  follow  him 
to  Tours  might  regard  his  journey  to  one  of  the  chief  cities  of  the 
kingdom,  as  the  British  parliament  had  regarded  the  flight  of 
James  II.  to  France,  and  pronounce  it  an  actual  abdication  of  the 
throne:  and,  never  so  resolute  as  when  his  resolutions  were 
utterly  indefensible,  he  positively  rejected  the  suggestion,  and 
remained  at  Versailles  ;  without,  however,  taking  any  further  pre- 
cautions against  the  intended  insurrection  than  that  of  sending,  at 
the  request  of  the  magistrates  of  the  town,  for  a  single  regiment 
from  the  frontier ;  and  that  was  taken  so  little  care  of,  that  the 
agents  of  d'0rl«5ans  were  able  to  tamper  with  the  soldiers,  and  to 
seduce  them  from  their  allegiance,  so  that  on  the  day  of  trial  the 
court  was  rather  injured  then  served  by  their  presence. 


A.D.  1789.]-   ATTACK  ON  THE  HOTEL  DE  VILLE.  451 

On  the  fifth  of  October,  the  day  which  had  been  so  long 
appointed  and  announced,  tlie  attack  took  place.  On  a  former 
occasion  Mirabeau  had  declared  that  the  best  chance  for  the  suc- 
cess of  an  insurrection  lay  in  placing  women  at  its  head ;  and,  in 
compliance  with  this  idea,  the  managers  of  the  tumult  arranged 
their  plans.  At  daybreak  a  woman  of  notorious  infamy  of  character 
marched  down  the  street  to  the  principal  market  in  Paris,  beating 
a  drum,  and  calling  on  all  who  heard  to  follow  her.  She  was  soon 
joined  by  a  troop  of  followers  of  her  own  class,  who  had  been 
forewarned  of  her  movements  ;  by  a  gang  of  marketr-women,  and 
fishwomen,  in  every  city  a  masculine  and  fierce  body ;  and  by 
a  number  of  men  too,  disguised  outwardly  in  female  apparel,  but 
by  their  deep  voices,  and  the  vigour  with  which  they  wielded 
their  weapons,  revealing  their  sex  in  spite  of  their  attire.  One 
man,  Maillard,  a  ruffian  who  had  been  the  most  ferocious  among 
the  stormers  of  the  Bastille,  disdained  any  disguise,  and  under  his 
guidance  they  proceeded  to  storm  the  Hotel  de  Ville.  A  detach- 
ment of  the  national  guard  had  been  entrusted  with  the  protection 
of  that  building  ;  but  the  national  guard  was  under  the  command 
of  Lafayette,  who,  with  the  strange  imbecility  or  treachery  which 
he  showed  throughout  the  whole  affair,  had  left  them  wholly 
without  orders.  They  fell  back  before  the  rioters,  affirming  it  to 
be  unworthy  of  soldiers  to  use  their  arms  against  women,  and 
leaving  the  hotel  to  be  pillaged  without  resistance ;  and  the  mob, 
thus  enabled  to  provide  themselves  with  muskets,  and  other 
weapons,  began  with  terrible  shouts  to  announce  their  resolution 
to  march  upon  Versailles ;  the  soldiers  even  fraternised  with  them, 
to  use  a  word  which  now  'began  to  be  applied  to  such  unions,  and 
not  only  agreed  to  join  them  in  their  advance  upon  tlie  palace, 
but  undertook  to  induce  their  own  commander,  Lafayette,  to 
sanction  their  conduct  by  marching  with  them.  When  the  day 
of  insurrection  had  been  so  openly  announced,  no  officer  who  had 
any  regard  for  his  own  character  would  have  been  absent  from  his 
troops.  But  Lafayette  was  never  seen  till  ten  o'clock,  long  after 
the  Hotel  de  Ville  had  been  pillaged;  and  when,  at  last,  he  joined 
his  men,  though  their  language  was  as  treasonable  as  that  of  the 
most  ferocious  of  the  rioters,  though  they  announced  their  resolu- 
tion to  attack  the  guards  at  Versailles,  to  drag  the  king  to  Paris, 
and  to  compel  him  to  abdicate,  his  vanity  was  so  flattered  by  their 
request  that  he  would  lead  them,  and  his  fear  of  endangering  his 
popularity  with  them  by  a  refusal  was  so  great,  that  he  consented 
to  march  at  their  head ;  professing,  indeed,  to  hope  that  he  might 
thus  be  able  to  check  their  excesses,  but  in  reality  so  entirely 
wasting  the  whole  day  in  irresolution  and  speech  making,  that  he 
did  not  leave  Paris  till  four  hours  after  Maillard  and  his  followers 


t52  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1789. 

had  been  in  possession  of  Versailles.  Great  crimes,  and  Lafayette's 
desertion  of  his  plain  duty,  to  crush  the  insurrection  in  the  bud, 
was  a  great  crime,  have  seldom  been  prompted  by  more  contemp- 
tible motives. 

The  news  of  the  approach  of  the  rioters  had  preceded  them  : 
but  the  brief  time  that  the  court  thus  obtained  for  deliberations 
only  served  to  show  the  weakness  of  Louis  himself  in  the  most 
painful  light.  The  messenger  who  brought  the  intelligence,  had 
reported  that  the  great  majority  of  the  rioters  were  drunk,  and  that 
they  were  beguiling  the  way  with  the  most  sanguinary  threats : 
and  that  they  had  been  joined  by  a  small  gang  of  men,  who  had 
given  themselves  the  name  of  Coupetetes,  and  who  boasted  that 
they  should  now  have  abundant  opportunity  of  earning  it.  Louis 
would  neither  fly  nor  resist.  The  chief  officers  of  his  household 
would  have  persuaded  him  to  retire  to  Rambouillet,  and  to  leave 
the  troops  to  deal  with  the  insurgents.  He  could  not  make  up  his 
mind.  He  continued  repeating  that  it  was  time  to  think  seriously ; 
.and  it  was  of  no  avail  that  the  queen  replied  that  it  was  rather 
the  time  to  act  promptly.  He  would  gladly  have  had  her 
depart  with  the  children,  but  she  declared  that  her  place  was  by 
his  side ;  that,  as  the  daughter  of  Maria  Teresa,  she  did  not  fear 
death,  and  she  positively  refused  to  leave  him.  But,  having  thus 
decided  to  remain,  he  forbade  his  body-guards  to  use  their  arms 
in  his  defence.  He  own  life,  that  of  all  his  family,  and  the  whole 
royal  authority  was  at  stake,  yet  he  could  not  be  brought  to  see 
that  it  was  his  duty  to  strike  a  blow  to  save  them.  "When  the 
rioters  did  arrive,  he  even  consented  to  receive  a  deputation  from 
them ;  on  whom  his  dignified  affability  made  a  momentary  im- 
pression ;  for  even  at  that  fearful  moment  there  was  no  hurry  or 
disorder  in  his  words  or  actions  :  it  was  apathy  and  insensibi- 
lity, not  fear,  that  he  displayed. 

The  assembly  was  not  so  calm ;  but  many  of  the  members  were 
wiser  and  more  resolute.  Mounier,  the  president  for  the  month, 
having  persuaded  Louis  to  propitiate  the  more  violent  members 
by  giving  the  royal  assent  to  the  Declaration  of  the  Rights  of 
Man,  as  they  had  named  a  ridiculous  assertion  of  abstract  prin- 
ciples which  had  been  recently  embodied  in  a  resolution,  proposed 
that  the  whole  body  should  repair  to  the  palace  to  defend  the 
king,  or,  at  least,  to  unite  their  forces  to  his ;  and  when  Mirabeau, 
who,  at  a  former  meeting,  had  hinted  fcKOcious  threats  against  the 
queen  herself,  in  a  fiery  speech  resisted  and  obtained  the  rejection 
of  that  proposal,  Mounier  himself,  with  the  bulk  of  those  who 
agreed  with  him,  nobly  crossed  over  to  the  palace  to  share  their 
sovereign's  danger.  As  night  advanced,  the  chief  movers  of  the 
conspiracy  showed  themselves  without  disguise.     Mirabeau  was 


A.D.  1789.]      LAFAYETTE  EEACIII^S  VERSA ILLPX  453 

especially  active,  whispering  to  the  soldiers,  and  stimulating  the 
national  guard  to  make  common  cause  with  the  rioters;  while 
d'Orl^ans  and  his  servants  were  busy  plying  the  mob  with  drink, 
and  scattering  money  among  them  with  wild  profusion.  Such 
allurements  were  but  too  efFectual.  Presently,  a  handful  of  the 
rioters,  more  drunk  than  their  fellows,  attacked  the  body-guard ; 
when  those  faithful  soldiers  drove  them  back,  the  national  guard, 
uniting  with  the  mob,  fired  upon  them,  killing  one  of  their  officers; 
and,  encouraged  by  the  acquisition  of  such  valuable  allies,  the 
rioters  grew  fiercer  every  moment,  pelting  the  body-guard  with 
stones,  and  even  venturing  at  times  to  come  to  a  hand-to-hand 
conflict  with  them,  and  to  try  to  wrest  their  muskets  from  their 
hands.  But  even  the  knowledge  of  the  danger  to  which  hia 
faithful  servants  were  exposed  could  not  induce  Louis  to  lay  aside 
his  untimely  scruples.  He  sent  down  orders  to  the  officers  that 
the  soldiers  were  to  forbear  to  use  their  weapons,  and  to  avoid 
bloodshed ;  and  he  reiterated  them,  though  the  officers  warned 
him  their  obedience  could  only  expose  them  to  assassination. 
The  violence  of  the.  mob  redoubled  when  they  saw  how  slightly 
they  were  resisted.  They  fired  on  the  body-guard  ;  they  made 
vigorous  attacks  on  the  outer  gates  of  the  palace,  which,  luckily, 
were  too  strong  for  them.  At  last,  when  it  was  midnight,  Lafayette 
arrived.  On  his  way  he  had  halted  his  men  to  make  a  long 
speech,  and  to  induce  them  to  swear  fidelity  to  the  nation,  the 
law,  and  the  king :  an  oath  needless  if  they  were  inclined  to  keep 
it,  useless  if  they  were  not.  On  his  arrival  at  the  palace,  he  ob- 
tained an  audience  of  the  king ;  undertook  to  be  responsible  for  the 
tranquillity  of  the  night ;  and  then,  after  sending  off  a  bombastic 
note  to  the  magistrates  of  Paris  to  assure  them  that  he  had  re- 
established order,  he  retired  to  a  friend's  house  a  mile  ofl^,  and 
went  to  bed,  knowing  that  the  rioters  were  still  surrounding  the 
palace,  and  bent  on  effecting  their  entrance. 

The  night  was  wet,  but  they  sought  no  shelter  except  such  as 
was  afforded  occasionally  by  the  wineshops  in  the  town,  where 
they  inflamed  their  intoxication,  and  from  which  they  soon  returned 
to  their  comrades,  to  renew  their  ferocious  and  menacing  cries, 
increasing  the  confusion  and  alarm  by  constant  firing.  Still,  while 
the  darkness  continued,  they  were  kept  at  a  safe  distance ;  but,  at 
daybreak,  one  of  the  gates  leading  into  a  square  of  the  palace, 
known  as  the  Prince's  Court,  was  observed  to  be  open.  It  had 
been  entrusted  to  the  care  of  the  national  guard,  and  could  not 
have  been  opened  without  treachery.  The  crowd  poured  in ;  there 
was  nothing  between  them  and  the  staircase,  which  led  to  the 
apartments  in  which  the  royal  family  were  sleeping;  but  two 
gallant  gentlemen,  M.  des  Huttes  and  M.  Moreau,  the  sentries  of 


454  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  178l>. 

tlie  detachment  of  the  body-guard  on  duty:  so  dauntlessly  did 
these  officers  stand  to  their  posts,  that  for  a  moment  the  ruffians 
recoiled  before  them,  till  d'Orleans  himself  came  forward,  and 
pointed  out  to  them  the  way  which  he  desired  they  should  take. 
Then  they  rushed  on  to  the  charge;  and  what  could  two  men 
effect  against  such  overwhelming  numbers  ?  Des  Huttes  perished, 
pierced  by  a  hundred  pikes,  and  torn  to  pieces  by  his  savage 
assailants.  Moreau,  with  equal  valour,  but  with  better  fortune, 
retreated  up  the  stairs,  fighting  so  desperately  that  he  gave  his 
comrades  time  to  barricade  the  doors  of  the  queen's  apartment, 
and  to  come  to  his  assistance.  As  they  drew  him  back,  terribly 
wounded,  De  Varicour,  Durepaire,  and  Miomandre  took  his  place, 
(the  few  brave  and  loyal  men  whom  France  could  boast  well 
deserve  to  have  their  names  recorded),  and  shared  his  fate.  De 
Varicour  was  soon  slain :  Durepaire  was  disabled  by  repeated 
wounds ;  but  Miomandre  succeeded  in  procuring  a  respite,  which, 
though  brief,  was  sufficient  for  his  object :  in  spite  of  his  gallantly 
and  skill  in  arms,  he  was  gradually  forced  back,  by  the  number  of 
his  assailants,  through  an  open  doorway ;  but  he  turned  that  into 
a  fresh  post  of  defence,  and,  placing  his  musket  across  it,  kept  his 
enemies  at  bay,  while  he  shouted  to  the  queen's  ladies,  who  were 
now  separated  from  him  but  by  a  single  partition,  to  save  the 
queen,  for  *  the  tigers  with  whom  he  was  struggling  were  aiming 
at  her  life.'  In  the  annals  of  the  days  of  chivalry  it  had  been 
recorded,  as  the  most  brilliant  exploit  of  Bayard,  that,  single- 
handed,  on  a  bridge  over  the  Garigiiano,  he  had  for  a.  while 
checked  the  onset  of  200  Spaniards ;  and  his  gallantry  and  self- 
devotion  had  never  been  more  faithfully  copied  or  more  nobly 
rivalled  than  it  was  on  this  morning  of  shame  and  danger  by 
Miomandre  and  his  heroic  comrades,  who  were  thus  fighting, 
without  hope,  against  those  whom  he  truly  called  not  men  but 
tigers.  At  last  he,  too,  was  struck  down,  covered  with-  wounds ; 
but  he  had  gained  time  for  the  escape  of  his  royal  mistress.  Her 
ladies  had  roused  her  from  bed,  for  the  fatigue  of  the  previous  day 
had  been  so  great  that  she  had  hitherto  slept  soundly  through  the 
uproar,  and  had  hurried  her  off  to  the  king's  apartments.  In  a  few 
minutes  the  whole  family  was  collected  in  safety  in  his  ante-room ; 
the  remnant  of  the  body-guard  having  occupied  the  queen's  bed- 
room, through  which  alone  the  insurgents  could  advance ;  though, 
in  fact,  the  greater  part  of  them  had  turned  aside  to  pillage  the 
armoury  and  other  chambers  which  were  left  at  their  mercy. 

Meanwhile  some  of  the  nobles  had  brought  back  the  national 
guard  to  a  sense  of  their  duty.  Lafayette  was,  luckily,  not 
there :  (it  was  eight  o'clock  before  he  arrived,  pretending  to  have 
beard  nothing  of  the  attack  on  the  palace,  which,  in  his  position, 


A.ij.  1789.]  HEROISM  OF  THE  QUEEN.  455 

no  one  but  a  traitor  would  hftTe  left  for  a  moment) ;  and,  when, 
removed  from  his  pernicious  influence,  his  soldiers  were  shamed 
into  a  return  to  loyalty  by  the  just  reproaches  of  the  Marquis  de 
Vaudreuil  and  others  of  his  fellow  nobles,  who  went  down  fearlessly 
among  them  to  perform  the  duty  that  belonged  to  the  general. 
Traditions  of  old  achievements  were  dearly  cherished  in  the  dif- 
ferent corps  of  the  French  army,  and  the  national  guard  were  now 
brought  to  remember  how  '  the  body-guard,'  as  they  said,  *  had 
saved  them  at  Fontenoy.'  They  united  with  the  remnant,  which 
was  still  the  object  of  fierce  attacks,  exchanging  schakos,  sashes,  and 
sometimes  arms,  with  them,  in  token  of  their  brotherly  union ;  and, 
in  one  case,  charging  the  rioters,  who  had  seized  three  of  the  bod}'- 
guard,  and  were  dragging  them  off  to  murder  them  under  the  king's 
eyes,  they  scattered  the  rioters,  and  brought  the  prisoners  off 
unhurt,  though  ropes  were  already  round  their  necks.  Baulked 
of  their  expected  prey,  the  assassins  grew  more  furious,  firing,  in 
their  wrath,  useless  shots  against  the  walls  of  the  palace,  and 
shouting  for  the  queen  to  show  herself. 

Everything  depended  on  the  queen.  The  king,  though  indif- 
ferent to  personal  danger,  was  too  perplexed  and  irresolute  to  give 
directions.  Necker,  who,  in  the  agitations  of  the  last  few  months, 
had  been  again  dismissed  and  again  replaced  in  his  office,  sat,  in 
an  agony  of  terror,  with  his  face  buried  in  his  hands,  unable  even 
to  offer  advice.  She  alone  was  undaunted ;  or,  at  least,  if,  in  the 
depths  of  her  womanly  heart,  she  felt  terror  at  the  sanguinary  and 
obscene  threats  of  her  ruffianly  enemies,  she  scorned  to  show  it. 
As  the  firing  grew  fiercer,  M.  de  la  Luzerne,  the  minister  of 
marine,  placed  himself  between  her  and  the  window;  but,  while 
she  thanked  him  for  his  devotion,  she  desired  him  to  retire,  sajing, 
with  her  habitually  gracious  courtesy,  that  the  king  could  not 
afford  to  have  so  faithfui  a  servant  endangered.  And  now,  holding 
her  little  son  and  daughter,  one  in  each  bond,  she  stepped  out  on 
the  balcony  to  confront  those  who  were  shouting  for  her  destruc- 
tion. *  No  children,'  was  their  cry.  She  led  the  infants  back  into 
the  room,  and,  returning,  stood  before  the  mob,  alone,  with  arms 
crossed,  and  eyes  looking  up  to  heaven,  as  one  who  expected 
instant  death.  Even  those  worthless  miscreants  were  awed  or 
shamed  by  her  sublime  magnanimity.  Not  a  shot  was  fired  at 
her ;  but  the  mob  began  to  raise  a  new  shout,  which  embodied  the 
original  object  which,  with  the  generality  of  the  rioters,  had 
prompted  the  march  to  Versailles.  *  To  Paris,'  was  their  new  cry ; 
and  Lafayette  urged  the  king  to  comply  with  the  demand.  He 
accepted  the  advice,  it  may  be  doubted  whether  he  had  the  power 
to  reject  it,  and,  soon  after  midday,  he,  with  his  whole  family, 
quitted  Versailles,  which  neither  himself  nor  the  queen  were  ever 


4:56  MODERN   HISTORY.  [a.d.  1789. 

to  behold  again,  and  took  up  their  residence  in  Paris,  henceforth 
their  prison  and  their  grave. 

In  one  sense  the  Revolution  was  over.     The  king,  who  had 
already  been  stripped  of  all  his  most  indispensable  prerogatives, 
even  of  that  which  made  his  consent  necessary  to  the  enactment 
jof  a  new  law,  was  now  a  captive  in  the  hands  of  his  rebellious 
^'**'*^i^*-^v Subjects;  whose  daily  insolence  showed  a  resolution  not  to  allow 
"^ "  him  for  a  moment  to  blind  himself  to  his  true  position.     And 

his  escape  from  that  position  was  rendered  hopeless  by  the  das- 
tardly flight  of  most  of  those  to  whom  they  might  have  looked 
for  support.  It  has  been  already  mentioned  that,  several  weeks 
before,  the  king's  youngest  brother,  the  Count  d'Artois,  with  a 
few  of  the  chief  nobles,  had  fled  to  foreign  countries ;  and  now, 
when  the  recent  atrocities  showed  that  the  only  hope  of  saving 
the  monarchy  lay  in  the  prompt  and  vigorous  co-operation  of  all 
the  friends  of  order  and  humanity,  the  great  majority  of  those 
who  might  have  been  expected  to  put  themselves  at  the  head  of 
such  a  movement  fled  panic  stricken,  having  no  thought  for  any- 
thing but  their  personal  safety.  Even  Mounier,  a  deputy  whose 
weight  in  the  assembly  had  been  such  that  he  had  been  appointed 
president  of  the  committee  entrusted  with  the  framing  of  the  new 
constitution,  feared  to  trust  himself  among  the  Parisians,  who 
evidently  designed  to  make  themselves  masters  of  the  assembly 
and  of  the  king :  he  resigned  his  seat  in  the  assembly,  and  fled 
from  France:  before  the  end  of  the  year  three  hundred  depu- 
ties had  followed  his  example,  and  there  was  scarcely  one 
member  left  to  raise  his  voice  against  the  wildest  or  wickedest 
schemes  that  might  be  proposed.  The  inhuman  barbarity  of  the 
populace  in  the  riots  which,  during  this  and  the  subsequent  years, 
disgraced  the  different  provinces  5  the  sanguinary  ferocity  in 
which  the  leaders  of  the  mob  founded  their  power;  the  craven 
baseness  with  which  the  people  in  general  submitted  to  their 
atrocious  guidance,  have  often  been  pointed  to  as  proofs  of  the 
universal  demoralisation  which  had  overspread  the  country.  But 
no  evidence  of  it  is  so  convincing  and  so  sad  as  this  emigration  of 
those  who  ought  to  have  regarded  it,  as  their  fathers  would  have 
regarded  it,  as  their  first  duty  to  stand  by  their  king,  but  who 
now,  on  the  first  sight  of  his  danger,  regarded  nothing  but  their 
own  peril,  fled  from  the  contest,  and  so  rendered  a  termination  of 
it  which  should  be  honorable  or  even  safe  for  him,  almost  im- 
possible. Nor  did  they  injure  him  only  passively  by  their  deser- 
tion ;  their  conduct  in  the  foreign  countries  to  which  they  fled  was 
incessantly  such  as  to  arm  his  enemies  with  pretexts  for  denouncing 
his  sincerity.  They  intrigued  with  those  whom  they  left  behind ; 
they  were  unwearied  in  their  endeavours  to  induce  others  to  follow 


A.D.  1789.]       MIRABEAU'S  CHANGE  OF  TOLICY.  457 

their  example,  even  after  the  assembly  had  passed  a  law  declaring 
emigration  a  crime  against  the  state ;  and,  when  at  last  the 
German  sovereigns  declared  war  against  France,  they  put  them- 
selves in  communication  with  the  avowed  enemies  of  the  country, 
and  made  no  concealment  of  their  eagerness  for  the  success  of  the 
foreign  invasion :  an  eagerness  which  it  was  not  difficult  for  the 
personal  enemies  of  Louis  himself  to  represent  as  shared  by  him, 
even  if  their  conduct  was  not  guided  by  his  secret  suggestions. 

It  was  but  a  doubtful  compensation  for  this  desertion  of  the 
king  by  those  who  never  ought  to  have  left  his  side,  that  the  same 
attack  on  his  palace  which  had  rendered  him  in  effect  a  prisoner, 
had  inclined  the  man  who  had  the  greatest  share  in  organising 
that  attack  to  change  his  party,  and  to  range  himself  among  the 
champions  of  the  court.  Mirabeau's  politics  had  throughout  been 
dictated  by  selfish  considerations.  It  was  a  desire  to  revenge  him- 
self on  the  nobles  for  their  rejection  of  his  claim  to  represent  them 
in  the  states-general  that  had  dictated  many  of  the  most  violent 
measures  which  he  had  recommended  to  the  assembly,  and  had 
inspired  some  of  his  fiercest  speeches.  It  was  again  a  resolution 
to  punish  Necker,  as  the  king's  minister,  for  the  slighting  refusal  of 
his  offers  of  co-operation,  that  had  led  him  to  sell  himself  to  the 
Duke  of  Orleans ;  for  his  necessities,  caused  by  his  long  course  of 
profligacy,  had  made  it  impossible  for  him  to  play  a  disinterested 
part.  But,  selfish  and  corrupt  as  he  was,  and  utterly  unscru- 
pulous in  the  means  which  he  took  to  secure  his  ends,  he  had, 
almost  alone  of  his  countrymen,  a  statesmanlike  mind.  He  had 
from  the  first  proposed  to  himself,  as  the  object  at  which  all 
Frenchmen  should  aim,  the  establishment  of  a  constitution  which, 
in  all  its  fundamental  features,  should  resemble  that  cf  England  ; 
and,  though  at  first  he  saw  no  reason  why  such  a  change  should 
be  incompatible  with  the  maintenance  of  the  gentle  and  amiable 
Louis  on  the  throne,  yet,  when  rebuffed  by  Necker,  he  remembered, 
as  has  been  mentioned,  that  the  English  revolution  which  he 
desired  to  copy  had  transferred  the  allegiance  of  the  people  to  the 
next  prince  of  the  blood  royal.  And  he  saw  some  advantage  in 
the  future  sovereigns,  like  their  brethren  of  England,  resting  their 
claims  to  obedience  on  a  parliamentary  title. 

But  though  d'Orl^ans  gladly  bought  his  assistance  at  his  own 
price,  a  very  short  acquaintance  with  that  infamous  prince  con- 
vinced Mirabeau  that  he  was  not  the  man  to  become  the  hero  of  a 
successful  revolution.  The  count's  past  life  showed  that  he  was 
not  likely  to  be  disgusted  at  the  duke's  profligacy  and  wickedness  : 
many  of  his  subsequent  acts  showed  that  he  was  as  little  fettered 
by  any  scruples  of  humanity ;  but  he  found  his  new  chief  false, 
Ueacherous,  and  cowardly.  The  duke  coujd  not  deal  fairly  even 
21 


458  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1789. 

with  his  own  partisans.  In  one  of  the  early  riots  he  was  found  to 
liave  taken  care  of  his  personal  safety  by  clothes  so  thickly  quilted 
as  to  be  dag-ger-proof.  In  the  attack  on  Versailles,  even  while 
indicating  the  royal  apartments  to  the  intended  murderers,  he  had 
shown  such  anxiety  to  keep  himself  out  of  danger  that  Mirabeau 
attributed  the  eventual  preservation  of  the  king  and  queen  mainly 
to  his  timidity  and  irresolution  ;  and  when,  a  week  after  the  royal 
family  had  established  themselves  in  Paris,  Lafayette,  who  had 
detected  the  duke  in  a  plot  for  his  own  assassination,  threatened  to 
denounce  him  if  he  did  not  quit  the  kingdom  ;  and  he  fled  unre- 
sistingly, disguising  the  cause  of  his  departure  by  a  passport  from 
the  minister,  as  if  he  were  charged  with  a  diplomatic  mission  ; 
Mirabeau,  declaring  that  he  had  every  quality  of  a  great  criminal 
but  the  courage,  separated  himself  from  him ;  and  began  to  pave 
his  way  for  a  reconciliation  with  the  court,  which,  as  he  well 
divined,  had  by  this  time  seen  too  much  of  his  power  to  reject 
him  again ;  and  to  direct  all  his  efforts  to  preserve  for  the  reigning 
monarch  the  power  which  the  example  of  England  proved  to  be 
quite  consistent  with  the  enjoyment  of  the  most  perfect  liberty  on 
the  part  of  the  subject. 

An  union,  however,  with  the  sovereign  of  whom  he  had  so 
lately  been  the  most  forward  and  most  conspicuous  assailant 
required  time ;  and  meanwhile  events  were  advancing  with  a 
rapidity  which  every  day  left  less  and  less  of  the  royal  authority 
to  save.  One  day  the  assembly  abolished  the  parliament;  and 
perhaps  no  more  significant  proof  could  be  afforded  of  the  extent 
.J^  which  the  transactions  of  the  last  four  months  had  overturned 
all  the  former  conditions  and  principles  of  government  than  that 
the  most  judicious  friends  of  the  monarchy  should  have  come  to 
regard  that  most  turbulent  body,  which  had  been  the  chief  anta- 
gonist of  every  king  or  minister  for  centuries,  as  a  possible  sup- 
port of  the  throne  in  the  existing  and  impending  contests,  and  as 
such  to  lament  its  annihilation.  Another  day  the  old  division  of 
the  kingdom  into  provinces  was  swept  away,  the  ancient  names 
of  the  provinces  themselves  were  suppressed,  and  the  kingdom 
was  divided  into  eighty-three  departments ;  without  a  single  voice 
being  raised  in  defence  of  a  system  with  which  so  many  of  the  old 
recollections  of  the  country  were  indissolubly  bound  up,  that  it 
might  have  been  foreseen  that  its  extinction  could  not  be  accom- 
plished without  exciting  great  discontent ;  while  in  this  excited 
state  of  public  feeling  discontent  was  sure  to  break  out  in  fearful 
riots  and  outrages.  Accordingly,  many  of  the  provinces  soon 
became  the  scene  of  tumults,  such  as  the  worst  disturbance  of 
former  ages  could  not  parallel.  However  dissimilar  in  feelings 
and  fashions,  the  citizens  of  the  different  districts  had  formerly 


A.D.  1789.]  THE  KING  SANCTIONS  THE  CONSTITUTION.  459 

been,  all  were  now  in  this  respect  alike,  that  one  uniform  ferocity 
had  seized  the  whole  people  ;  and,  wherever  they  rose,  they  broke 
open  the  prisons,  massacred  the  magistrates,  and  territied  the 
peaceable  inhabitants  by  processions,  in  which  the  mangled  bodies 
of  their  victims  formed  the  most  conspicuous  feature.  In  some 
garrison  towns  the  soldiers,  in  the  seaports  the  sailors  mutinied, 
and  brought  their  skilled  ferocity  to  aggravate  the  untaught 
savageness  of  the  mob.  Nor  was  it  the  least  miserable  character- 
istic of  the  times,  that  deputies  in  the  assembly  were  found  to  excuse 
and  even  justify  these  horrors,  as  if  they  thought  every  considera- 
tion of  religion  or  humanity  second  to  the  grand  object  of  showing 
the  king  and  his  ministers  their  complete  helplessness. 

And  while  anarchy  was  thus  raging  unchecked,  the  legislative 
committee  of  the  assembly  scarcely  condescended  to  the  farce  of 
considering  the  constitution  which  they  had  been  appointed  to 
frame ;  but  preferred  employing  Lafayette  to  work  on  the  imbecile 
Necker,  to  bind  the  king  to  the  sanction  of  the  constitution  before 
one  half  of  it  had  been  even  put  on  paper.  The  queen,  whom  in 
all  probability  the  mere  fact  of  the  scheme  being  suggested  by 
Lafayette  was  sufficient  to  convince  of  its  mischievous  tendency, 
pointed  out  to  her  husband,  with  irresistible  force,  the  impolicy. of 
declaring  a  blind  acceptance  of  measures  hereafter  to  be  framed 
by  a  body  of  men  among  whom  he  had  hardly  one  friend ;  and  for 
a  moment  he  agreed  with  her,  and  rejected  the  insidious  scheme  : 
but  it  was  his  fate  never  to  adhere  to  a  wise  decision,  and,  in 
February  1790  he  went  down  to  the  assembly,  and  in  a  set  speech 
declared  his  approval  of  all  that  had  been  done  in  the  way  of. 
constitutional  legislation,  and  his  confidence  of  being  able  to 
approve  all  that  should  be  done  hereafter.  Such  an  act  was  an 
attempt  to  propitiate  his  enemies  by  disarming  himself;  but  the 
assembly  was  not  contented  with  that,  but  resolved  to  make  his 
weakness  a  means  of  disarming  his  remaining  supporters  also. 
The  majority  proceeded  to  vote  that  the  whole  body  should  at 
once  take  an  oath  of  fidelity  to  the  constitution ;  and,  as  most  of 
the  loyalist  or  moderate  parties  who  remained  refused  thus  to 
bind  themselves  to  maintain  they  knew  not  what,  they  were  com- 
pelled to  resign'  their  seats,  and  the  cause  of  order,  little  as  it 
could  afibrd  any  loss  of  strength,  was  further  weakened  by  their 
secession. 

Louis  himself  might  perhaps  have  adhered  to  his  original  reso- 
lution, had  he  foreseen  that  the  very  next  article  of  the  constitu- 
tion to  be  proposed  was  the  abolition  of  all  titles  and  orders  of 
nobility,  which  in  all  ages  and  countries  have  been  looked  on  as 
indispensable  bulwarks  of  royal  rank  and  sovereign  power.  It 
was  passed  almost  without   discussion  j    indeed,  each  successive 


460  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1790. 

step  on  the  road  of  destruction  gave  the  destroying  party  such 
additional  encouragement,  that  those  who  would  fain  have  said 
a  word  in  favour  of  any  old  institution  could  not  obtain  a  hearing. 
The  extinction  of  the  rights  of  primogeniture  was  carried  with 
equal  unanimity,  or  at  least  with  equal  absence  of  opposition.  Even 
Necker  and  his  colleagues  in  the  ministry  were  silent  and  acqui- 
escent ;  Necker  seeming  as  eager  to  surrender  as  the  most  violent 
revolutionist  could  be  eager  to  seize.  Even  when,  in  May,  the 
assembly  passed  a  resolution  to  take  the  power  of  declaring  peace 
and  war  from  the  king,  and  to  vest  it  in  themselves,  though  that 
prerogative  had  been  universally  considered  as  inseparable  from 
the  sovereign  in  every  country,  Necker  could  not  be  induced  to 
raise  his  voice  in  defence  of  his  royal  master ;  but  sat  by,  in  sullen 
apathy,  as  if,  now  that  he  himself  had  ceased  to  be  popular  and 
flattered,  nothing  was  left  that  could  be  worth  a  struggle. 

And  it  may  be  doubted  whether  Necker's  guilty  inaction  was 
compensated  to  the  king  and  queen  by  the  unwearied  zeal  in  their 
cause  with  which  these  measures  inspired  Mirabeau  ;  or  whether 
his  co-operation  brought  or  could  have  brought  them  any  prac- 
tical advantage.  He  was  no  longer  master  of  the  assembly,  sway- 
ing its  deliberations  as  he  had  been  able  to  sway  them  at  first. 
Ou-the  contrary,  though  on  the  question  of  stripping  the  crown  of 
the  power  of  peace  and  war,  he  had  exerted  himself  with  great 
energy  and  the  utmost  cogency  of  argument,  he  had  scarcely 
carried  a  vote  with  him.  Nor  was  he  able  to  save  the  king  from 
attendance  at  the  festival  which  the  chief  demagogues  had  deter- 
mined to  hold  in  the  Champ  de  Mars,  on  the  anniversary  of  the 
destruction  of  the  Bastille,  which  the  selection  of  that  particular 
day  proved  to  be  intended  as  an  insult  to  the  crown,  and  which 
wa3  rendered  more  conspicuously  insulting  by  a  measure  adopted 
by  the  assembly  as  the  most  becoming  preliminary  to  such  a  cere- 
mony. A  Prussian,  of  the  name  of  Klootz,  who  had  obtained 
admission  to  the  Jacobin  club,  and  who,  to  show  his  affinity  to  the 
philosophers  of  old,  had  christened  himself  Anacharsis,  having 
dressed  up  a  gang  of  vagrants  and  idlers  in  a  variety  of  costumes, 
intended  to  represent  Arabs,  E-ed  Indians,  Turks,  Chinese,  Lap- 
landers, and  other  nations,  savage  or  civilised,  led  them  into  the 
assembly  as  a  deputation  from  all  the  nations  of  the  earth,  to 
announce  the  deliverance  of  the  whole  world  from  the  shackles 
of  slavery  and  superstition.  The  assembly  received  them  with  en- 
thusiasm, the  president  making  them  a  speech  expressive  of  hia 
gratitude  for  the  honour  done  to  France  by  such  an  embassy ; 
And,  as  soon  as  he  had  sat  down,  a  young  noble,  named  Alexander 
Lameth,  who,  with  his  brother,  was  under  the  deepest  per- 
sonal obligations  to  Louis,  which,  from  the  first  opening  of  the 


A.D.  1790.]     THE  MEETING  IN  THE  CHAMP  DE  MAES.    461 

states-general,  he  had  repaid  with  the  most  bitter  enmity  and 
insolence,  proposed  that,  as  such  holy  pilgrims  could  not  fail  to  be 
shoclied  by  the  monuments  of  despotism,  the  people  should  at 
once  destroy  the  statues  of  their  ancient  kings,  and  especially  one 
of  Louis  XIV.,  which  bore  on  the  pedestal  emblems  of  the  nations 
which  had  been  subjugated  by  that  vain-glorious  monarch.  A 
ceremony  thus  inaugurated  by  such  wanton  outrages  on  the 
memory  of  his  ancestors  could  be  fraught  with  nothing  but  humi- 
liation to  their  hapless  descendant,  who  was  to  be  compelled  once 
more  to  swear  to  the  constitution,  which  the  assembly  did  not  yet 
profess  to  have  completed,  in  unison  with  the  representatives  of  the 
different  departments  of  the  Church  and  of  the  army,  whom  the 
ceremony  was  especially  intended  to  bind  to  the  new  order  of 
things.  He  was  not  even  allowed  to  wear  his  royal  robes;  and, 
instead  of  the  elevated  throne  on  which  former  kings  of  Franco 
had  sate  while  all  around  them  stood,  the  seat  which  was  pro- 
vided for  him  was  matched  by  another  on  the  same  level,  placed 
not  for  the  queen,  but  for  the  president  of  the  assembly. 

Such  a  scene  had  only  strengthened  Mirabeau  in  the  conviction 
which  he  had  expressed  to  the  king  in  more  than  one  interview 
with  him  to  which  he  had  recently  been  admitted,  that,  if  any 
degree  whatever  of  the  royal  authority  was  to  be  recovered  or 
preserved,  that  result  could  only  be  accomplished  by  the  emanci- 
pation of  the  king  and  the  government  from  the  control  of  the 
assembly  and  the  Parisian  populace.  And  he  recommended  that 
Louis,  who  was  spending  the  summer  at  St.-Cloud,  should  at  once 
quit  the  neighbourhood  of  the  capital,  and  retire  to  some  strongly 
fortified  town,  where  he  might  call  around  him  troops  on  whom 
he  could  rely,  and,  supported  by  them,  might  annul  the  most  per- 
nicious resolutions  which  the  assembly  had  passed  ;  the  majority 
of  which  were  notoriously  illegal  in  form;  after  which  he  might 
dissolve  the  assembly  itself,  and  summon  another  which,  from  the 
discontent  felt  by  the  majority  of  the  provincial  electors  at  most 
of  the  recent  proceedings,  might  be  expected  to  prove  more  reason- 
able and  manageable.  And  he  proposed  to  remain  in  Paris  him- 
self, to  prevent  the  assembly  from  taking  any  instant  steps  to 
show  its  dissatisfaction,  or,  if  his  arguments  could  not  prevail, 
then  to  overawe  the  assembly  by  means  of  the  populace,  over 
which  he  still  believed  his  authority  to  be  undiminished.  How 
correct  was  his  judgment  of  the  necessity  of  such  a  measure  was 
proved  by  the  events  of  the  next  summer.  But  though  the  queen, 
on  whose  acuteness  and  courage  Mirabeau  placed  his  chief  reliance, 
fully  agreed  in  the  prudence  and  safety  of  the  proposed  removal, 
nothing  could  induce  Louis  to  consent  to  an  act  which  seemed  to 
him  likely  to  be  the  first  step  in  civil  war.     And  when,  at  last,  he 


462  MODERN  HISTOEY.  [a.d.  1791. 

was  forced  to  admit  that  there  was  no  other  hope  of  safety  for 
him,  and  to  consent  to  it,  Mirabeau,  who  had  planned  it,  and  who 
believed  that  he  could  have  ensured  its  success,  was  in  his  grave. 

Meanwhile,  every  succeeding  occurrence  tore  away  some  rem- 
nant of  the  royal  authority.  The  retirement  of  Necker,  who  in  the 
autumn  resigned  his  office,  pleading  partly  the  weakness  of  his 
own  health,  and  partly  '  the  mortal  anxieties  of  his  wife,  as  vir- 
tuous as  she  was  dear  to  his  heart,'  was  not  in  itself  an  injury  to 
it,  so  utterly  unfit  for  such  a  post  in  times  of  difficulty  had  all 
his  actions  shown  him  from  the  first  moment  of  his  resumption  of 
office.  But  it  was  a  wanton  insult  to  his  royal  master  that  he 
should  have  chosen  to  address  his  resignation,  not  to  him  from 
whom  he  had  received  his  appointment,  but  to  the  president  of 
the  assembly,  to  whom  he  owed  no  responsibility.  And  it  was  a 
sad  proof  of  the  utter  helplessness  to  which  Louis  was  reduced, 
that  he  was  not  able  to  select  his  successor,  and  the  successors  to 
most  of  his  colleagues  who  withdrew  at  the  same  time,  according 
to  his  own  judgment,  but  that  he  was  forced  to  submit  to  the 
dictation  of  the  leaders  of  the  assembly,  and  in  two  instances  to 
that  of  Lafayette  himself,  who  had  now  for  some  time  seemed  to 
take  a  personal  delight  in  treating  him,  and  still  more  in  treating 
the  queen,  with  the  grossest  and  most  unmanly  insolence. 

Probably  the  deepest  mortification  which  Louis  felt,  was  when 

fj        k  lie  was  compelled  to  give  his  assent  to  a  new  ecclesiastical  con- 

S^.(V4U»k.*^  stitution,  which  the  assembly  completed  in  the  autumn,  and  which, 
»  among  other  stipulations,  deprived  both  himself  and  the  Pope  of 

their  ecclesiastical  patronage,  and  placed  the  Church  in  a  position 
of  general  subordination  to  the  civil  law.  For  he  knew  that  the 
clergy  would  look  on  submission  to  such  a  law  as  sacrilege.  And 
in  fact,  though  their  lives  were  threatened,  and  though  the  mob 
sought  to  terrify  them  with  threats  of  hanging  them  to  the  lamp- 

,JL.  ^^^        posts,  not  a  sixth  of  the  whole  body  could  be  induced  to  take  the 
/  oath  to  observe  it,  and  the  rest  were  instantly  deprived  of  their 

fX<  y  preferments  and  reduced  to  beggary.     Their  deprivation  was  an- 

other blow  to  the  throne,  of  which  the  Church  seemed  one  of  the 
most  natural  bulwarks ;  and  an  additional  encouragement  to  the 
promoters  of  disorder.  And  throughout  the  winter  the  mob  acted 
as  if  they  were  lords  of  Paris  and  of  France ;  often  murdering 
those  whom  they  called  aristocrats  in  the  streets,  and  on  one  occa- 
sion organising  a  mob  on  a  large  scale,  and  attacking  the  castle  at 
Vincennes,  in  order  to  make  it  share  the  fate  of  the  Bastille.  For 
once  Lafayette  summoned  courage  to  resist  them ;  and,  bringing 
down  the  national  guard  to  its  protection,  saved  the  old  fortress, 
though  he  feared  so  to  risk  his  popularity  as  to  punish  a  number 
of  his  soldiers  who  had  mutinied  and  refused  to  act  against  the 


A.D.  1791.J  DEATH  OF  MIRABEAU.  463 

rioters.  He  had  been  dismayed  hy  a  cry  which  he  had  heard 
amonf^  the  rioters,  '  Down  with  Lafayette  ! '  And  to  recover  the 
favour  of  the  mob,  he  now  preferred  counterbalancing  his  opposi- 
tion to  their  will  by  an  insult  to  the  king ;  for  at  the  first  intelli- 
gence of  the  outbreak,  a  number  of  nobles  had  armed  themselves, 
and  hastened  to  the  Tuileries,  to  protect  the  king  and  queen.  It 
was  not  strange  that  Louis  and  Marie  Antionette,  long  unused  to 
such  a  display  of  attachment  and  loyalty,  should  have  received 
them  graciously  and  gratefully ;  but,  when  Lafayette  arrived  in 
the  afternoon,  he  reproached  them  with  interfering  with  the  duty 
of  his  own  troops,  disarmed  them,  drove  them  from  the  palace ;  and 
the  next  day  published  a  general  order,  in  which  he  pronounced 
their  zeal  in  the  king's  defence  *  a  dangerous  conspiracy,'  and  en- 
joined the  guards  at  the  Tuileries  to  refuse  their  entrance  to  the 
royal  presence  in  future.  *The  king  of  the  constitution  ought 
not,'  he  said,  to  be  surrounded  by  any  *  defenders,  but  the  soldiers 
of  liberty.' 

He  was  soon  to  give  a  further  proof  of  the  protection  which 
he  and  his  soldiers  of  liberty  were  prepared  to  afford  him  to 
whom  he  still  gave  the  name  of  king.  At  the  beginning  of 
April  Mirabeau  died,  after  a  short  illness,  the  fruit  of  his  early 
intemperance  j  and  the  news  of  his  danger  awakened  such  an  un- 
exampled demonstration  of  public  feeling,  as  may  perhaps  be  taken 
to  prove  that,  in  spite  of  his  having  been  occasionally  overruled 
in  the  assembly  by  the  more  violent  revolutionists,  he  had  not 
overrated  his  influence  over  the  nation  at  large,  when  he  afErmed 
himself  still  able  to  save  the  king  and  the  monarchy.  The  whole 
street  in  which  he  lived  was  crowded  from  morning  to  night  with 
eagerness  for  news  of  his  state.  Bulletins  were  issued  three  and 
four  times  a  day.  And  when  at  last  all  was  over,  it  seemed  as 
if  for  a  moment  the  whole  nation  was  sobered  by  the  shock. 
All  business,  and  even  all  amusement  was  stopped.  The  national 
assembly  was  adjourned;  the  theatres  were  closed.  He  lay  in 
state,  as  the  ancient  kings  had  lain ;  and  was  borne  to  the  grave 
with  a  pomp  which  might  have  befitted  the  proudest  sovereign. 
The  church  of  Ste. -Genevieve,  in  which  he  was  laid,  was  even  re- 
named for  the  occasion  ;  a  formal  decree  of  the  assembly  ordering 
it  to  be  henceforth  called  the  Tantheon,  and  appropriated  as  a 
cemetery  for  such  of  her  illustrious  sons  as  France  might  hereafter 
think  deserving  of  the  national  gratitude.  And  these  compliments 
were  the  more  extraordinary  because  they  were  the  first  instance 
of  funeral  honours  being  conferred  on  an  orator  and  a  statesman, 
which  had  hitherto  been  confined  to  the  heroes  of  the  sword. 

Whether,  if  he  had  lived,  Mirabeau  would  have  been  able  to 
re-establish  the  sovereign  in  an  efiicient  constitutional  authority 


464  MODERN  HISTORY.  A.n.  1791. 

or  not,  the  events  of  the  next  three  months  sadly  proved  that  no 
other  person  had  either  the  power  or  the  inclination.  He  had 
hardly  been  a  fortnight  in  his  grave,  when  the  mob  stopped  the 
king's  carriage,  and  refused  to  allow  him  to  remove  with  his  family 
.to  St. -Cloud,  where  he  desired  to  spend  Easter,  as  a  place  by  its 
comparative  seclusion  and  tranquillity  more  suited  to  the  holy 
meditations  appropriate  to  the  season,  and  to  his  own  perilous 
situation,  than  the  turbulent  city.  The  national  guards  united 
with  the  populace,  paying  no  attention  whatever  to  the  orders 
which  Lafayette  issued  to  them,  but  which  he  took  no  trouble  to 
enforce;  and  when,  the  next  day,  Louis  complained  to  the  as- 
sembly of  the  outrage,  that  body  treated  his  remonstrance  with 
the  most  contemptuous  neglect.  Everyone  seemed  rather  to  exult 
in  the  proof  thus  given  to  the  world,  that  their  king  was  in  truth 
their  prisoner ;  and  before  the  end  of  the  month  the  assembly  even 
made  public  proclamation  of  the  fact,  passing  a  decree  to  prohibit 
his  moving  at  any  time  more  than  twenty  leagues  from  Paris. 

So  obvious,  indeed,  had  the  true  character  of  his  position  now 
become  to  Louis  himself,  that  he  at  last  decided  on  adopting  the 
plan  which  he  had  rejected  the  year  before  of  trying  to  escape  to 
the  frontier.  He  had  still  trusty  friends  of  a  sagacity  sufficient 
to  make  the  arrangements  calculated  to  secure  the  success  of  so 
difficult  an  enterprise,  and  of  a  devotion  which  thought  nothing 
of  the  personal  danger  to  which  they  themselves  should  be  exposed 
both  from  the  populace  and  the  assembly,  provided  they  could 
ensure  the  safety  of  their  king  and  queen.  Few  things  in  the 
history  of  the  whole  revolution  are  stranger  than  that  the  plan 
should  have  so  nearly  succeeded,  and  that  it  should  have  failed 
when  its  success  seemed  to  be  accomplished.  For  it  required 
several  weeks  to  arrange  in  all  its  details,  and  was  necessarily  con- 
fided to  many  agents.  And  Lafayette  had  latterly,  without  any 
orders,  but  prompted  apparently  by  a  wanton  desire  to  show  the 
sovereigns  how  completely  they  were  in  his  power,  and  partly  by 
an  eagerness  to  regain  the  favour  of  the  mob  by  a  parade  of  his 
willingness  to  perform  the  most  degrading  offices)  taken  upon  him- 
self to  visit  the  Tuileries  and  the  royal  apartments  every  evening, 
to  assure  himself  of  the  presence  of  the  royal  family.  But  their 
secret  was  kept ;  the  vigilance  of  their  self-appointed  gaoler  was 
baffled.  And  on  the  twentieth  of  June  the  whole  family  quitted 
the  Tuileries  and  Paris  in  safety  ;  and,  taking  the  road  to  Montmedy, 
a  small  town  on  the  frontier  of  Luxembourg,  proceeded  100  miles 
without  interruption,  and  reached  Varennes,  a  village  on  the  Aisne, 
where  the  last  relay  of  horses  was  awaiting  them,  which  was  to 
convey  them  to  the  headquarters  of  the  Marquis  de  Bouill^,  the 
officer  who  of  the  whole  French  army  had  the  highest  reputation 


A.D.  1791.]     THE  KING  IS  STOPPED  AT   VARENNES.      465 

for  professional  ability  and  past  services,  and  who  was  the 
commander-in-chief  of  the  western  provinces.  Unhappily,  at 
Varennes  the  arrangements  were  less  complete  than  they  had  been 
at  other  places.  The  outriders,  three  of  the  heroic  old  body- 
guard, who  had  fought  so  gallantly  at  Versailles,  had  not  been  in- 
formed where  to  find  the  relays ;  a  few  minutes  were  lost  in  mak- 
ing the  enquiries,  and  those  few  minutes  sufficed  to  ruin  everything. 
The  king  had  been  recognised  as  he  passed  through  Ste.-Menehould, 
a  town  a  few  miles  back  ;  and  the  man,  who  had  recognised  him, 
the  postmaster  of  the  place,  mounted  his  horse  and  overtook  the 
fugitives  while  halting  at  Varennes,  armed  with  orders  from  the 
municipal  magistrates  to  arrest  their  further  progress.  He  raised 
the  populace,  who  were  deeply  infected  with  the  worst  revolu- 
tionary principles :  called  out  the  national  guard  :  compelled  the 
king  and  queen  to  follow  him  to  the  mayor's  house.  And  now 
they  were  more  prisoners  than  ever. 

Yet  a  little  resolution  on  either  their  own  part  or  that  of  their 
adherents  would  have  delivered  them.  M.  de  Bouilld  had  sta- 
tioned sixty  hussars  in  the  town,  to  serve  as  their  escort  as  soon  as 
they  had  passed  through  it :  and,  above  100  more  arrived  soon 
afterwards,  a  force  which  neither  the  national  guards  nor  all  the 
population  of  Varennes  could  have  resisted.  But  the  unexpected 
character  of  the  situation  seemed  to  have  deprived  every  one, 
even  the  queen,  of  their  presence  of  mind.  The  officers  appealed 
to  Louis  for  orders,  who  replied  that  he  was  a  prisoner,  and  had 
no  orders  to  give :  and  they  had  not  the  sense  or  resolution  tx) 
perceive  that  the  fact  of  his  being  a  prisoner  was  itself  an  order 
to  effect  his  deliverance.  While  Marie  Antoinette  herself,  to 
whose  vigour  and  readiness  much  of  the  success  of  the  expedition 
had  hitherto  been  owing,  was,  as  it  were,  panic-stricken  at  her  dis- 
appointment, and  was  for  the  moment  capable  of  no  further  exer- 
tion than  that  of  imploring  the  mayor's  wife  to  use  her  influence 
with  her  husband  to  allow  them  to  proceed,  which  he  had  not  the 
courage  to  do.  Presenth^,  an  aide-de-camp  of  Lafayette  arrived, 
with  orders  to  seize  the  king  wherever  he  might  be  found,  and 
to  bring  him  to  Paris.  Louis  obeyed  without  resistance  :  and  in 
little  more  than  an  hour  he  and  his  family  were  on  their  way  back 
to  Paris.  When  they  reached  the  suburbs,  the  carriage  was  con- 
ducted, by  a  circuitous  route,  to  the  Champs  Elysdes,  that  they 
might  be  led  in  triumph  down  that  noble  avenue ;  as  they  passed 
on  they  were  assailed  by  the  threatening  shouts  of  the  rabble,  who 
mounted  on  the  steps,  and,  looking  in  at  the  windows,  announced 
their  eagerness  to  murder  them  on  the  spot :  and  when,  as  they 
approached  the  gardens  of  the  Tuileries,  Lafayette  received  the 
carriage  with  a  detachment  of  his  national  guards,  they  might  well 


466  '  MODERN  HISTOilY.  [a.d.  17OI. 

feel  that  all  hope  was  over  for  them.  In  truth,  the  lowest  officials 
of  the  courts  of  justice  could  hardly  have  taken  a  keener  delight  in 
heaping  insults  on  his  sovereigns  than  this  man  of  noble  birth. 
He  was  under  no  one's  orders ;  but  he  compelled  even  the  queen 
to  give  him  up  her  keys,  that  he  might  search  her  boxes  ;  he  phiced 
sentinels  along  every  passage  in  the  palace,  and,  that  his  prisoners 
might  be  always  in  their  sight,  he  ordered  the  doors  of  every 
room  to  be  kept  open  day  and  night :  not  even  the  queen's  bed- 
chamber was  allowed  to  be  closed,  except  for  a  brief  space  in  the 
morning  while  she  was  dressing.  lie  refused  their  friends  access 
to  them  ;  taking  upon  himself  even  to  exclude  those  members  of 
the  assembly  who  were  still  favorable  to  the  royal,  cause,  and  to 
whom  their  very  character  of  representatives  of  the  people  gave  a 
legal  right  to  approach  their  king. 

For  in  the  assembly  the  act  of  the  king  in  withdrawing  from 
Paris  had  given  rise  to  fierce  debates.  As  soon  as  the  news  of  his 
arrest  at  Varennes  had  reached  it,  they  had  despatched  three  of 
the  deputies  to  bring  them  back  to  Paris  ;  one  of  whom  Barnave, 
the  most  eloquent  member  of  the  whole  body  since  the  death  of 
Mirabeau,  had  his  sympathies  so  excited  by  the  dignity  and  help- 
lessness of  the  royal  prisoners  that  from  that  time  forth  he  became 
their  champion.  And  they  had  need  of  an  eloquent  advocate; 
for  the  Jacobin  members,  headed  by  Robespierre,  one  of  the  re- 
presentatives of  Arras,  who  at  one  of  the  first  meetings  of  the 
assembly  had  put  himself  forward  as  the  denouncer  of  the  clergy, 
and  had  ever  since  been  the  supporter  of  all  the  most  violent 
measures  that  had  been  adopted,  now  clamoured  for  the  trial  of 
Louis,  avowing  at  the  same  time  their  resolution  that  his  trial 
should  end  in  his  death.  But  Barnave,  in  reply,  far  surpassed  him 
in  vigour  of  declamation,  and  overturned  every  one  of  his  argu- 
ments ;  proving  irresistibly  that  the  personal  inviolability  of  the 
king  was  an  essential  article  of  even  the  new  constitution. 
So  powerful  was  his  eloquence  that  it  even  converted  one  large 
body  of  deputies  who  had  come  down  to  the  assembly  with  the 
intention  of  supporting  RobespieiTe ;  and  eventually  he  brought 
the  assembly  to  adopt  his  view  that  the  king's  intention  and  act 
In  quitting  Paris  had  been  innocent,  and  had  furnished  no  pre- 
tence for  proceeding  against  him. 

Robespierre  was  furious  at  his  defeat,  and  tried,  by  exciting  a 
riot  on  a  larger  scale  than  had  yet  been  witnessed,  to  overawe  the 
assembly,  and  to  extort  from  their  fears  what  Barnave  had 
induced  their  reason  to  refuse  him  :  100,000  men  were  to  meet  in 
the  Champ  de  Mars  to  sign  a  petition  for  the  king's  dethronement ; 
but  they  began  with  such  deeds  of  violence  and  bloodshed  that 
the  national  guard  turned  against  them,  fired  on  them,  killing  no 


A.D.  1791.]      DISSOLUTION  OF  THE  ASSEMBLY.  467 

inconsiderable  number,  and  were  so  exasperated  at  the  whole 
conduct  of  the  mob,  that,  while  liobespierre,  who  was  as  cowardly 
as  he  was  sanguinary,  fled  in  dismay,  and  sought  shelter  at 
Madame  Roland's,  they  demanded  leave  of  Lafayette  to  close  by 
force  the  Jacobin  and  Cordelier  clubs.  But  Lafayette  was  not 
willing  to  forfeit  his  popularity  even  with  the  Jacobins  :  he  could 
foresee  that  he  might  still  be  glad  of  their  aid  against  the  king,  as 
above  all  other  objects  that  club  was  pledged  to  the  destruction 
of  the  monarchy ;  and  he  could  not  anticipate  that  before  long  it 
would  be  planning  and  perpetrating  atrocities  such  as  even  he 
would  shudder  at,  and  that  his  resistance  to  their  crimes  would 
then  render  him  as  obnoxious  to  them  as  Louis  himself. 

But,  though  the  Jacobins  were  thus  saved,  the  existence  of  the 
assembly  itself  was  drawing  to  a  close.  The  first  ai-ticle  of  the 
constitution  had  fixed  its  duration  at  two  years,  which  were  on 
the  point  of  expiring :  and  once  more  the  king  was  to  announce 
his  acceptance  of  the  constitution,  and  once  more  the  ceremony 
was  to  be  made  the  occasion  of  fresh  personal  insults  to  him. 
Every  mark  of  respect  was  studiously  withheld  from  him;  and 
so  multiplied  and  marked  were  the  slights  which  were  put  on 
him  that  they  at  last  overpowered  even  his  calmness,  and  when  he 
returned  to  his  apartments  he  could  not  refrain  from  bitter  tears, 
imploring  pardon  of  the  queen  for  having  brought  her  into  France 
for  such  degradation.  A  small  party  among  the  populace  had 
cheered  his  carriage  as  it  passed  through  the  streets  ,•  but  the  real 
feeling  of  the  majority  was  more  clearly  shown  by  the  reception 
they  gave  the  different  deputies,  as  ihey  quitted  the  house  of 
assembly  after  its  dissolution  had  been  declared.  Barnave  and 
those  who  had  of  late  put  themselves  forward  as  advocates  of  the 
royal  cause  were  hooted,  and  with  difficulty  protected  from 
assault;  but  liobespierre  and  others  of  the  chief  Jacobins,  who 
had  openly  avowed  their  desire  for  the  destruction  of  Monarchy 
and  monarch,  were  crowned  with  oaken  chaplets,  and  the  horses 
were  taken  from  their  carriages  that  their  fellow-citizens  might 
draw  them  in  triumph  to  their  homes.  It  was,  indeed,  an  omen  of 
evil,  not  only  for  the  royal  family,  but  for  the  whole  nation,  that 
the  favour  of  the  Parisians,  whom  its  situation  in  the  midst  of 
them  rendered  masters  of  the  assembly,  should  be  only  to  be  won 
by  bloodthirsty  ravings  and  clamours  for  univei'sal  massacre  aud 
destruction. 

In  the  debate  on  the  king's  journey  to  Varennes,  Barnave,  as 
we  have  seen,  had  persuaded  the  assembly  to  recognise  the 
personal  inviolability  of  the  king  as  a  fundamental  article  of  the 
constitution.  But  the  fact  of  his  having  been  forcibly  arrested  on 
his  journey,  and  brought  back  to  Paris  as  a  prisoner,  gave  the  lie 


468  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1731. 

to  that  acknowledgement  with  terrible  plainness ;  and  there  were 
probably  few  among  the  friends  of  the  royal  family  who  now 
entertained  any  sanguine  hope  of  being  able  to  secure  their  safety. 
If  any  did,  the  sovereigns  themselves  were  certainly  not  of  the 
number.  When  they  were  first  compelled  to  exchange  Versailles 
for  the  Tuileries,  the  comment  on  their  treatment  made  by  Marie 
Antoinette  had  been  that  they  were  probably  dragged  in  to  their 
death,  for  that  captive  sovereigns  were  never  far  from  it :  and  it 
was  not  easy  to  interpret  the  sanction  given  by  the  assembly  to 
the  outrages  to  which  they  had  been  exposed  at  Varennes,  and  to 
Lafayette's  subsequent  treatment  of  them,  but  as  an  indication  of 
a  resolution  that  they  should  not  be  allowed  to  escape  from  the 
fate  which  was  preparing  for  them. 

It  soon  became  equally  plain  that  the  imminence  of  their 
danger  was  greatly  increased  by  the  composition  of  the  new 
assembly.  In  that  which  had  been  dissolved,^  in  spite  of  the 
emigration  which  had  so  cruelly  thinned  their  numbers,  there  had 
been  to  the  last  a  remnant  not  only  of  the  constitutional  party, 
which  desired  to  establish  a  limited  monarchy  under  the  reigning 
king,  but  even  of  the  royalist  party,  who  thought  all  restrictions 
an  infringement  of  his  just  authority  and  dignity.  Had  not  these 
latter,  looking  on  themselves  as  the  personal  champions  of  the 
king  and  queen,  with  a  most  fatal  blindness  and  obstinacy,  refused 
to  co-operate  with  the  constitutionalists,  their  combined  forces 
might,  on  more  than  one  occasion,  have  prevented  the  enactment 
of  some  of  the  most  mischievous  laws  that  had  been  passed  ;  thej 
might  even  before  the  dissolution  have  procured  their  repeal. 
Still,  jealous  of  one  another  as  the  two  parties  were,  their  pre- 
sence had  been  some  protection  to  Louis.  But  from  the  new 
assembly,  the  royalists  were  entirely  absent,  while  the  numbers 
of  the  constitutionalists  were  greatly  weakened.  Ilemembering 
Cromwell's  self-denying  ordinance  in  the  English  Eebellion,  Robes- 
pierre, in  one  of  the  last  meetings  of  the  old  assembly,  had 
succeeded  in  carrying  a  resolution  which  declared  all  its  member? 
ineligible  for  re-election.  He  did  not  propose,  as  Cromwell  had 
managed  his  affairs,  to  secure  an  exception  in  his  own  favour ;  but 
was  content  to  be  deprived  of  a  seat  himself,  if  he  could  thus 
exclude  all  the  friends  of  monarchy,  since  he  had  no  doubt  that,  as 
the  leader  of  the  Jacobin  club,  he  should  be  able  not  only  to 
influence  the  new  elections  over  the  greater  part  of  the  kingdom, 
but  even  to  rule  the  assembly  itself.  The  resolution  could  not 
fail  to  produce  great  mischief;  excluding  from  the  legislative 
body,  as  it  did,  every  councillor   of  experience :    and  the  new 

^  As  having  drawn  up  the  constitution,  it  is  sometimes  described  as  '  the 
Constituent  Assembly.' 


A.D.  1791.]  RISE  OF  THE  GIRONDINS.  4G9 

representatives  were  of  a  class  worse  than  probably  anyone  but 
Robespierre  himself  had  anticipated.  Scarcely  a  dozen  were  of 
noble  birth ;  the  number  of  ecclesiastics  was  equally  small.  The 
absence  of  wealth  was  equally  conspicuous  :  it  was  reckoned  that 
not  one  in  fifteen  possessed  an  income  exceeding  2,000  francs,  or 
80/.  a  year ;  and  the  youth  of  the  majority  was  as  remarkable  as 
any  other  feature.  Of  elderly  men  there  were  scarcely  any  ;  half 
were  under  middle  age,  and  many  were  little  more  than  boys.  At 
the  first  meeting,  sixty  of  those  who  were  present  were  found  to 
be  under  twenty-five.  From  such  a  body  so  composed,  what 
soberness  of  mind,  what  prudence  in  action,  what  respect  for 
authority,  what  submission  to  established  principles,  what  deference 
to  experience,  could  be  expected  ? 

Especially  dangerous  to  the  king  was  the  appearance  in  strength 
of  a  new  party,  originally  a  section  of  the  Jacobin  club,  whicli 
now,  from  the  circumstance  of  many  of  its  members  coming  from 
the  Gironde,  one  of  the  departments  which  had  been  carved  out  of 
the  old  province  of  Gascony,  began  to  be  called  the  Girondins. 
They  were  all  men  of  low  birth,  of  needy  circumstances,  sordid 
and  corrupt  to  the  last  degree ;  as  unscrupulous  as  the  fiercest 
Jacobins,  and  even  more  odious,  as  veiling  their  cruelty  under  the 
mask  of  a  certain  unintelligible  jargon  of  philosophy,  and  fatally 
aided  in  the  prosecution  of  their  designs  by  a  fluent  and  at  times 
vigorous  eloquence,  in  which  they  far  surpassed  all  the  rest  of  the 
new  assembly.  They  were  not,  indeed,  at  first  inspired  by  any  fixed 
hostility  to  the  king.  On  the  contrary,  if  they  could  have  made 
a  sullicient  market  of  his  necessities,  they  would  willingly  have 
supported  him ;  and  as  soon  as  a  few  debates  and  divisions  had 
shown  their  power,  the  chiefs,  among  whom  Vergniaud,  Guadet, 
and  Brissot  were  the  most  prominent,  proposed  to  M.  de  Lessart, 
the  minister  of  the  interior,  to  bind  themselves  to  the  support  of 
the  government  and  of  the  royal  cause,  if  he  would  bribe  them 
to  loyalty  with  an  income  of  3,000/.  a  year  to  each  of  them.^  He 
refused,  with  more  dignity  than  practical  wisdom ;  and,  exasperated 
at  this  disappointment  of  their  covetous  expectations,  they  resolved 
to  revenge  themselves  on  the  minister's  master,  and  from  that  time 
forth  laboured  for  the  destruction  of  the  king  with  all  the  zeal  of 
republican  fury  exasperated  by  personal  resentment.  They  began 
with  the  most  paltry  insults  ;  carrying  votes  that  the  king  should 
have  a  seat  in  the  assembly  inferior  to  that  of  the  president ;  and 
that  he  should  no  longer  be  called  Majesty  or  Sire,  though  in  this 

1  6,000  francs  a  month  was  the  rien  debattre  de  leur  demande,  cett« 

exact  sum   named.     'Mais  M.    de  ne'gociation  n'eut  aucune  suite.' — Me- 

Lessart  trouvait  que  c'etait  les  payer  moires  de  Bertrand  de  MolecUkf  u. 

bien  chcr  :  et  comme  lis  ne  voulaient  35G. 


170  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1702. 

degradation  they  gave  him  companions,  and  those  no  other  than 
themselves,  abolishing  the  practice  which,  in  imitation  of  the 
usage  of  the  British  parliament,  had  prevailed  in  the  former 
assembly,  of  calling  the  representatives  '  honorable  members.' 
But  such  a  title  was  now  pronounced  to  savour  of  aristocracy,  and 
it  was  ordered  that  for  the  future  the  deputies  should  be  spoken 
of  by  their  names  alone. 

When  such  a  spirit  pervaded  the  assembly,  it  was  impossible 
but  that  what  remained  of  the  royal  authority  should  be  gradually 
but  rapidly  pared  away.  Nor  was  the  approaching  result  delayed 
by  the  circumstance  of  the  ministers  being  once  or  twice  able 
to  take  advantage  of  divisions  in  the  assembly,  and,  to  find  occa- 
sions where  Louis  could  refuse  his  assent  to  measures  which  were 
recommended  to  no  party  by  any  consideration  of  their  violence. 
Presently,  differences  arose  among  the  ministers  themselves.  The 
German  sovereigns,  especially  the  Emperor,  as  the  queen's  brother, 
naturally  took  a  deep  interest  in  the  affairs  of  France ;  but  showed 
it  by  an  interference  in  her  councils,  and  by  denunciations  of  the 
opponents  of  the  court,  and  of  the  clubs,  so  impolitic  that  some  of 
the  ministers  themselves  recommended  meeting  them  by  a  de- 
claration of  war,  and  troops  were  moved  towards  the  frontier,  in 
preparation  for  hostilities.  The  most  real  danger,  however,  arose 
from  the  conduct  of  the  emigrants,  whose  acts,  however  professedly 
dictated  by  a  desire  to  serve  the  king,  were  in  reality  dictated  by 
the  most  disloyal  self- opinion.  It  was  to  no  purpose  that  Louis 
commanded  and  implored  those  who  had  emigrated  to  return,  and 
as  earnestly  remonstrated  with  those  who,  it  was  understood,  were 
preparing  to  follow  their  example ;  pointing  out  to  them,  with 
self-evident  truth,  that  the  voice  of  duty  required  them  to  remain 
at  their  posts,  as  he  himself  remained  at  his.  In  spite  alike  of  his 
commands  and  of  his  entreaties,  they  kept  on  their  own  course ; 
stationing  themselves  in  great  numbers  at  the  different  towns 
within  the  German  frontier,  and  keeping  up  ostentatiously  open 
communications  with  those  potentates  who  were  looked  on  by  the 
majority  of  Frenchmen  as  enemies  of  the  nation.  Conduct  such 
as  that,  adopted  in  professed  zeal  for  the  royal  cause,  could  not 
fail  to  raise  it  up  fresh  enemies,  and  to  weaken  its  real  friends. 
In  the  agitation  which  ensued,  the  existing  ministers  were  driven 
from  ofHce  ;  and  the  Girondins,  as  the  party  whose  now  pre- 
dominant weight  in  the  assembly  had  overthrown  them,  were 
able  to  dictate  the  nomination  of  their  successors.  The  use  they 
designed  to  make  of  their  power  was  sufficiently  shown  by  the 
selection  of  M.  Roland  as  minister  of  the  interior,  who  was  not 
even  by  his  own  friends  regarded  as  a  man  of  the  very  slightest 
ability ;  but  who  was  notorious  for  a  frenzied  hatred  of  all  whom 


A.D.  1792.]  CnARACTEB   OF  DUMOURIEZ.  471 

he  called  aristocrats,  and  still  more  as  the  hushand  of  Madame 
Koland,  the  woman  who,  as  we  have  seen,  three  years  before,  had 
invoked  the  assassination  of  the  king  and  queen,  and  who  had  by 
this  time  acquired  great  influence  over  the  whole  of  the  Jacobin 
party,  even  over  Robespierre  himself,  which  she  exerted  with 
untiring  energy  till  she  had  accomplished  the  end  at  which  she 
had  so  relentlessly  aimed  from  the  first,  little  foreseeing  that  she 
was  but  preparing  a  similar  fate  for  herself. 

But,  though  they  did  not  suspect  it,  one  of  the  new  ministers, 
and  he  the  only  one  of  the  slightest  capacity,  General  Dumouriez, 
the  minister  for  foreign  aifairs,  was  so  far  from  sharing  their  views, 
that  he  was  honestly  desirous  of  serving  and  saving  the  king.  lie 
had  been  so  from  the  commencement  of  the  Revolution,  and,  like 
Mirabeau,  had  offered  his  advice  and  assistance  to  Necker ;  but, 
though  his  character  was  not  open  to  the  same  objections  as  that 
of  the  dissolute  count,  though  indeed  he  already  enjoyed  a  high 
reputation  as  a  brave  and  skilful  officer,  he  was  equally  rebuffed 
by  that  most  injudicious  of  ministers.  Driven  thus  against  his  will 
to  connect  himself  with  the  opposition,  for  a  time  he  seemed  t^) 
have  adopted  opinions,  or  at  least  he  had  used  language,  as  little 
favorable  to  the  maintenance  of  the  royal  authority  as  the  worst 
of  the  Jacobins.  But  now  that  his  appointment  brought  him  into 
daily  intercourse  with  the  king,  and  he  came  to  perceive  and 
appreciate  the  purity  of  his  views,  the  feelings  of  mortification  and 
disappointment,  which  had  for  a  time  excited  him  to  seek  allies 
among  the  enemies  of  the  throne,  yielded  to  his  original  feelings 
of  loyalty ;  and  he  became  as  eager  as  ever  to  preserve  to  the  king 
ample  constitutional  authority,  looking  indeed  on  such  a  position 
for  him  as  indispensable  to  the  welfare  of  the  state  and  nation. 

He  even  conceived  that  he  saw  his  way  to  such  a  consummation, 
if  he  could  only  become  prime  minister,  and  if  he  could  induce 
Louis  to  grant  him  unfettered  discretion  in  his  movements  as 
such,  and  such  support  as  he  and  the  queen  could  give  him  by 
their  conduct  and  language ;  and  he  sketched  out  a  plan  of  action, 
which  he  explained  to  them  in  a  series  of  interviews,  by  which,  as 
he  believed,  they  might  gradually  conciliate  the  more  sober- 
minded  part  of  the  people,  and  by  their  favour  disarm  the  advocates 
of  violence.  But  he  could  not  keep  his  interviews  with  the  queen 
secret.  His  colleagues  became  suspicious  of  his  intentions,  a?  they 
had  from  the  first  been  jealous  of  his  superior  ability.  Madame 
Roland  had  recourse  to  her  favourite  method,  and  tried  to  procure 
his  assassination  ;  but  her  associates  were  not  yet  bold  enough  for 
that,  and  contented  themselves  with  procuring  his  removal  to  the 
command  of  the  army  on  the  frontier;  while  the  Jacobins  resolved 
to  render  all  his  efforts  futile  by  another  insurrection,  of  which,  as 


472  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.b.  1792. 

of  the  attack  on  Versailles  three  years  before,  they  were  not  afraid 
to  give  ostentatious  notice  beforehand. 

Dumouriez  was  probably  not  unwilling  to  take  the  command  of 
the  army ;  for  Louis  had  been  compelled  in  the  spring  to  declare 
war  against  Austria  and  Russia ;  the  German  armies  were  already 
in  France,  and  be,  who  knew  the  incompetency  of  the  Prussian 
general,  the  Duke  of  Brunswick,  and  who  felt  confident  of  his  own 
power  to  defeat  him,  not  unreasonably  looked  to  the  popularity 
which  his  victory  would  give  him  to  enable  him  to  save  the  king 
with  greater  effect.  Yet  his  desire  for  military  glory  would 
possibly  have  yielded  to  his  conviction  of  the  importance  of  re- 
maining at  hand  to  protect  Louis,  if  Louis,  by  a  sudden  change 
of  purpose,  had  not  renounced  his  adherence  to  the  policy  which 
Dumouriez  had  marked  out  for  him,  and  so  driven  the  general  to 
despair  of  saving  him.  In  one  respect  matters  looked  more  pro- 
mising for  him  than  they  had  done  a  few  weeks  before  :  Dumou- 
riez had  shaken  off  Roland  and  the  rest  of  his  colleagues ;  and  a 
new  ministry  had  been  appointed,  in  which  he  had  accepted  the 
lead  with  the  office  of  war  minister,  stipulating,  with  the  full 
concurrence  of  the  queen,  that  Louis  should  give  his  assent  to  a 
decree  which  the  assembly  had  passed  against  the  priests  wlic 
had  refused  their  adhesion  to  the  new  ecclesiastical  constitution. 
It  was  framed  in  terms  of  the  most  vindictive  severity,  not  only 
depriving  them  of  all  their  ecclesiastical  income,  but  placing  them 
under  the  supervision  of  the  magistrates  like  so  many  convicted 
criminals,  and  rendering  them  liable  to  banishment  if,  even  in 
private,  they  should  ever  perform  any  of  their  clerical  functions. 
And  it  was  rendered  the  more  odious  in  the  eyes  of  all  right- 
thinking  people  by  the  speech  of  Isnard,  one  of  the  leading 
Girondins,  though  a  perfumer  by  trade,  who  took  occasion  in 
supporting  it  to  make  a  public  profession  of  atheism,  setting  the 
first  example  of  that  impiety  which  in  the  course  of  the  next  two 
years  became  only  too  common.  Louis,  for  some  months,  steadily 
refused  his  consent  to  the  law  ;  but  Dumouriez  was  convinced  that 
the  feeling  of  the  assembly  in  its  favour  was  so  general  that  his 
refusal  could  not  be  persisted  in  with  safety :  his  original  advice 
to  Louis  had  insisted  in  general  terms  that  he  must  yield  some 
points  even  of  conscience  in  matters  on  which  the  public  feeling 
was  strongly  pronounced  :  and  he  had  brought  the  queen  to  agree 
with  him  on  this  particular  question.  To  his  urgency  and  his 
wife's  Louis  had  yielded ;  but,  before  the  time  came  for  his  ex- 
pressing his  formal  assent,  the  assembly  passed  a  new  resolution, 
disbanding  the  constitutional  guard  which  was  commanded  by  a 
resolute  royalist,  the  Duke  de  Brissac,  and  the  only  body  of  troops 
on  whose  loyalty  the  king  could  now  with  confidence  rely.     Louis 


A.D.  1792.1  FRESH  SCRUPLES  OF  LOUIS.  473 

was  convinced  that   the   dissolution  of  his   force  was  meant  to 
facilitate  his  murder  (indeed,  one  member  had  opposed  the  motion 
in  the  assembly  with  the  argument  that  it  could  have  no  object 
but  regicide)  :  and,  believing  his  death  to  be  at  hand,  was  resolved 
that  his  last  act  should  not  be  one  which  he  had  never  ceased  to 
look  on  as  sacrilegious.     He  withdrew  his  promise  to  sanction  the 
law ;  and,  instead,  drew   up  with  his  own  hand  a  letter  to  the 
assembly  announcing  his   disapproval   of   the   measure,  and  his 
fixed  resolution  never  to  consent  to  it.     The  letter  was  well  argued 
and  well  expressed  :  but  Dumouriez  and  his  new  colleagues  knew 
well  that  the  assembly  was  not  a  body  with  which  either  neat 
phrases  or  sound  arguments  would  have  any  weight ;  and,  feeling 
that  the  determination  thus  announced  by  the  king  and  from  which 
no  entreaties  of  them  could  induce  him  to  depart,  rendered  their 
positions  as  ministers  untenable,  they  resigned  their  offices ;  not 
without  sad  forebodings  of  the  fate  to  which  they  were  leaving 
their  master,  to  whom  Dumouriez  at  least  had  become  sincerely 
attached.     On  taking  his  leave,  and  preparing  to  join  the  army, 
he  could  not  suppress  his  melancholy  anticipations ;  and,  though 
no  longer  authorised  to  give  him  counsel  as  his  minister,  he  once 
more  implored  him  not  to  persist  in  refusing  his  sanction  to  a  law 
which  the  assembly  was  resolved  to  pass.     But,   many  and  strik- 
ing as  are  the  points  of  resemblance  between  the  incidents  of  the 
French  Kevolution  and  the  great  English  Kebellion,  hardly  one  is 
more  remarkable  than  that  which  is  afforded  by  the  stand  made 
by  Charles  against  the  last  resolution  of  the  parliament  against 
the  bishops,  and,  by  this  resistance  of  Louis  to  the  decree  against 
the  priests,  and  by  the  mischievous  effect  which  in  each  case  their 
determination  had  upon  their  fortunes,  as  affording  a  pretext  to  their 
enemies  to  represent  them  as  hostile  to  the  wishes  and  feelings  of 
the  nation  at  large.     In  spite  of  the  general's  entreaties,  on  this 
one  subject  Louis  continued  inflexible.     He  could  not  deny  that 
his  adviser  was  a  man  not  easily  dismayed,  nor  inclined  unneces- 
sarily to  submit  to  compulsion :  but  he  looked  on  the  act  as  one  to 
be  decided  solely  by  his  own  conscience.     '  God,'  he  told  his  de- 
parting minister,  *  was  his  witness  that  he  was  thinking  only  of 
the  happiness  of  France.'     And  Dumouriez  did  full  justice  to  the 
honesty  and  disinterestedness  of  his  patriotism :  but  warned  him 
in  words  which  should  ever  be  present  to  the  mind  of  every  states- 
man who  would  legislate  for  or  rule  a  country,  that  he  was  respon- 
sible to  God  not  only  for  the  purity  of  his  intentions,  but  for  the 
enlightened  exercise  of  his  authority :  and  he  predicted,  as  the 
result  of  the  king's  policy,  far  greater  evils  to  the  very  interest 
and  class  which  it  was  intended  to  protect.     He   foretold  the 
massacre  of  the  priests  themselves,  the  destruction  of  all  religion, 


i74  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1792. 

the  loss  of  the  king's  crown ;  his  voice  failed  him  when  he  en- 
deavoured to  describe  the  dangers  which  he  foresaw  for  Louis 
himself  and  his  family.  Louis  was  moved  by  his  evident 
sincerity :  he  fully  shared  his  forebodings,  but  they  could  not 
change  his  resolution.  He  shed  tears  on  parting  with  the  general. 
'  I  expect  death/  said  he,  '  and  have  already  pardoned  my 
enemies.  You  are  going  to  the  army  :  and  have  my  gratitude  and 
esteem.     May  you  be  happier  than  I  am ! ' 

Though  for  a  few  months  the  king's  wishes  for  his  faithful 
servant's  success  seemed  in  the  way  to  be  realised,  the  eventual 
fall  of  Dumouriez  was  not  to  be  envied.  He  gained  one  decided 
and  important  victory :  and  hoped  at  first  to  make  the  reputation 
he  had  acquired  instrumental  to  the  preservation  of,  at  least,  the 
life  of  Louis  :  coming  to  Paris,  and  labouring  for  some  days  with 
great  earnestness  to  induce  the  Girondin  leaders  who  still  looked 
on  him  as  a  member  of  their  party  to  interpose  on  his  behalf. 
When  his  efibrts  had  proved  fruitless,  he  formed  plans,  if  not  to 
avenge  him,  at  least  to  save  the  queen,  and  to  preserve  the  nation 
itself  from  the  bloodthirsty  tyranny  which  had  caused  such 
calamities  and  disgraces,  and  which  was  preparing  more.  But  his 
defeat  at  Neerwinden,  a  field  memorable  in  former  days  for  one  of  the 
most  brilliant  achievements  of  Luxembourg,  put  an  end  to  all  such 
hopes.  Failure,  to  whatever  it  might  be  owing,  was  never  for- 
given by  the  monsters  who  were  now  masters  of  Paris.  A  price 
was  set  on  his  head.  He  was  forced  to  fly ;  and  for  above  thirty 
years  he  lived  an  exile  in  foreign  countries,  first  at  Hamburg  and 
afterwards  in  England,  subsisting  on  a  small  pension  allowed  him 
by  the  German  princes  and  by  George  IV.  as  regent  and  king. 
He  had  deserved  a  better  fate.  He  had  not  only  shown  himself  a 
brave  and  skilful  soldier,  but  a  statesman  of  no  moderate  foresight 
and  ability.  As  a  patriot,  he  had  been  honestly  desirous  to  save 
the  king  and  his  constitutional  authority :  he  had  been  so  from 
the  first;  and  had  he  not  been  repulsed  by  the  combined  im- 
becility and  vanity  of  Necker,  he,  with  his  military  capacit}-  and 
influence  over  the  soldiers,  might  probably  have  had  the  power  to 
be  more  serviceable  to  the  royal  cause  than  Mirabeau  could  have 
been  even  if  he  lived.  But  when  his  services  were  at  last  .ac- 
cepted, the  time  had  passed  that  they  could  be  useful ;  and  Necker 
is  justly  chargeable  not  only  with  the  injury  which  he  inflicted  on 
his  royal  master  by  his  own  mismanagement,  but  with  the  equally 
fatal  and  far  less  pardonable  mistake  of  rejecting  the  aid  which 
might  have  remedied  his  own  blunders.  Napoleon  had  some 
reason  to  say,  as  he  did  say,  that  Kobespierre  himself  had  not 
exerted  a  more  ruinous  influence  on  Louis  and  on  France. 


A.D.  1792.]  DANTON  AND  MARAT.  475 


CHAPTER    XXI. 
A.D.  1792—1793. 

NOTHING  could  now  save  Louis,  unless,  indeed,  be  could  have 
escaped  from  Paris,  which  mio;ht  even  yet  have  been  possible 
could  he  have  been  prevailed  upon  to  repeat  the  attempt.  Even 
his  consent  to  the  decree  against  the  priests  could  only  have  averted 
the  blow  by  inducing  Dumouriez  to  retain  his  civil  office  in  pre- 
ference to  his  military  command ;  and  the  real  danger  to  which  the 
country  was  at  one  time  exposed  from  the  advance  of  the  Prussians, 
would  have  made  it  difficult  for  an  ambitious  soldier  to  have  re- 
fused to  march  against  her  enemies.  But  with  his  departure  all 
hope  of  the  king's  safety  certainly  departed  also.  Those  who  had 
vowed  his  destruction  w6re  not  to  be  deterred  from  any  purpose  of 
blood  J  and  they  were  resolved  to  give  him  neither  time  nor  re- 
spite. A  new  club  had  lately  been  formed,  as  a  sort  of  offshoot 
from  the  Jacobins ;  taking  the  name  of  the  Cordeliers,  from  hold- 
ing its  meetings  in  a  Franciscan  convent.  It  had  been  founded  by 
a  butcher,  named  Legendre  ;  but  its  guiding  spirits  were  Danton  ^f^-^/t^^ 
and  Marat :  Danton,  as  has  been  already  mentioned,  was  a  lawyer, 
who,  never  having'  had  any  practice  in  his  profession,  and  being 
deeply  in  debt  at  the  beginning  of  the  Revolution,  had  made  him- 
self known  from  the  first  by  the  violence  of  his  counsels,  which 
he  recommended  by  a  ready  eloquence.  He  had  natural  advan- 
tages of  no  small  importance  for  a  demagogue  :  a  commanding 
figure,  great  personal  strength  and  a  stentorian  voice  ;  and  in  the 
unnatural  frenzy  which,  during  the  early  years  of  the  Revolution 
animated  the  Parisians,  the  ferocity  with  which  he  seemed  to 
desire  bloodshed  for  his  own  sake  did  not  disgust  so  many  as  it 
fascinated.  Marat  had  been  bred  an  apothecary  ;  having  studied  ^^^^ 
medicine  at  Edinburgh,  where  he  acquired  such  a  knowledge  of 
our  language  that  he  even  wrote  a  pamphlet  in  it.  He  was  as 
unsuccessful  in  getting  employment  in  his  trade  as  Danton  was  in 
his  profession ;  and,  giving  up  any  higher  practice,  had  been  glad 
to  be  employed  as  veterinary  surgeon  in  the  stables  of  the  king's 
brother,  the  Count  d'Artois.  He,  t6o,  from  the  first,  saw  in  the 
Revolution  a  means  of  rising  to  power.     He  had  not  Dantoa's 


476  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1792. 

personal  or  oratorical  gifts.  His  figure  was  puny  ;  his  voice  thin 
and  squeaking ;  hut  he  was  a  fluent  writer,  and  in  the  summer  of 
1789,  set  up  a  journal  called  the  '  Friend  of  the  People,'  in  which 
he  went  beyond  even  the  most  sanguinary  of  his  contemporaries 
in  his  cries  for  bloodshed ;  not  always  sparing  the  assembly  itself, 
but  on  one  occasion  declaring  that  it  would  never  be  well  with 
France  till  800  deputies  were  hung  on  800  trees  in  the  gardens  of 
the  Tuileries.  On  such  vile  wretches  did  the  fiite  of  France  and 
her  monarch  now  depend. 

It  was  a  bad  omen  for  Louis  that  these  men  also  were  closely 
connected  with  Madame  Roland.  They  had  both  been  especially 
conspicuous  in  demanding  the  slaughter  of  both  king  and  queen, 
when  they  were  brought  from  Varennes ;  and  she,  who  seems  to 
have  had  a  strange  power  of  rousing  all  the  worst  passions  of  those 
with  whom  she  came  in  contact,  felt  that  she  could  rely  on  them 
both  to  contrive  and  to  execute  any  deed  of  horror.  In  the  course 
of  time  more  than  one  attempt  to  assassinate  both  king  and  queen 
was  discovered.  But  their  enemies  were  not  inclined  to  content 
themselves  with  isolated  attempts  at  crime.  They  decided  on 
organising  a  riot  on  a  large  scale,  in  which  they  doubted  not  their 
agents  would  find  means  of  accomplishing  their  purpose.  And,  as 
in  the  case  of  the  attack  on  Versailles  three  years  before,  notice 
was  ostentatiously  given,  not  only  of  the  intended  outbreak,  but 
of  the  very  day  on  which  it  was  to  take  place.  Madame  de  Stael 
has  said  that  there  can  never  be  a  conspiracy,  properly  so  called, 
in  Paris  ,•  and  that,  if  there  could  be,  it  would  be  superfluous,  since 
every  one  at  all  times  follows  the  majority,  and  no  one  ever  keeps 
a  secret.  And  thus  Louis  was  as  well  aware  as  any  one,  that,  on  the 
twentieth  of  June,  an  attack  was  to  be  made  on  the  Tuileries  with 
the  object  of  murdering  him.  He  prepared  for  the  danger  in  his 
own  way ;  not  making  a  single  endeavour  to  collect  a  force  to 
defend  himself,  but  sending  for  his  confessor  to  afford  him  the  last 
consolations  of  religion,  as  one  whose  doom  was  fixed.  '  He  had 
done,'  he  wrote  to  him  on  the  nineteenth,  '  with  this  world,  and  his 
thoughts  were  now  fixed  on  heaven  alone.  Great  calamities  were 
announced  for  the  morrow,  but  he  felt  that  he  had  courage  to 
meet  them.'  And,  after  the  holy  man  had  left  him,  he  once  more 
gave  utterance  to  his  forebodings,  and  gazing  on  the  setting  sun, 
said  to  his  attendants,  *  Who  can  tell  whether  it  is  not  the  last 
sunset  that  I  shall  see  ? '  not  indeed  that  his  fears  were  for  himself, 
but  for  his  wife  and  for  his  children,  whose  fate  he  could  not  but 
feel  to  depend  on  his  own. 

The  conspirators  were  equally  busy,  but  in  a  different  way. 
Gangs  of  ruflians  were  brought  to  the  last  meeting  of  the  leaders 
to  receive  instructions ;  the  agents  of  d'Orl^ans  were  there,  lavishly 


&.B.  1792.]         A  FKESH  RIOT  IS   ORGANISED.  477 

distributing  gold  among  them,  in  the  hopes  that  the  slaughter  of 
the  king  might  be  followed  by  the  enthronement  of  their  master: 
their  posts  and  objects  of  attack  were  allotted  to  each  gang ;  the 
watchword  was  given  out,  *  Destruction  to  the  palace.'  None 
doubted  of  complete  success  ;  and,  indeed,  the  force  that  was  pro- 
vided might  well  have  justified  the  most  confident  anticipations. 

One  of  the  strangest  features  of  the  outbreak  was,  that  its 
contrivers  should  have  thought  it  desirable  to  give  it  the  pretext 
of  a  legitimate  purpose.  It  was  announced  that  the  people  would 
march  in  procession  to  present  to  the  king  and  the  assembly 
petitions  on  the  subject  of  the  dismissal  of  the  Girondin  ministry, 
and  on  the  refusal  of  Louis  to  give  his  royal  assent  to  the  decree 
against  the  priests.  But  no  attempt  was  made  to  give  the  pro- 
cession itself  a  peaceful  appearance.  Early  on  the  morning  of  the 
twentieth,  20,000  men,  all  furnished  with  weapons  of  some  kind, 
and  accompanied  by  crowds  of  the  lowest  class  of  women,  started 
from  the  place  where  the  Bastille  had  formerly  stood,  and  marched 
in  divisions  on  the  palace,  uttering  the  most  ferocious  cries  and 
threats,  and  bearing  aloft  banners  and  emblems  expressive  of  the 
most  sanguinary  purpose ;  one  of  the  most  common  inscriptions 
being,  '  Death  to  Veto  and  his  wife,'  as  they  called  the  king  and 
queen,  from  the  limited  power  of  refusing  his  consent  to  the  acts 
of  the  assembly,  with  which,  after  long  debate,  he  had  been  in- 
vested. A  company  of  butchers  carried  a  calf  s  head  on  the  point 
of  a  pike,  with  a  label  declaring  it  '  the  head  of  an  aristocrat'  A 
band  of  crossing-sweepers,  or  of  men  disguised  as  such,  though  the 
fineness  of  their  linen  was  remarked  as  inconsistent  with  the  rags 
which  were  their  outward  garments,  bore  as  their  standai-d  a  pair 
.of  ragged  breeches,  with  the  inscription,  *  Tremble  tyrants,  here 
aVe  the  Sansculottes ! '  a  title  which  the  revolutionists  of  the  streets 
were  beginning  to  adopt.  One  gang  of  ruffians  carried  a  model  of 
a  guillotine  ;  another  had  a  miniature  gallows,  with  an  effigy  of 
the  queen  herself  hanging  to  it.  So  great  was  the  crowd,  that  it 
was  near  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  when  it  reached  the 
assembly ;  where,  in  spite  of  the  protests  of  the  law  officers  against 
any  countenance  being  given  to  an  armed  mob,  whose  avowed 
object  of  forcing  its  way  to  the  king  was  in  itself  illegal,  Ver- 
gniaud  and  his  party  advocated  their  admission  into  the  chamber ; 
to  which,  indeed,  the  rioters  themselves  were  quite  able  to  force 
an  entrance.  They  were  allowed  to  read  what  they  called  their 
petition,  which  was,  in  fact,  only  a  denunciation  of  the  king  as  *  an 
enemy  of  the  people,'  and  a  demand  for  his  blood,  as  '  the  life  of 
a  kino"  was  of  no  more  account  than  that  of  any  private  citizen.* 
The  Girondin  leaders  were  observed  to  smile  at  the  most  san- 
i?uinary  expressions ;  and  carried  a  resolution  that  the  petitioners 


478  MODEEN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1792. 

should  be  allowed  to  enter  with  their  arms,  and  defile  before  them. 
Elated  by  this  sanction,  they  poured  in  with  even  greater  uproar 
than  they  had  raised  in  the  streets  ;  mingling  obscene  songs  with 
cries  of  *  Vive  la  Nation ! '  and  '  Mort  aux  Tyrans  ! '  brandishing 
their  weapons  with  gestures  indicative  of  their  eagerness  for  murder; 
and  pointing  triumphantly  to  the  guillotine  and  the  gallows  with 
the  queen's  effigy.  Such  were  the  sights  and  sounds  which  were 
thought  by  its  chiefs  to  be  most  in  character  with  the  legislative 
assembly  of  the  people  which  boasted  to  be  the  pattern  of  civi- 
lisation for  the  rest  of  Europe. 

So  great  was  the  crowd  that  evening  approached  before  the 
last  of  the  rabble  had  passed  through  the  hall,  and  by  that 
time  the  leading  ranks  were  in  front  of  the  Tuileries.  There 
were  but  scanty  means  of  resisting  them.  The  national  guard 
were  the  recognised  protectors  of  the  palace;  but  the  agents 
of  d'Orldans  and  the  Girondins  had  tampered  with  many  of  them 
so  successfully  that ,  as  a  force,  but  little  trust  could  be  placed  in 
them ;  and  the  champions  on  whom  alone  the  sovereigns  could 
rely  for  their  defence  were  a  band  of  gentlemen,  headed  by  the 
veteran  Marshal  de  Noailles,  who  had  repaired  to  the  Tuileries 
at  daybreak  to  afford  their  king  such  protection  as  might  be  found 
in  their  devoted  fidelity  and  fearless  gallantry.  Some,  besides  the 
old  marshal,  such  as  M.  d'Hervilly,  who  had  commanded  the 
cavalry  of  the  constitutional  guard,  and  Acloque,  a  loyal  officer 
of  the  national  guard,  brought  military  experience  to  aid  their 
valour,  and  made  such  arrangements  as,  in  the  brief  time  that  was 
allowed  them,  seemed  practicable  to  keep  the  rioters  at  bay.  But 
the  utmost  valour  of  such  a  handful  of  men,  as  at  most  they  were, 
and  even  the  more  solid  resistance  of  iron  gates  and  barriers,  were 
unavailing  against  the  thousands  that  assailed  them.  They  began 
to  batter  down  the  railings  with  sledge  hammers.  Two  of  the 
municipal  magistrates  ordered  the  sentinels  to  open  the  gates  to 
the  sovereign  people.  The  sentinels  fled  ;  the  gates  were  opened 
or  beaten  in  ;  the  palace  was  open  ;  the  mob  seized  one  of  the 
cannons  in  the  courtyard,  carried  it  up  the  stairs  of  the  palace, 
planted  it  against  the  outer  door  of  the  royal  apartments,  and, 
while  they  shouted  out  a  demand  that  the  king  should  show  him- 
self, began  to  batter  the  door  as  they  had  battered  the  gates 
below,  and  threatened,  if  it  did  not  yield  to  their  hatchets,  to  blow 
it  in  with  cannon  shot. 

The  princes  had  reason  to  think  the  king's  forebodings  realised, 
and  that  their  last  hour  was  come  ;  but  even  in  that  awful  moment 
no  sign  of  fear  was  visible  in  their  conduct :  the  most  hardened 
warrior  never  confronted  danger  and  death  with  more  sublime 
intrepidity.     Marie  Antoinette  was  always  fearless :  it  was  her 


A.B.  1792.]     THE  MOB  ENTERS  THE  TUILERIES.  479 

inheritance  from  her  heroic  mother.  And  Louis,  weak  and  irreso- 
lute when  called  on  to  act,  when  he  had  only  to  suffer  and  endure 
was  as  calm  and  magnanimous  as  she  herself.  Even  the  king's 
sister,  the  meek  and  pious  Princess  Elizabeth,  was  nerved  to  a 
resolution  which  seemed  foreign  to  her  character  by  the  danger  of 
her  brother  and  his  family,  and  rivalled  the  queen  herself  in  the 
dauntlessness  of  her  unselfish  heroism.  The  hatchets  beat  down 
the  outer  door ;  and,  as  it  fell,  the  king  came  forth  from  the  room 
behind,  and,  with  unruffled  countenance,  accosted  the  ruffians  who 
were  pouring  through  it.  The  princess  was  by  his  side.  He  had 
charged  those  around  him  to  keep  the  queen  back ;  and  she, 
knowing  how  special  an  object  of  the  popular  hatred  and  fury  she 
was,  with  a  fortitude  beyond  that  which  defies  death,  kept  out  of 
sight  lest  she  should  add  to  his  danger.  For  a  moment  the  mob, 
awed,  in  spite  of  themselves,  by  the  dignity  of  their  intended 
victims,  halted  in  their  onset ;  but  their  delay  was  but  for  a 
moment,  the  front  ranks  were  pushed  on  by  those  behind,  and, 
with  shouts  of  *  Down  with  Veto,'  '  Death  to  the  Austrian,'  aimed 
their  pikes  at  the  princess.  A  shout  of  '  Spare  the  princess,' 
arose  from  some  of  the  guard ;  but  to  those,  to  whose  outcry  she 
believed  she  ow£d  her  life,  she  turned  almost  reproachfully: 
*Why,'  said  she, '  did  you  undeceive  them,  it  might  have  saved 
the  queen  ? '  Meantime  d'Hervilly,  Acloque,  and  a  few  trusty 
grenadiers,  had  forced  their  way  up  a  backstairs,  and,  dragging 
the  king  into  a  recess  formed  by  a  window,  raised  a  rampart  of 
benches  in  front  of  him,  and  drew  up  in  front  of  it  to  repel  any 
further  attack.  They  would  gladly  have  charged  their  assailants ; 
but  Louis  himself  forbade  them :  '  Put  up  your  sword,'  he  said  to 
d'Hervilly ;  ^  the  crowd  is  excited  rather  than  wicked  ; '  and  he 
addressed  the  rioters  with  words  of  dignified  conciliation,  owing 
his  safety,  in  all  probability,  as  much  to  his  own  calumess  as  to 
the  fidelity  and  valour  of  his  adherents.  'One  ruffian  threatened 
him  with  instant  death  if  he  did  not  at  once  grant  every  demand 
contained  in  their  petition.  He  replied,  as  composedly  as  if  he 
had  been  on  his  throne  at  Versailles,  that  the  present  was  not  the 
time  for  making  such  a  demand,  nor  was  that  the  way  to  make  it. 
Legendre,  the  Cordelier  butcher,  whose  fury  was  heightened  by 
drunkenness,  raised  his  pike  with  menacing  gestures,  as  he  re- 
proached him  with  being  a  traitor  and  enemy  to  his  country.  '  I 
am  not,  and  never  have  been  aught  but  the  sincere  friend  of  my 
people,'  was  the  gentle  but  fearless  answer.  *  If  it  be  so,  put  on 
this  red  cap  ; '  and  the  ruffian  thrust  into  his  hand  a  red  night-cap 
which  he  and  his  fellows  had  adopted  as  the  badge  of  liberty  and 
equality;  prepared,  if  he  hesitated  to  accept  it,  to  plunge  his 
weapon  into  his  breast.     The  king  put  it  on,  regarding  it  so  little 


480  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1792. 

that  he  forgot  to  remove  it,  as  he  would  have  wished  to  do,  and 
as  he  repented  afterwards  that  he  had  not  done,  thinking  that  his 
conduct  in  suffering  it  to  remain  on  his  head  bore  too  strong  a  re- 
semblance to  fear  or  to  an  unworthy  compromise  of  his  dignity. 

All  this  time  the  shouts  for  the  queen's  appearance  were  furious 
and  increasing ;  till  at  last  the  faithful  friends  who  had  hitherto 
prevailed  on  her  to  remain  out  of  sight  admitted  that  h9r  appear- 
ance might  be  less  dangerous  than  her  continued  absence.  The 
inner  door  was  thrown  open,  and  leading  by  the  hand  her  children, 
from  whom  she  refused  to  part,  and,  attended  by  her  ladies,  the 
most  timid  of  whom  seemed  inspired  by  her  courage,  she  took  her 
place  by  her  husband's  side,  and  with  head  erect  and  colour 
heightened  by  the  sight  of  her  enemies,  faced  them  disdainfully. 
And  the  result  showed  that  she  had  judged  wisely  as  well  as 
bravely  in  coming  forward.     Before 

Her  lion  port,  her  awe-commanding  face,^ 

Even  those  monsters  who  were  lately  clamouring  for  her  blood 
quailed ;  and  one  of  the  fiercest  of  the  band,  Santerre,  a  brewer, 
already  infamous  by  many  a  deed  of  blood,  addressed  her  with 
what  he  meant  to  be  courtesy,  but  what  was  strange  encourage- 
ment to  his  queen  :  '  Princess,'  he  said,  *  do  not  fear,  the  French 
people  do  not  wish  to  slay  you  ;  I  promise  you  this  in  their  name.' 
Marie  Antoinette  had  long  before  declared  that  her  heart,  had 
become  French ;  it  was  too  much  for  her  to  allow  such  a  ruffian  his 
claim  to  be  considered  the  spokesman  of  the  nation.  *  It  is  not 
by  such  as  you,'  she  replied,  '  that  I  j  udge  of  the  French  people, 
but  by  brave  men  like  these,'  and  she  pointed  to  the  gentlemen, 
who,  with  de  Noailles,  had  come  to  her  defence,  and  to  the  faithful 
grenadiers.  The  well-timed  compliment  raised  them  to  greater 
enthusiasm  ;  but  already  the  danger  was  passing  away. 

The  majority  of  the  assembly  had  seen  with  indifference  the 
mob  depart  to  attack  the  Tuileries ;  but,  when  the  uproar  grew 
so  violent  as  to  be  heard  even  in  the  hall,^  where  they  were 
debating,  a  small  body  of  members,  the  relics  of  the  constitu- 
tional party,  headed  by  Count  Matthieu  Dumas,  crossed  over  to 
the  palace  to  see  what  was  taking  place ;  and,  returning,  reported 
the  danger  in  which  the  king  and  queen  were  placed.  Dumas 
insisted  that  the  assembly  was  bound  at  once  to  take  measures  to 

1  Gray,  Bard,   iii.   2,  who  quotes  tartnesse  of  her  princelie  checkes.' 

Speed's  relation  of  an  audience  given  ^  The  hall  of  the  assembly  ran  at 

by   Queen   Elizabeth   to  the  Polish  right    angles   to    the   Tuileries,    of 

ambassador  :*  And  thus  she,  lionlike,  which  it  almost  touched  the  comer 

rising,  daunted  the  malapert  orator  furthest  from  the  tower,  and  looked 

no  less  with  her  stately  port  and  into  the  gardens  of  the  palace. 


ma 


ijestical  deporture,  than  with  the 


A.D.  1792.]      PLANS  FOR  THE  KING'S  ESCAPE.  481 

ensure  their  safety ;  and,  thoug'h  the  Jacobin  members  tried  to 
browbeat,  and  even  to  threaten  him,  he,  a  soldier  of  proved  valour, 
was  not  to  be  intimidated;  and,  at  last,  shamed  his  colleagues 
into  commissioning  a  deputation  of  twenty-four  members  to  repair 
to  the  palace  and  protect  the  king.  Petion,  too,  who  had  succeeded 
Bailly  as  mayor,  and  who  had  kept  carefully  aloof  while  th^re  was 
a  chance  of  the  king  being  murdered,  now  that  he  could  no  longer 
hope  for  such  a  consummation  came  down  and  exerted  himself 
to  induce  the  rioters  to  withdraw ;  and  thanking  them  *  for  the 
moderation  and  dignity  with  which  they  had  exercised  the  right 
of  petition,'  bade  them  '  finish  the  day  in  similar  conformity  to 
the  law,'  and  retire  to  their  homes.  They  obeyed  sulkily,  and 
withdrew ;  Santerre,  whose  gentler  mood  had  passed  away,  mutter- 
ing with  deep  oaths  that  they  had  missed  their  blow,  but  that  they 
would  soon  repeat  it. 

And  before  long  it  was  known  to  all  Paris  that  an  insurrection 
on  a  far  larger  scale  was  preparing  ;  the  chief  conspirators  being 
so  confident  in  their  power  that  Vergniaud  and  some  others  of  the 
Girondin  leaders  had  the  insolence  to  write  the  king  a  formal 
letter  threatening  him  with  a  fresh  attack  on  the  tenth  of  August,  and 
warning  him  that  his  deposition  was  the  most  merciful  consequence 
that  he  could  anticipate,  if  he  hesitated  at  once  to  replace  Roland 
and  his  former  colleagues  in  the  ministry.  While  it  was  known 
that  the  Girondins  were  not  prepared  to  content  themselves  on  this 
occasion  with  the  fury  of  the  Parisian  mob,  but  that  a  man  named 
Barbaroux,  one  of  their  party,  and  a  personal  friend  of  Madame 
Koland,  had  promised  to  bring  up  from  Marseilles  and  the  adjacent 
districts  a  band  of  ruffians  whom  he  described  as  capable  of  any 
atrocity.  And  so  hopeless  did  all  prospect  of  active  resistance 
to  such  an  attack  appear,  and  so  clear  was  it  that  flight  was  the 
king's  only  resource,  that  his  former  minister,  Bertrand  de  Mole- 
ville,  with  the  aid  of  M.  d'Hervilly  and  others  of  his  faithful 
friends,  arranged,  with  great  skill,  a  project  for  his  escape  to  the 
castle  of  Gaillon,  in  Normandy,  which,  though  at  no  great  distance 
from  the  capital,  was  pronounced  by  officers  of  experience  to  be 
thoroughly  defensible ;  and  implored  him  at  once  to  place  him- 
self and  his  family  in  safety.  Similar  advice  came  even  from  lift- 
fayette ;  even  he,  wanton  and  shameful  as  was  the  delight  which, 
from  the  first,  he  had  taken  in  insulting  and  degrading  his  sove- 
reigns, could  not  reflect  without  horror  on  the  deadly  peril  with 
which  he  now  saw  them  threatened,  and  proposed  to  bring  up  a 
picked  battalion  from  the  army  on  the  frontier  to  Paris,  under  whose 
escort  Louis  might  repair  to  Compiegne,  while  the  knowledge  of 
his  safety  would  enable  his  partisans  in  Paris  to  assume  a  bolder 
tone,  and  to  take  steps  to  re-establish  his  authority.     But  Louis 


482  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1702. 

rejected  both  proposals.  The  queen  distrusted  Lafaj^ette's  sin- 
cerity :  he  himself,  though  less  suspicious  of  his  present  loyalty,* 
distrusted  his  ability.  And,  though  the  decision  was  less  promptly 
taken^  the  retreat  to  Chateau  Gaillon  also  was  at  last  decided 
against,  or  at  least  postponed  *  till  the  last  extremity,' 

As  it  was  on  the  sixth  of  August  when  this  determination  was 
announced  to  Bertrand,  and  the  insurrection  was  to  take  place  on 
the  tenth,  he  thought  the  last  extremity  had  already  arrived ;  but 
he  afterwards  learnt  that  Louis  was  trusting  for  safety  to  the 
infamy  of  his  enemies.  He  had  formerly,  as  we  have  seen,  refused 
to  buy  Vergniaud  and  the  other  Girondin  leaders  at  the  price  they 
had  put  upon  their  services ;  but  he  had  now  consented  to  buy 
Danton,  Petion,  and  Santerre  at  theirs,  and  for  a  million  of  francs, 
which  had  been  paid  to  them,  they  had  undertaken  to  stop  the 
insurrection.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  Bertrand  was  right 
when  he  believed  that  their  object  had  merely  been  to  lull  Louis 
into  a  false  sense  of  security,  to  secure  his  destruction  by  cheating 
him  of  his  money.  But  nothing  in  the  whole  history  of  the  Revo- 
lution is  stranger  than  that  Louis  should  have  trusted  P<5tion, 
who  a  day  or  two  before  had  presented  to  the  assembly  a  formal 
petition  from  the  sections  of  the  capital  for  his  deposition, 
and  for  the  convocation  of  a  national  convention  to  establish 
a  new  form  of  government ;  and  who,  it  was  plain,  was  far  more 
deeply  pledged  to  the  Jacobins  and  the  populace,  both  by  his 
sentiments  and  his  fears,  than  he  could  possibly  be  bound  to  the 
king  by  any  bribe  whatever.  But  of  that  blindness  which  is  pro- 
verbially said  to  be  the  forerunner  of  destruction  to  those  who  are 
doomed,  as  it  is  also  in  a  great  degree  the  cause  of  it,  the  king  and 
even  the  queen,  with  all  her  superior  capacity,  had  a  full  share, 
though  more  allowance  than  usual  must  be  made  for  their  occa- 
sional errors  of  judgment,  in  consideration  of  the  unparalleled 
difficulties  and  dangers  with  which,  throughout,  they  were  sur- 
rounded. 

But  no  misplaced  confidence  or  indecision  blunted  the  vigour  of 
their  enemies ;  though,  as  the  day  approached,  they  found  that 
their  forces  would  be  less  numerous  than  they  had  expected. 
The  allies  who  were  promised  them  from  the  provinces,  and 
were  to  be  counted  by  thousands,  did  not  exceed  a  few  hundreds. 

*  If  Lamartine  may  be  believed,  king,'  he  was  writing:  letters  to  his 

the  Queen's  distrust  was  better  foun-  own  contidants  in  which  he  declared 

ded  than  her  husband's  confidence,  himself  prepared  to  take   up    arms 

liamartine  affirms  that  his  ambition  against  him,  if  he  should  attempt  to 

was  to  establish  for  himself  a  protec-  play  the  sovereign,  trancher  du  Sou- 

torate  under  Louis  XVI.'    And  that,  verain. — History   of  the    Girondina, 

at  the  very  moment  when  he  seemed  xvii.  7.     English  Translation, 
devoted  to  the  preservation  of  the 


A.D.  1792.]      A  FEESH  ATTACK  ON  THE  TUILERIES.         483 

It  was  plain  they  would  again  have  to  trust  mainly  to  the  mob  of 
the  capital.  And  in  one  or  two  petty  tumults  the  national  guards 
had  lately  shown  an  inclination  to  resist  the  populace  rather  than 
to  unite  with  it ;  but  d'Orleans  still  trusted  to  the  ellect  of  hia 
bribes  on  the  soldiers,  and  Danton  to  the  maxim  which,  betray- 
ing Louis  while  taking  his  money,  he  was  vociferous  and  un- 
wearied in  impressing  on  all  around  him  :  'Audacity;  once  more 
Audacity ;  always  Audacity ! ' 

The  ostentatious  notice  which,  had  been  given  of  the  intended 
insurrection  had,  however,  instead  of  terrifying  Louis  and  his 
advisers,  given  them  warning,  by  which  they  had  profited  to 
make  arrangements  to  resist  the  attack ;  and,  at  first  sight,  it 
might  have  seemed  that  the  contest  in  which  they  were  about  to 
engage  was  not  a  hopeless  one.  Mandat,  the  commander  of  the 
national  guard  for  the  city,  was  a  soldier  of  experience  and  ardent 
loyalty ;  besides  a  division  of  2,400  men  under  his  orders,  the 
Swiss  guards  were  nearly  1,000  more ;  and  they  had  eleven  guns. 
But  when  the  critical  moment  came  some  of  these  resources 
proved  utterly  unsound,  and  the  rest  were  neutralised  by  the  fatal 
weakness  of  Louis  himself.  The  leaders  of  the  insurrection  pos- 
sessed themselves  of  all  the  churches,  and  at  midnight,  on  the  ninth, 
the  fatal  tocsin  was  heard  to  peal  from  every  tower  and  steeple. 
A  new  municipal  council,  elected  by  a  majority  of  the  sections  of 
the  city,  which  had  already  declared  themselves  in  insurrection, 
had  already  supplied  those  who  were  to  take  an  active  part  in  the 
riot  with  arms  and  ammunition,  and  at  six  in  the  morning  20,000 
men  once  more  marched  on  the  Tuileries.  It  was  but  little  later 
when  Louis,  accompanied  by  the  queen,  his  sister,  and  the  little  Dau- 
phin, went  down  into  the  courts  of  the  palace  to  review  the  troopa 
who  were  collected  for  his  defence.  But  Mandat  was  not  there  ; 
he  had  been  sent  for  by  the  new  municipal  council,  under  tlie 
pretence  of  his  advice  being  needed  to  enable  them  to  concert 
measures  for  the  king's  safety.  His  own  judgment,  which  bade 
him  to  refuse  obedience  to  the  summons,  had  been  overruled  by 
the  urgency  of  others ;  and,  after  being  examined  and  insulted  by 
the  councillors,  he  had  been  murdered  by  a  band  of  assassins  at 
their  disposal.  His  authority  might,  perhaps,  have  kept  his 
soldiers  steady  to  their  duty ;  but  the  news  of  his  fate,  which  was 
not  slow  to  reach  them,  encouraged  the  disaftected,  while  it  dis- 
heartened the  loyal.  When  the  king  appeared,  many  of  the  com- 
panies greeted  him  with  seditious  shouts;  and  the  artillerymen 
were  open,  loud,  and  even  violent  in  their  treason;  quitting 
their  ranks  to  offer  the  king  personal  insults,  doubling  their  iista 
in  his  face,  and  assailing  him  with  the  coarsest  threats  that  the 
Ilevolution  had  yet  taught  them.     The  Swiss  guards  alone  were 


i84  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1792. 

true  to  their  duty ;  they  hailed  Louis  with  enthusiastic  cheers, 
which  for  a  moment  drowned  the  disloyal  clamour  of  their  un- 
worthy comrades  :  but  both  insults  and  cheers  the  hapless  king 
received  with  equal  apath3^  The  despair  which  was  in  his  heart 
was  shown  even  in  his  dress,  which  had  no  military  character  or 
decoration,  but  was  a  suit  of  plain  violet,  such  as  was  only  worn 
by  kings  of  France  on  occasions  of  mourning.  It  was  to  no  pur- 
pose that  the  queen  put  arms  in  his  hands,  and  exhorted  him  to 
take  the  command  of  the  soldiers  himself,  and  to  show  himself 
ready  to  fight  in  person  for  his  throne.  Once  or  twice  he  pro- 
nounced a  few  words  of  acknowledgment  to  his  adherents,  and 
gently  expostulated  with  his  threateners ;  and  then,-  pale  and  ex- 
hausted with  the  effort,  returned  to  hisx  apartments. 

The  queen  was  almost  in  despair ;  she  saw  that,  from  his  want 
of  energy,  the  review  had  done  harm  rather  than  good.  All  that 
she  could  do  was  to  show  herself  not  wanting  to  the  occasion,  nor 
to  him.  Her  courage  rose  with  the  imminence  of  the  danger. 
Those  who  beheld  her,  as,  with  dilating  eyes  and  heightened 
colour,  she  listened  to  the  increasing  tumult,  and,  repressing  every 
appearance  of  terror,  strove  with  unabated  energy  to  animate  her 
husband,  and  to  fortify  the  good  disposition  of  the  troops  that 
remained  faithful,  have  described  in  terms  of  enthusiastic  admira- 
tion the  majestic  dignity  of  her  demeanour  in  this  trying  hour. 
And  her  difficulties  were  increased  by  the  disunion  which  sprang 
up  even  among  her  defenders  themselves.  As  at  the  riot  of  June, 
a  body  of  nobles  and  gentlemen,  many  of  whom  had  belonged 
to  the  old  constitutional  guard,  had  hastened  to  the  palace  to 
place  their  swords  at  the  service  of  their  sovereign.  But  the 
national  guards  were  jealous  of  them.  They  disdained  to  be 
seen  with  men  who  wore  no  uniform,  and  who,  as  they  were 
mostly  in  court  dress,  they  distrusted  as  aristocrats.  They  be- 
sought the  queen  to  disaiiss  them.  *  Never,'  said  she ;  '  and, 
trusting  that  the  example  of  true  self-devotion  might  stimulate 
the  honest  rivalry  in  those  who  complained,  and  full  of  that  royal 
magnanimity  which  feels  that  it  does  honour  to  those  whom  it 
trusts,  and  that  it  has  a  right  to  look  for  the  loyalty  of  its 
servants  even  in  death,'  she  added,  '  they  will  serve  with  you  and 
share  your  dangers  ;  they  will  fight  with  you  in  the  van,  in  the 
rear,  as  you  will ;  they  will  show  you  how  men  can  die  for  their 
king.' 

Meanwhile,  the  insurgents  marched  on  ;  so  rapidly  that  it  was 
little  more  than  eight  o'clock  when  they  reached  the  palace  ;  but 
it  was  already  deserted  by  those  who  were  the  objects  of  the 
attack.  The  disaffection  shown  by  some  of  the  troops  at  the 
review  had  been  contaorious.     Some  of  the  former  board  of  muni- 


A.D.  1792.]  LOUIS  TAKES  EEFUGE  IN  THE  ASSEMIiLY.    485 

cipal  magistrates,  who  had  been  superseded  by  the  new  council, 
and  bore  it  no  goodwill,  had  tried  in  vain  to  bring  back  the 
national  guards  to  their  duty  ;  but  one  battalion  only,  that  of  the 
Filles  de  St.-Thoraas,  could  be  depended  on,  while  the  artillery- 
men drew  the  charges  from  their  guns  and  extinguished  the 
matches.  Accompanied  by  M.  Koederer,  the  legal  adviser  of  the 
department  of  the  Seine,  whose  advice  had  already  cost  Mandat 
his  life,  though  there  is  no  reason  to  think  that  it  had  been  trea- 
cherously given,  they  returned  to  the  palace  to  represent  to  the 
king  the  utter  hopelessness  of  making  any  resistance,  and  that  his 
sole  resource  was  to  seek  the  protection  of  the  assembly.  The 
queen,  who,  to  use  her  own  words,  would  have  preferred  being 
nailed  to  the  walls  of  the  palace  rather  than  seek  a  refuge  which 
she  deemed  degrading,  still  pointed  to  the  troops,  and  showed  by 
her  gestures  that  she  looked  on  them  as  the  only  protectors  whom 
it  became  them  to  trust.  But  Louis,  always  eager  for  any  course 
which  seemed  calculated  to  avoid  a  conflict,  decided  on  taking  the 
advice  thus  pressed  on  him. 

Yet  even  at  the  last  moment,  could  he  have  summoned  up 
active  courage,  there  was  still  hope.  M.  Boscari,  the  commander 
of  the  one  faithful  battalion  of  the  national  guard,  implored  him 
to  change  his  mind.  With  his  own  men,  united  to  the  Swiss 
guard,  he  undertook  to  cut  a  way  for  the  king  to  the  Rouen 
road.  The  insurgents,  he  said,  were  on  the  other  side  of  the 
city  ;  and  nothing  could  resist  him.  But  still,  as  on  former  occa- 
sions, Louis  rejected  advice  which  contemplated  the  possibility  of 
bloodshed ;  he  pleaded  the  risk  to  which  he  should  expose  those 
dear  to  him,  and  led  them  to  almost  certain  death  in  commit- 
ting their  safety  to  the  a8sembl}^  A  guard  of  honour  was  hastily 
formed  of  one  company  of  the  Swiss,  and  one  of  the  national 
guard ;  and  thus  escorted,  the  whole  family  quitted  the  palace, 
which  but  one  of  them,  the  princess  royal,  a  little  girl  of  fourteen, 
was  destined  ever  to  see  again. 

The  news  of  his  departure  from  the  palace  caused  some  division 
in  the  assembly  ;  where  the  Jacobins  hoped  to  make  it  lead  to  his 
instant  assassination,  while  the  Girondins  were  not  yet  prepared 
for  his  murder,  but  were  disposed  to  be  contented  with  his  de- 
thronement. And,  as  they  had  the  majority,  they  were  able  to 
carry  a  resolution  that  a  deputation  should  be  sent  to  meet  him. 
Yet,  had  it  not  been  for  the  militaiy  escort,  the  Jacobins  would 
have  attained  their  object,  for  a  mob  of  the  lowest  ruffians 
thronged  the  gardens  through  which  the  royal  family  had  to  pass, 
and  surrounded  the  doors  of  the  hall  of  assembly  ;  and,  as  the 
sovereigns  passed  on,  assailed  them  with  savage  clamours  for  their 
blood,  and  especially  for  that  of  the  queen  and  her  ladies;  and 


486  MODERN  HISTOEY.-  [a.d.  1702. 

were  only  kept  back  by  the  resolute  front  maintained  by  the 
soldiers  from  gratifying  their  hatred  with  their  o\%'n  hands.  On 
his  entrance  into  the  hall,  Louis  bore  himself  with  sufficient  dig- 
nity. *I  am  come  here,'  was  his  address,  Ho  prevent  a  great 
crime  ;  I  think  I  cannot  be  better  or  more  safely  placed,  gentle- 
men, than  among  you.'  And  his  composure  for  the  moment  awed 
even  Vergniaud,  who  happened  to  be  president,  into  decency  of 
demeanour,  so  that  he  assured  him,  in  a  brief  reply,  in  which  he 
did  not  refuse  to  give  him  the  title  of  Sire,  that  he  might  rely  on 
the  firmness  of  the  assembly  to  support  all  constituted  authorities. 
Meanwhile,  the  tumult  out  of  doors  was  frightful :  the  insur- 
gents were  divided  into  two  bodies ;  one  sacking  the  Tuileries, 
now  deserted  by  all,  save  a  few  of  the  royal  servants  who  were 
ruthlessly  murdered ;  the  monsters  who  slaughtered  them  not 
being  content  with  their  deaths,  but,  tearing  their  lifeless  bodies 
to  pieces,  with  cannibal  fury  devouring  the  still  bleeding  frag- 
ments, or  hoisting  the  severed  limbs  on  pikes  to  carry  in  triumph 
through  the  streets :  while  the  other  party  tried  to  force  its  way 
into  the  assembly  hall,  but  was  kept  at  bay  by  the  faithful  Swiss 
guards,  whose  successful  valour  showed  that  there  might  still 
have  been  a  hope  of  escape  for  Louis,  could  he  have  roused  him- 
self to  courageous  action.  A  pistol-shot  was  fired  in  the  crowd, 
probably  by  accident,  as  no  one  was  hit ;  but  the  Swiss,  taking  it 
for  the  signal  or  commencement  of  a  more  regular  attack  upon 
themselves,  thought  the  time  was  come  to  defend  their  own  lives. 
They  levelled  their  muskets  and  fired ;  charged  down  the  steps, 
driving  the  insurgents  before  them  like  sheep ;  forced  their  way 
into  the  Carrousel;  recovered  the  cannon  which  were  posted 
in  that  court ;  and  were  so  completely  victorious  that  it  seemed 
possible  even  now  that,  united  with  the  other  battalion  which 
had  remained  behind  when  they  escorted  the  king  across  the  gar- 
dens, they  might  still  be  able  to  quell  the  insurrection.  But 
their  success  led  only  to  their  own  destruction.  The  deputies 
were  panic-stricken  at  the  noise  of  the  firing,  and  extorted  from 
Louis  an  order  to  the  Swiss  to  retire  to  their  barracks.  It  was 
not  easy  to  convey  it  to  them,  so  dense  was  the  crowd  around 
both  hall  and  palace;  but  M.  d'Hervilly  undertook  the  task, 
hoping,  if  he  could  reach  the  guard,  to  place  himself  at  their  head, 
and  still  to  extricate  the  king  from  his  perils.  lie  succeeded  in 
reaching  them,  and,  suppressing  the  order  with  which  he  had 
been  charged,  summoned  the  whole  body  instead  to  follow  him  to 
the  rescue  of  the  king  and  his  family.  They  obeyed  with  joy :  he 
took  the  command  ;  and,  sending  one  division  to  secure  a  draw- 
bridge at  the  bottom  of  the  garden,  led  th^  other  towards  the 
hall.     He  reached  it ;  and,  while  he  himself  staid  below  to  direct 


A.D.  1792.J     IVIASSACRE  OF  THE  SWISS  GUARDS.  487 

the  operations  of  his  men  against  the  insurgents,  who  were  keep- 
ing up  an  irregular  fire  upon  them  from  the  cover  of  the  trees, 
sent  up  a  small  detachment  into  the  chamber  of  the  assembly, 
where  Louis  still  was,  to  explain  to  him  the  posture  of  affairs, 
and  to  ask  for  orders.  It  was  a  strange  order  that  he  received. 
Even  the  scenes  of  the  morning,  the  deliberate  attack  upon  his 
palace,  the  hostile  feelings  of  the  assembly  which  had  been  made 
painfully  evident  to  him  during  the  few  hours  that  he  had  tiiken 
refuge  there,  had  failed  to  eradicate  the  king's  unwillingness  to 
authorise  his  guards  to  fight  in  his  behalf,  or  to  convince  him  that 
when  at  least  his  throne,  and  probably  his  life  and  that  of  all  his 
family  were  at  stake,  it  was  nobler  to  struggle  for  victory,  and 
if  defeated,  to 

Die  "with  harness  on  his  back, 

and  arms  in  his  liands,  than  tamely  to  sit  still  and  be  stnpped  of 
his  kingly  dignity  by  brigands  and  traitors.  His  command  to  the 
officer,  the  last  he  ever  issued,  was  that  the  whole  battalion  should 
lay  down  its  arms.  He  would  not,  he  said,  that  brave  men  should 
die.*  They  knew  that,  in  fact,  he  was  consigning  them  to  death, 
and  to  death  without  honour ;  but,  obedient  to  the  last,  they  laid 
down  their  arms.  They  were  instantly  moved  off  as  prisoners,  to 
a  church  in  the  rear  of  the  hall  of  assembly;  and  there,  with  the 
exception  of  a  few  to  whom  friends  brought  plain  clothes  to  ex- 
change for  their  uniforms  and  who  escaped  in  this  disguise,  the 
whole  body  were  presently  massacred  in  cold  blood. 

The  other  battalion  which  had  been  ordered  to  secure  the  draw- 
brido-e  were  only  so  far  more  fortunate  that  they  perished  by  a 
more  soldier-like  death.  As  their  road  lay  through  a  more  open 
part  of  the  garden,  the  smallness  of  their  numbers  encouraged  the 
insuro-ents  to  press  upon  their  rear,  and  many  were  sabred  and  shot 
down.  Still  they  steadily  made  their  way,  and  would  have  suc- 
ceeded in  making  themselves  masters  of  the  bridge,  which,  if  the 
king  could  have  been  prevailed  upon  to  act  vigorously,  would  have 
been  of  the  last  importance,  had  not  a  battalion  of  national 
guards,  whose  station  was  in  front  of  the  bridge,  caught  the  con- 
tagion of  rebellion,  joined  the  insurgents,  and  fired  on  them.  The 
mounted  gendarmerie  followed  their  example.  Even  when  thus 
surrounded  on  all  sides  by  enemies,  these  heroic  guards  showed 
what  they  could  have  done,  had  they  been  properly  supported 
and  commanded.  They  charged  through  the  national  guard, 
seized  and  crossed  the  bridge,  and,  reaching  the  Place  Louis  XV. 

J  'D^posez  les  [armes]  eutre  les      vonsp^rissent.'— Hist,  de  la  Tenreur 
mains  de  la  garde  nationale.    Je  ne      viii.  5. 
veux  pas  que  de  braves  gens  comme 


488  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1792. 

formed  in  square,  resolved  to  sell  their  lives  dearly.  It  was  all 
that  was  left  to  them  to  do.  Hemmed  in  on  all  sides,  they  fell 
one  after  another;  Louis,  who  had  refused  to  let  them  die  for 
him,  having  only  given  their  death  the  additional  pang  of  feeling 
that  it  had  been  of  no  service  to  him.  The  few  who  escaped 
gradually  found  their  way  to  their  native  land,  where  they  were 
received  with  enthusiastic  admiratio.i  by  their  countrymen,  who 
felt  that  their  unshaken  fidelity  to  their  duty  reflected  honour  on 
the  whole  nation.  Among  that  simple  people  rewards  are  mea- 
sured not  by  their  costliness,  but  by  the  sentiment  which  has 
caused  them  to  be  bestowed,  and  by  the  character  of  the  acts 
which  have  earned  them  ;  and  with  such  rewards  the  diet  of  their 
country  now  honoured  those  who  had  survived  the  slaughter  of 
their  comrades.  To  each  was  given  an  iron  medal,  with  the  well- 
merited  inscription,  descriptive  of  the  character  of  the  wearers, 
*  Fidelity  and  Honour  ;'  and  to  those  who  had  fallen  in  the  contest  a 
monument  was  erected  at  Lucerne  :  the  effigy  is  a  wounded  lion  : 
the  inscription  testifies  that  it  commemorates  the  *  ill-treated  yet 
invincible  soldier.'  ^ 

Meanwhile  the  condition  of  Louis  and  his  family  was  hardly 
less  miserable  than  that  of  those  who  were  perishing  in  this  hope- 
less struggle.  On  their  arrival  in  the  hall  of  assembly,  they  had 
been  assigned  a  small  box  behind  the  president's  chair,  which  was 
usually  appropriated  to  the  reporters  of  the  debates.  And  there 
they  were  condemned  to  hear  deputy  after  deputy  pouring  forth 
the  coarsest  denunciations  of  their  personal  characters  and  the 
foulest  threats ;  the  thanks  of  the  assembly  given  to  the  insur- 
gents as  '  virtuous  citizens,  who  had  proved  themselves  eager  for 
the  restoration  of  peace  and  order ;'  the  whole  being  crowned  by 
a  set  of  resolutions,  moved  by  Vergniaud  himself,  and  carried  by 
acclamation,  suspending  the  king  from  all  exercise  of  authority ; 
ordeHng  his  confinement  in  the  Luxembourg  Palace,  for  which 
the  Temple  was  afterwards  substituted  as  a  stronger  and  more 
secure  prison :  directing  the  impeachment  of  his  ministers ;  and 
the  immediate  summoning  of  a  new  assembly  ;  and  re-appointing 
Roland  and  his  former  colleagues  to  their  old  offices,  with  the 
addition  of  the  bloodthirsty  Danton  as  minister  of  justice. 

It  was  not  till  daybreak  on  the  eleventh  that  the  assembly 
adjourned  ;  when  the  royal  family  were  removed  for  the  night  to 
an  adjacent  convent,  where  four  wretched  cells  had  been  hastily 
furnished  with  campbeds  and  a  few  other  necessaries  of  the 
coarsest  description.  From  thence  they  were  removed  to  the 
Luxembourg  Palace,  and  from  that  to  the  Temple,  avowedly  on 
the  ground  that  it  would  be  less  easy  to  escape  from  it.  The 
*  Laeso  sed  invicto  militi. 


A.D.  1792.]  THE  KING  IS  CONFINED  IN  THE  TEMPLE.      489 

Temple  was  an  old  fortress  built,  as  its  name  indicated,  by  the 
Knights  Templars,  and  surrounded  on  all  sides  by  a  lofty  waiL  It 
contained  handsome  apartments,  having,  indeed,  till  recently 
been  occupied  by  the  Count  d'Artois  as  his  Parisian  residence. 
But  the  part  of  it  now  allotted  to  Louis  and  his  queen  was  a  small 
dilapidated  tower,  which  had  been  occasionally  used  by  the 
count's  footmen;  and  which  contained  so  small  a  number  of 
rooms  that  the  Princess  Elizabeth's  bed  was  made  in  the  kitchen. 
Their  attendants,  with  the  exception  of  one  or  two  menial  ser- 
vants, were  dismissed ;  and  there  was  evidently  no  desire  to 
disguise  the  fact  that  the  whole  family  were  prisoners.  They 
were  even  denied  the  use  of  pen  and  ink,  lest  they  should  com- 
municate with  those  of  their  adherents  who  were  still  at  liberty ; 
and  some  of  the  queen's  ladies  also  were  thrown  into  the  common 
prisons  of  the  city  without  any  oifence  being  alleged  against  them 
but  that  they  had  formed  part  of  the  royal  household. 

The  last  extremity,  of  which  the  queen  had  spoken  a  few  days 
before,  had  indeed  come,  and  come  quickly.  The  royal  family 
had  only  been  in  the  Temple  four  days  when  Kobespierro 
presented  a  petition  to  the  assembly  to  demand  *  a  sacrihce  of 
expiation  to  the  heroes  who  had  fallen  gloriously  in  obtaining  the 
tenth  of  August  for  France;'  to  complain  that  'that  immortal 
day  was  stiU  barren  of  its  full  fruits  while  the  tyrant  was  only 
suspended,  not  deposed  and  punished  ; '  and  to  demand  *  the  trial 
of  him  and  his  execrable  accomplices,  who  were  still  conspiring 
against  the  people ; '  while  a  formal  deputation  from  the  new 
municipal  council  made  the  same  demand,  and  threatened  a  new 
insurrection  if  it  were  not  instantly  complied  with. 

But,  though  the  deaths  of  the  king  and  queen  were  already  de- 
termined, the  Jacobin  leaders  were  not  yet  quite  ready  to  carry  out 
their  design.  They  had  other  enemies  to  strike  down  first.  The 
Parisians  indeed  were  terrified  into  acquiescence  in  what  had  been 
done,  but  in  the  provinces,  and  in  many  of  the  most  important  pro- 
vincial cities,  the  intelligence  of  the  last  outrages  had  been  received 
with  horror,  which  the  magistrates  of  difl^erent  departments  did  not 
scruple  to  proclaim.  Even  Lafayette  was  shocked  at  the  entire 
extinction  of  the  monarchy,  and  once  more  conceived  the  idea  of 
trying  to  re-establish  it  by  force ;  but,  being  as  incapable  as  he 
was  disloyal,  he  took  his  measures  so  ill  that  he  was  compelled  to  fly 
across  the  frontier  to  save  his  own  life ;  having  only  exa««perated 
the  Jacobin  party,  and  stimulated  them  to  greater  atrocities  than 
had  yet  been  perpetrated  in  order  to  strike  terror  into  the  royalists, 
under  which  name  they  included  everyone  who  was  supposed  to  feel 
the  slightest  sympathy  with  the  hapless  prisoners  of  the  Temple. 
But,  as  I  purpose  to  speak  here  only  of  transactions  which  directly 


490  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1792. 

affected  the  fate  of  Louis  himself,  we  may  be  spared  the  horrible 
recital  of  the  September  massacres;  when,  under  the  arrangements 
made  by  the  new  minister  of  justice,  bands  of  assassins  were  let 
loose  for  four  days,  deluging  the  streets  with  blood,  massacreing 
all  the  prisoners  who,  for  any  cause  whatever,  were  detained  in 
any  prison  in  the  whole  city,  often  varying  simple  murder  by 
every  refinement  of  torture  which  the  most  fiendish  cruelty  could 
desire,  till  the  number  of  the  slain  defied  calculation,  and  only 
ceasing  from  their  bloody  work  when  they  could  no  longer  find 
anyone  to  slaughter. 

A  fortnight  afterwards  the  Convention,  as  the  new  assembly 
was  called,  met ;  and,  as  the  result  of  the  elections  had  been  to 
get  rid  of  the  small  number  of  royalists  and  constitutionalists 
who  had  had  seats  in  the  second  assembly,  and  to  secure  the 
return  of  Kobespierre  and  other  Jacobin  members  of  the  first, 
whom  their__self-denying  ordinance  did  not  again  prevent  from 
offering  themselves  as  candidates,  the  end  was  clearly  at  hand. 
Yet  even  now  it  might  have  been  averted  had  not  the  Girondins 
been  cowardly  at  heart  and  incapable  in  action,  for  the  first  object 
of  Vergniaud  and  his  party  was  not  the  murder  of  the  king  and 
queen,  but  the  establishment  of  a  republic ;  they  would  not  have 
refused  to  spare  their  lives  could  they  have  seen  the  way  to  main- 
tain themselves  in  their  contest  with  the  Jacobins  without 
committing  or  co-operating  in  such  an  atrocity,  and  they  were 
soon  seen  to  have  a  decided  majority  in  the  assembly,  and  even  in 
the  city,  where  a  candidate  from  their  party  was  preferred  for  the 
mayoralty  over  a  member  of  the  Jacobin  club.  One  of  their 
body,  Lou  vet,  a  man  previously  little  known  except  as  the  author 
of  a  novel  so  licentious  as  even  in  such  times  to  have  earned  a 
conspicuous  infamy,  but  bound  by  ties  of  the  closest  intimacy 
with  Madame  lloland,  even  ventured  to  bring  a  formal  accusation 
against  Robespierre  himself  of  aiming  at  the  supreme  power. 
Bat  the  Girondins  were  only  able  in  debate,  and  only  bold  -^ith 
their  tongues.  The  Jacobins,  all  united  in  the  defence  of  their 
leader,  easily  eluded  an  investigation  of  the  charges  thus  preferred 
against  him,  and  by  their  recriminations  and  audacity  silenced 
their  adversaries,  and  presently  terrified  them  into  submitting  to 
co-operate  with  them  in  their  worst  designs.  They  were  aided 
by  their  discovery  of  some  papers  belonging  to  the  king,  and  con- 
cealed in  an  iron  safe  in  the  Tuileries,  the  greater  part  of  which 
were  of  no  importance ;  but  one  of  which  seemed  to  prove  that 
the  leaders  of  the  Girondins  had  been  in  communication  with  the 
king,  (as  indeed  we  have  seen  that  they  had  been  when  they  pro- 
posed to  sell  him  their  services).  And,  to  save  themselves  from 
the  danger  in  which  such  a  discovery  might  involve  them,  they 


A.D.  1792.]  DEMANDS  FOR  TRIAL  OF  THE  KING.  491 

now  no  longer  scrupled  to  sacrifice  the  king.  They  recognised  the 
truth  of  the  maxim  proclaimed  by  Danton,  that '  the  only  law  waa 
to  triumph,'  and  thenceforth  rivalled  the  Jacobins  themselveH  in 
their  zeal  for  bringing  Louis  to  trial,  and  in  the  fervour  with  which 
they  avowed  their  resolution  that  the  only  end  of  his  trial  should 
be  his  condemnation. 

At  one  of  the  earliest  meetings  of  the  convention  a  committee 
had  been  appointed  to  investigate  the  king's  conduct ;  another 
committee  had  had  the  same  duty  entrusted  to  it  by  the  municipal 
council,  and  in  the  beginning  of  November  both  presented  their 
reports.  As  might  have  been  expected,  they  were  alike  in  spirit, 
and  rivalled  each  other  in  violence  and  absurdity.  The  fact  of  the 
Princess  Elizabeth  having  given  her  brother,  the  Count  de  Pro- 
vence, some  diamonds  was  alleged  as  proof  that  the  whole  family 
(the  race  of  Capet,  as  the  king  wjis  called  since  his  dethronement), 
was  conspiring  against  the  country.  Louis  himself  was  charged 
with  having  spent  the  national  treasures  on  his  journey  to 
Varennes,  with  being  a  monopolist,  and  having  endeavoured  to 
starve  the  people  by  hoarding  up  corn,  sugar,  and  coflee :  and, 
in  more  general  terms,  he  was  denounced  as  a  public  functionary 
who  had  neglected  his  duty,  as  a  traitor,  an  oppressor,  a  brigand, 
and  as  deserving  the  punishment  enacted  by  the  law  against  such 
criminals.  And  it  was  demanded  that  there  should  be  no  delay 
in  proceeding  to  his  trial  lest  a  natural  death  should  rob  justice  of 
its  victims,  since  the  damp  and  confined  air  of  the  Temple  was 
known  already  to  have  had  an  injurious  efi'ect  on  the  health  of 
the  prisoners,  and  both  Louis  and  Marie  Antoinette  had  been  ill. 
The  only  opposition  to  that  demand  came  from  Pobeepierre  and  his 
followers,  the  most  violent  Jacobins,  who  insisted  that  there  was 
no  need  of  any  formal  process,  since  the  whole  nation  had  con- 
demned the  king  on  the  tenth  of  August,  and  therefore  the  plain 
duty  of  the  convention  was  to  order  his  immediate  execution  '  in 
prosecution  of  the  right  of  insurrection ; '  while  one  of  them. 
Merlin,  one  of  the  deputies  for  Thionville,  whose  baseness  and 
stupidity  had  drawn  on  him  the  ridicule  of  the  very  urchins  in  the 
streets,  had  the  effi'ontery  to  afiirm  that  the  only  thing  he  re- 
gretted was  that,  while  the  tyrant  was  sitting  in  the  reporters' 
box  on  the  tenth  of  August,  he  had  not  imitated  Brutus,  and 
plunged  a  dagger  in  his  heart. 

That  the  kiag,  therefore,  should  be  brought  to  trial  was  soon 
decided,  those  who  clamoured  for  it  openly  avowing  their  determi- 
nation that  it  should  end  in  his  death.  But  the  task  of  making 
the  arrangements  for  the  trial,  and  of  drawing  the  indictment,  a 
lengthy  and  elaborate  document,  occupied  so  much  time  that  it 
was  not  till  the  eleventh  of  December  that  he,  who  had  hitherto 


492  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1792. 

been  kept  in  entire  ignorance  of  what  was  taking  place,  was  visited 
by  the  mayor,  who  announced  to  him  that  he  had  come  to  con- 
duct him  to  the  convention.  Taken  by  surprise  as  he  was,  Louis 
behaved  with  great  dignity.  From  the  conviction  that  his  death 
was  at  hand  and  inevitable  he  seemed  to  have  derived  a  clearness 
of  view  and  decision  that  he  had  never  shown  before.  lie  con- 
sented to  attend  the  convention,  recognising,  as  he  explained  to 
the  mayor,  not  in  any  degree  its  authority,  but  solely  its  power 
to  compel  his  compliance  with  their  summons.  And,  as  he  passed 
in  the  mayor's  carriage  along  the  different  streets,  he  could  not 
restrain  his  surprise  at  the  unusual  aspect  which  the  city  pre- 
sented. Those  who  professed  to  be  carrying  out  the  desires  of  the 
people  were  well  aware  how  small  a  number  really  bore  ill-will  to 
their  innocent  and  benevolent  prince,  and  with  what  horror  the 
citizens  in  general  regarded  the  idea  of  destroying  him.  And  to 
prevent  any  attempt  at  a  rescue,  not  only  was  the  carriage  accom- 
panied by  an  escort  of  several  hundred  soldiers  and  six  cannons, 
but  the  whole  road  from  the  Temple  to  the  hall  of  assembly  was 
lined  with  troops  of  all  kinds  ready  for  action,  with  infantry,  ca- 
vahy,  and  artillery,  while  similar  divisions  were  posted  at  different 
points  best  calculated  to  command  and  overawe  the  city,  in  such 
numbers  that  it  was  reckoned  that  on  this  day  nearly  100,000  men 
were  under  arms. 

When  he  reached  and  entered  the  hall  the  greater  part  of  the 
assembly  was  violently  agitated.  Few,  except  the  most  ferocious 
and  callous  of  all  could  behold  without  emotion  him  whom  in  their 
earlier  days  all  had  acknowledged  as  the  most  patiiotic  and  humane 
of  monarchs  advancing  to  meet  his  doom  at  their  hands.  Many 
were  affected  to  tears.  Louis  himself  was  almost  the  only  person 
unmoved.  Never  in  the  days  of  his  prosperity  at  Versailles, 
surrounded  by  all  the  nobles  of  his  court  to  whom  his  will  was 
law,  had  he  displayed  such  serene  dignity,  such  lofty  majesty  of 
demeanour,  as  now,  when  confronting  those  whom  he  knew  to  be 
thirsting  for  his  blood.  He  was  not,  indeed,  unprepared  for  such 
a  termination.  He  had  carefully  studied  the  history  of  the 
English  sovereign  who  had  been  in  circumstances  simihir  to  his 
own.  But  as  he  had  from  the  outset  prescribed  to  himself  a  dif- 
ferent line  of  conduct  from  that  adopted  by  Charles,  so  he  pre- 
served that  difference  in  the  closing  scene.  Charles,  mindful 
above  all  things  to  preserve  his  royal  dignity,  had  disdained  to 
acknowledge  the  authority  of  his  judges,  or  to  reply  to  questions 
which  no  one  had  a  right  to  put  to  him.  Louis,  solicitous  rather 
for  his  character  as  a  man  of  virtue,  good  faith,  and  sincere  affec- 
tion for  his  people,  readily  submitted  to  the  most  searching  exami- 
nation under  the    most    unfavorable    circumstances.      Ordinary 


A.D.  1792.]  EXAMINATION  OF  LOUIS.  493 

prisoners  are  furnished  with  a  copy  of  the  indictment  against  them 
some  days  before  they  are  called  on  to  plead  to  it.  But  Louis  had 
received  no  warning  that  he  was  to  be  put  on  his  trial  at  all  till 
he  was  thus  suddenly  called  upon  to  answer  questions  on  every 
article,  which  were  put  to  him  with  the  sternest  brevity.  Every 
mark  of  respect  and  even  of  courtesy  was  withheld  from  him. 
He  was  brought  into  the  hall  by  Sant^rre,  the  ferocious  leader  of 
the  attack  on  his  palace  in  June,  and  was  at  once  addressed  by 
BaiTere,  the  president.  '  Louis/  said  he,  *  the  French  nation 
accuses  you.  You  are  about  to  hear  the  indictment  which  enu- 
merates the  offences  imputed  to  you.  You  may  sit  down.'  And 
as  each  article  was  recited,  he  interrogated  him  on  it.  In  the  days 
of  his  prosperity  Louis  had  been  timid,  unready,  and  slow  of 
speech ;  now  he  was  prompt,  unhesitating,  and  forcible.  lie  met 
the  whole  general  indictment  by  one  general  plea  as  to  all  actions 
done  by  him  previously  to  the  enactment  of  the  constitution,  that 
he  had  a  right  to  perform  them  as  chief  of  the  nation :  that  for 
all  had  been  done  since  the  constitution  itself,  declared  his 
ministers  responsible,  and  not  himself:  and  he  also  made  separate 
and  triumphant  answers  to  each  article.  He  was  heard  in  silence ; 
but  when,  after  having  replied  to  every  charge,  he  concluded  by 
requesting  a  copy  of  the  indictment,  and  permission  to  choose 
advocates  for  his  defence,  such  an  uproar  ensued  that  Barrdre 
himself,  and  few  fouler  spirits  disgraced  the  convention,  compared 
the  assembly  to  an  arena  of  gladiators.  The  whole  body  of 
Jacobins  raised  an  outcry  against  the  granting  of  the  request,  &s  if 
their  destined  victim  were  at  once  wrested  by  it  from  their  hands, 
and  the  debate  was  adjourned  till  the  next  day ;  but  .ilready  he  was 
treated  as  a  condemned  prisoner,  and  Santerre,  when  he  conducted 
him  back  to  the  Temple,  conveyed  at  the  same  time  an  order  to 
his  guards  that  henceforth  he  was  to  be  separated  from  his  family, 
and  that  his  confinement  for  the  rest  of  his  life  was  to  be  solitary. 
The  aid  of  counsel,  however,  was  at  last  allowed  him.  And 
many  of  his  old  servants  petitioned  for  the  honour  of  defending 
him.  Among  the  number  of  claimants,  three,  the  old  chancellor, 
Lamoignon  de  Malesherbes,  Tronchet,  and  de  Seze,  were  selected 
(their  self-devotion  well  deserves  that  their  names  should  never 
be  forgotten),  and  they  at  once  applied  themselves  to  the  taj^k 
before  them  with  a  zeal  proportionate  to  the  interests  at  stake, 
which  they  rightly  conceived  to  be  not  solely  the  safety  of  their 
king,  but  the  honour  of  their  nation.  Louis  himself  cast  off 
his  usual  apathy  to  aid  them.  Not  that  he  had  the  slightest  hope 
of  a  favorable  result.  On  the  contrary,  he  was  convinced  that 
those  who  were  to  be  his  judges  were  unalterably  determined  on 
his  death,  and  he  warned  his  faithful  advocates  that  their  loyalty 


494  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1792. 

could  have  no  influence  on  his  own  fate,  and  only  risked  their 
being  involved  in  the  same  condemnation.  For  his  life,  therefore, 
he  had  no  anxiety,  as  having  no  hope.  But  he  was  scrupulously 
desirous  '  to  have  his  memory  free  from  stain,  and  to  establish  his 
innocence  :  that  was  the  only  victory  within  his  reach.'  And  for 
this  end  he  laboured  with  his  counsel  in  the  examination  of  his 
papers,  giving  de  Malesherbes  information,  and  suggesting  different 
topics  and  arguments  with  as  much  calmness  as  if  it  were  some 
stranger,  and  not  himself,  whose  life  depended  on  the  issue  of  the 
trial. 

Meanwhile  the  Jacobins,  knowing  not  only  that  it  was  but  a 
mere  fraction  of  the  nation,  or  even  of  the  Parisian  populace,  that 
wished  the  king's  destruction,  but  that  even  in  the  convention 
they  themselves  were  in  a  minority,  were  labouring  with  un- 
wearied diligence  to  terrify  the  other  parties  in  the  assembly  into 
submission.  Under  their  guidance  the  municipal  council  passed 
resolution  after  resolution  demanding  the  king's  instant  execution ; 
and  mob  after  mob  carried  petitions  to  the  same  elFect  to  the  bar 
of  the  convention.  One  gang  was  clothed  in  rags,  and  declared 
themselves  to  be  starving  through  the  machinations  of  Louis ; 
another,  composed  of  cripples  and  women  in  widows'  garments, 
professed  to  have  suffered  their  mutilations  and  lost  their  husbands 
by  the  fire  of  the  king's  troops  on  the  tenth  of  August.  And 
these  tricks  were  not  without  effect  even  on  those  who  knew  the 
petitioners  to  be  impostors;  but  who  saw  in  their  shameless 
importunity  sufficient  proof  how  little  those  who  had  contrived 
these  scenes  would  scruple  to  avenge  themselves  on  any  deputies 
who  should  presume  to  oppose  their  will. 

Ten  days  had  originally  been  all  that  had  been  allowed  for  the 
preparation  of  the  king's  defence;  but  one  cause  or  another 
contributed  to  produce  delay,  and  finally  the  twenty-sixth  of 
December  was  appointed  as  the  day  for  hearing  his  advocates. 
The  day  before  (it  was  Christmas  Day),  not  doubting  from  the 
impatience  of  his  enemies  that  his  sentence  would  speedily  be 
pronounced,  and  uncertain  how  rapidl}^  its  execution  might  follow, 
he  made  his  will ;  not  indeed  that  he  had  any  wealth  to  bequeath, 
for  so  destitute  was  he  that  more  than  once  in  the  last  few  months 
he  had  known  the  pangs  of  actual  hunger,  but  to  recommend 
himself,  his  fate  here  and  hereafter,  and  that  of  his  faithful  queen, 
of  his  children,  and  of  all  that  were  dear  to  him,  to  God,  as  ^  the 
only  witness  of  his  thoughts,  the  only  Being  to  whom  he  could 
address  himself,'  to  implore  the  pardon  of  any  whom  involuntarily 
he  might  have  inj  ured ;  to  express  his  o-wn  pardon  of  those  who, 
without  any  cause,  were  his  enemies ;  and  earnestly  to  exhort  his 
son,  if  he  should  have  the  misfortune  to  become  king,  to  discard 


A.D.  1702]      SPEECH  OF  THE  KING'S  COUNSEL.  495 

all  hatred  and  resentment  against  anyone  on  account  of  his  own 
misfortunes  and  sufferings. 

No  document  more  touching  in  its  hopelessness,  more  admirable 
in  its  fortitude  and  universal  charity,  was  ever  penned.  It  was 
equally  characteristic  of  Louis  that,  while  thus  pouring  out  his 
inmost  thoughts  to  his  God,  he  disdained  the  use  of  a  tingle 
argument  in  the  defence  which  was  to  be  made  to  the  assembly, 
which  seemed  calculated  to  excite  the  sympathy  of  man.  Do 
Seze,  who  was  to  be  the  spokesman,  had  prepared  an  elaborat*» 
appeal  to  the  feelings  of  the  nation,  and  even  of  the  judges.  It 
was  so  eloquently  expressed  that  it  drew  tears  from  the  eyes  of  his 
colleagues.  But  Louis  insisted  on  its  being  struck  out.  The 
minds  of  his  judges,  he  said,  were  fully  made  up.  To  appeal  to 
their  pity  he  felt  would  be  degrading,  as  he  knew  it  would  be 
useless.  He  would  stand  only  on  his  innocence :  and  the  lawyers 
could  not  contest  the  propriety  and  dignity  of  his  decision. 

In  spite,  however,  of  the  limitations  imposed  on  him  by  Louis' 
sense  of  what  was  due  to  himself,  de  Seze's  speech  was  a  masterly 
defence  of  his  client,  both  in  respect  of  his  own  conduct,  and  of 
that  of  the  nation  which  was  now  stated  to  be  his  accuser.  Louis 
had  been  born,  as  he  proved,  a  hereditary  and  absolute  monarch. 
The  constituent  assembly  itself  had  conferred  on  him  a  new  and 
limited  authority;  declaring  his  person  at  the  same  time  sacred 
and  inviolable,  and  subjecting  him  to  no  penalty  for  the  most 
extreme  misgovernment  beyond  the  loss  of  his  throne ;  and  the  act 
of  the  assembly  was  both  in  fact  and  in  law  the  act  of  the  nation 
itself.  The  speaker  next  animadverted  on  the  character  of  the 
tribunal.  There  was  no  separation  of  powers,  no  judges  or  jury- 
men sworn  to  decide  truly  on  evidence :  the  same  persons  were 
jury,  judges,  and,  what  was  more  shocking,  accusers  also.  The 
prisoner  had  no  power  of  challenge,  while  a  majority  of  a  single 
voice  was  to  suftice  for  his  condemnation.  He  analysed  and  dis- 
proved every  charge  separately ;  and,  forbidden  as  he  had  been  by 
Louis  himself  to  appeal  to  the  mercy  of  his  judges,  he  closed  one 
of  the  greatest  speeches  preserved  in  the  annals  of  French  juris- 
prudence by  an  appeal  to  the  judgment  of  posterity.  These  were 
his  closing  words :  ^  <  Listen,  I  hear  beforehand  the  judgment 
which  History  will  bid  Fame  record  on  this  transaction.  Louis 
ascended  the  throne  at  twenty  years  of  age.  At  twenty  years  of 
age,  he,  on  the  throne,  set  an  example  of  virtue  to  the  whole 
nation.  He  was  free  alike  from  culpable  weakness  and  from 
corrupting  passions.    He  was  frugal,  just,  rigidly  virtuous.    He 

I  Iai  Terreur,x.  282-9.  To  which      indeed  of  the  whole  of  the  last  six 
work  the  author  is  indebted  for  most      months  of  1792. 
of  the  details  of  Louis's  trial,  and 


496  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1793. 

showed  himself  the  constant  friend  of  the  people.  The  people 
desired  the  removal  of  a  tax  which  was  burdensome  to  them  :  he 
removed  it.  The  people  demanded  the  abolition  of  serfdom  :  he 
began  to  abolish  it  on  his  own  domains.  The  people  solicited 
reforms  in  the  criminal  law,  to  soften  the  fate  of  accused  persons  : 
he  established  those  reforms.  The  people  desired  that  thousands 
of  Frenchmen,  whom  the  rigour  of  our  customs  had  up  to  that 
time  deprived  of  the  rights  which  belong  to  free  citizens,  should 
acquire  or  recover  those  rights :  he  conferred  those  rights  on 
them  by  irrevocable  laws.  The  people  desired  liberty :  he  gave 
it.  He  even  outran  their  wishes  by  his  own  sacrifices  :  and  yet  it 
is  in  the  name  of  this  same  people  that  to-day  demands  are  made. 
.  .  .  Citizens,  I  cannot  go  on.  I  pause  in  the  view  of  history. 
Recollect  that  History  will  judge  your  judgment,  and  that  her 
verdict  will  be  that  of  ages.' 

Louis  himself  said  a  few  words,  chiefly  to  exculpate  himself 
from  the  charge,  too  absurd  to  seem,  except  to  so  tender  a  con- 
science, worth  a  refutation,  that  on  the  tenth  of  August  he  had 
willingly  shed  the  blood  of  the  people,  and  to  deny  that  the 
miseries  of  that  day  were  attributable  to  him.  He  appealed  to  his 
conduct  on  all  occasions,  and  to  the  repeated  proofs  of  affection  for 
the  people  which  he  had  given,  as  evidence  that  he  was  willing  to 
spare  their  blood  even  at  the  expense  of  his  own.  They  ought, 
he  averred,  to  relieve  him  for  ever  from  such  an  imputation.  He 
was  desired  to  withdraw.  The  reading  of  the  indictment,  his 
examination,  and  the  speech  of  a  single  lawyer,  constituted  the 
entire  proceedings  of  the  most  momentous  trial  that  had  ever 
taken  place  in  the  kingdom. 

But  though  all  parties  had  agreed  on  this  hurrying  over  the 
trial,  fierce  and  singularly  protracted  debates  ensued  on  the  manner 
in  which  the  verdict  was  to  be  pronounced.  It  was  settled  at  last 
that  three  questions  should  be  put  to  the  assembly :  whether 
Louis  was  guilty ;  whether  his  sentence  should  be  pronounced  by 
the  convention,  or  by  the  whole  people  ;  and  what  that  sentence 
should  be.  And  those  who  wished  to  save  Louis  contended  strongly 
that  this  last  question  should  be  that  on  which  the  first  vote 
should  be  taken ;  from  a  belief  that  if  it  were  settled  that  death 
was  to  be  his  fate  if  found  guilty,  many  would  acquit  him 
who  would  convict  him  if  there  seemed  any  probability  that  his 
conviction  might  be  followed  by  a  milder  sentence.  We  need  not 
dwell  upon  more  than  one  or  two  circumstances  of  the  debates, 
which  lasted  many  days.  It  appeared  that  the  moderate  party, 
which  wished  to  save  the  king's  life,  though  perhaps  all  did  not 
desire,  and  none  thought  it  possible,  to  save  his  authority,  was  far 
larger  than  had  been  supposed ;  and  that  the  Girondins'  profea- 


A.D.  1793.]  TRIAL  OF  THE  KING.  497 

siona  of  humanity  were  but  the  basest  hypocrisy :  in  fact,  their 
chief  orator,  Vergniaud,  made  a  long  speech  exprest^ly  to  repudiate 
the  idea  of  the  king's  personal  inviolability,  as  *  a  dogma  degrading 
to  reason.'  On  the  other  hand,  some  of  the  king's  defenders  took 
an  equally  bold  line.  They  were  led  by  Lanjuinais,  a  deputy 
from  Brittany,  who  had  as  such  been  one  of  the  founders  of  the 
Breton  club,  from  which  however  the  atrocious  sentiments  of 
those  who  obtained  the  lead  in  it  had  gradually  driven  him.' 
lie  openly  denied  the  right  of  the  convention  to  pronounce 
sentence  on  the  king,  or  to  be  regarded  as  a  legal  tribunal  at  all ; 
and  he  would  not  be  silenced,  though  the  Jacobins  tried  to 
intimidate  him  by  uproar,  and  by  the  assertion,  intended  to  raise 
the  audience  in  the  galleries  against  him,  that  he  '  preferred  the 
safety  of  a  tyrant  to  the  safety  of  the  people.'  He  had  more  than 
one  supporter  as  humane  and  as  bold  as  himself;  one  of  whom, 
Morisson,  from  La  Vend«5e,  endeavoured  to  turn  aside  the  vote  for 
death  by  a  formal  amendment,  that  Louis  should  be  banished,  but 
should  be  allowed  a  decent  pension.  But  their  party  was  too 
small  by  itself  to  effect  anything;  and  the  protraction  of  the 
debate  gave  the  Jacobins  time  to  make  fresh  demonstrations  to 
terrify  their  opponents.  They  even  brought  up  a  large  train  of 
artillery  from  St.-Denis,  as  if  they  contemplated  a  new  insurrection 
on  a  larger  scale  than  ever ;  and,  finally,  they,  with  the  assibtance 
of  the  Girondins,  carried  every  point  on  which  discussions  had 
been  raised  in  the  manner  most  unfavorable  to  Louis.  It  was 
decided  that  the  verdict  was  to  be  taken,  not  on  all  the  counts  in 
the  indictment  separately,  but  on  all  together ;  that  the  vote  of 
the  majority  was  to  decide,  though  Lanjuinais  had  pointed  out 
that  in  every  court  of  law  in  France  a  majority  of  two- thirds  was 
necessary  to  a  conviction ;  and  the  eighteenth  of  January  was 
appointed  for  the  day  on  which  the  votes  should  be  taken. 

The  hall  was  opened  before  daylight,  that  the  galleries  might 
be  packed  by  gangs  of  ruffians,  carefully  tutored  by  the  Jacobins, 
to  intimidate  with  their  savage  shouts  those  who  were  believed  to 
be  about  to  vote  for  mercy ;  and  every  approach  to  the  hall  was 
occupied  by  similar  gangs,  to  mutter  personal  threats  into  the  ear 
of  each  individual  deputy.  Lanjuinais,  and  those  who  acted  with 
him,  paid  no  attention  to  these  miscreants,  but  forced  their  way  in 
disdainful  silence  through  the  crowd.  One  deputy  made  a  moment- 
ary impression  on  his  threateners  by  his  unexpected  heroism 
The  Marquis  de  Villette  was  one  of  the  old  nobility  of  France : 
he  had  been  stripped  by  the  Kevolution  of  his  rank ;  but,  though 

^  Alison  speaks  of  him  as  one  of     this  point  may  certainly  be  trusted, 
the  Girondin  party,  but  he  might      that  he  had  never  belonged  to  it. 
have  learned  from  Lamartino,  who  in 


498  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1703. 

his  person  was  small  and  feeble,  in  fearless  nobility  of  spirit  be 
was  worthy  of  his  ancient  race.  He  laughed  in  the  face  of  those 
who  dared  to  threaten  him.  Instantly  a  score  of  daggers  were  at 
his  throat,  and  he  was  bidden  to  pledge  himself  to  vote  for  the 
death  of  the  tyrant  if  he  would  escape  instant  death  himself.  He 
pushed  aside  the  weapons,  and,  looking  the  assassins  in  the  face, 
declared  that  he  would  not  obey  them,  and  that  they  dared  not 
kill  him.  Awed  by  his  fearlessness,  they  shrank  back  ;  and  he 
passed  in,  to  give  his  vote  for  the  king's  preservation.  The  voting 
began.  Each  deputy  was  summoned  in  turn  to  the  tribune  to 
record  his  vote ;  and,  as  it  was  for  death  or  mercy,  the  spectators 
in  the  galleries  cheered  or  hooted  the  voter ;  while  the  Jacobins 
from  the  body  of  the  hall  from  time  to  time  sent  them  up  wine, 
in  which  they,  and  especially  the  women,  drank  toasts  *to  the 
tyrant's  death.'  The  cheering  that  greeted  Vergniaud  and  his 
party,  as  one  after  the  other  they  voted  for  death,  was  unusually 
loud  and  vehement.  From  one  only  of  all  those  who  declared 
for  the  fatal  sentence  were  the  acclamations  withheld.  The  in- 
famous Duke  of  Orleans  had  renounced  not  only  his  princely 
title  but  his  family  name^  and  had  accepted  that  of  ifegalite,  given 
him  by  Hebert,  one  of  the  vilest  of  the  revolutionary  journalists. 
As  Egalite  he  now  mounted  the  tribune  and  affixed  his  signature 
to  a  declaration,  that  '  solely  occupied  with  his  duty,  and  convinced 
that  all  who  had  assumed  or  should  assume  sovereignty  over  the 
people  deserved  death,  he  voted  for  death.'  Even  the  ruffians  in 
the  galleries  shuddered  at  the  nearest  kinsman  of  Louis  thus  aid- 
ing in  his  destruction  ;  and  Robespierre  himself  did  not  spare  his 
sarcasms  on  his  baseness  :  but  the  vote  was  not  the  less  valid,  and 
went  to  swell  the  majority  when,  on  the  morning  of  the  seven- 
teenth, the  collection  of  the  votes  having  occupied  the  whole  of 
the  day  and  night,  Vergniaud,  as  president,  pronounced  that,  by 
a  majority  of  3S7  to  334,  the  convention  had  condemned  Louis 
to  death.  Subsequent  votes  refused  to  permit  any  appeal,  as  his 
advocates  demanded,  to  be  made  to  the  whole  nation,  and  deter- 
mined that  the  execution  should  take  place  within  twenty-four 
hours.  And,  soon  after  midnight  on  the  twentieth,  Louis  was 
roused  from  his  bed  to  be  informed  by  the  secretary  of  the 
executive  council  that  on  the  twenty-first  he  was  to  die.  The 
announcement  did  not  seem  to  take  him  by  surprise.  He  even 
seemed  to  receive  it  as  a  welcome  release  from  suffijring  ;  and,  in 
reply,  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  officials  a  letter  addressed  to  the 
convention,  containing  a  few  petitions  such  as  he  hoped  his  approach- 
ing end  might  move  even  his  enemies  to  grant.  His  first  requests 
were,  as  his  thoughts  had  always  been,  for  others :  that  the 
convention  would  spare  his  devoted  wife,  his  much-loved  children 


A.D.  1793.]  THE  KING'S  INTERVIEW  WITH  HIS  FAMILY.  499 

and  his  sister,  and  allow  them  to  retire  in  safety  and  freedom  from 
the  country;  and  that  his  faithful  servants  might  not  suffer  for 
their  attachment  to  him.  For  himself  he  asked  a  respite  of  three 
days,  to  prepare  to  present  himself  before  God;  permission  to  see 
his  family,  from  whom  he  had  now  been  separated  for  nearly  six 
weeks ;  and  to  receive  the  visits  of  a  priest  of  his  own  selection. 
They  were  not  great  indulgences  to  be  allowed  to  a  king;  but 
they  were  greater  than  those  who  had  him  in  their  power  were 
disposed  to  grant.  Tiiey  allowed  him  indeed  to  see  his  family 
and  a  priest ;  but  they  peremptorily  refused  the  respite  :  and  to 
his  petition  for  the  release  of  his  wife  and  family  they  replied  in 
terms,  to  which  the  fate  reserved  for  them  gave  the  appearance  of 
a  most  cruel  mockery:  'That  the  French  nation,  as  great  in  its 
beneficence  as  it  was  rigorous  in  its  justice,  would  take  care  of  his 
family  and  arrange  for  them  a  suitable  destiny.' 

Even  the  scanty  indulgences  which  the  convention  had  granted 
to  its  doomed  monarch,  the  municipal  council,  as  the  guardians  of 
the  city  prisons,  contrived  tq  abridge,  refusing  to  relax  the  re- 
gulations that  the  sentries  should  never  lose  sight  of  the  prisoner : 
so  that  neither  his  interview  with  his  confessor  nor  even  that 
with  his  wife  and  children,  was  allowed  to  be  entirely  private ;  the 
gi-eatest  concession  that  could  be  obtained  only  extending  to  a 
permission  to  retire  to  a  chamber  with  a  glass  door,  so  that  the 
soldiers,  though  seeing  all  that  took  place,  might  be  unable  to  hear 
the  last  words  of  the  miserable  family  who  were  never  more  to 
meet  on  earth.  It  is  believed  that  it  was  from  the  king's  own 
lips  that  the  queen  first  learnt  the  sentence  which  had  been  passed 
upon  him.  But  her  sobs  and  those  of  the  princess  were  the  only 
sounds  that  reached  the  guard.  The  soldiers  could  see  that  the 
king  was  often  speaking,  but  his  voice  was  still  too  calm  and  equal 
for  them  to  hear  a  single  word.  At  a  quarter-past  ten,  when  the 
interview  had  lasted  nearly  two  hours,  he  rose  from  his  seat,  and 
they  prepared  to  leave  him.  lie  had  need  of  the  night  for 
prayer  and  rest.  And  the  priest,  an  Irish  gentleman  of  the  name 
of  Edgeworth,  vicar-general  of  Paris,  to  whom  he  liad  already 
confessed  in  the  earlier  part  of  the  evening,  was  again  introduced 
to  pray  with  him  once  more.  Presently  Louis  retired  to  rest,  and 
so  composed  was  his  mind  that  when,  at  five  in  the  morning,  his 
servant  came  by  his  orders  to  call  him,  he  found  him  sleeping 
tranquilly  and  soundly.  He  arose :  he  had  fixed  this,  the  last 
morning  of  his  life,  to  receive  the  Communion,  but  it  was  not 
without  great  difficulty  that  Edgeworth  had  obtained  leave  to 
administer  it :  the  council  pretending  a  suspicion  that  he  might 
poison  the  host  which  he  was  to  consecrate.  And  his  devotions 
were  hardly  ended  when  the  street  outside  began  to  resound  with 


500  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1793. 

tlie  movement  of  troops,  the  noise  of  drums,  the  heavy  roll  of 
cannon.  For  the  Jacobins  knew  with  what  horror  the  crime 
they  were  preparing  to  commit  was  viewed  by  the  majority  of 
the  citizens  ;  and,  fearing  that  even  at  the  last  moment  an  attempt 
might  be  made  to  rescue  him,  were  prepared  to  repel  force  by 
force,  and  lined  the  streets,  the  whole  way  from  the  Temple  to  the 
Place,  formerly  known  as  that  of  Louis  XV.,  but  lately  renamed 
the  Place  of  the  Revolution,  where  the  scaffold  was  erected,  with 
dense  lines  of  troops ;  while,  further  to  prevent  any  movement  of 
his  friends,  an  edict  was  issued  strictly  forbidding  any  citizen  from 
appearing  in  any  street  on  the  line  of  the  procession  or  even  at 
the  windows.  The  square  around  the  scaffold,  as  one  which  all 
but  the  most  hardened  would  wish  to  avoid,  was  the  only  spot 
were  spectators  were  allowed  to  assemble. 

At  nine  o'clock  Santerre  rudely  burst  open  the  door  of  the 
king's  room,  announcing  that  he  had  come  to  conduct  him  to  the 
scaffold.  No  insult  could  move  him  now.  He  at  once  entered 
the  carriage,  accompanied  by  Edgeworth  and  two  of  the  municipal 
council :  occupying  his  last  moments  in  reading  the  prayers  for 
the  dying.  Only  for  a  single  moment  was  his  equanimity  dis- 
turbed, when  the  assistants  of  the  executioner  laid  hold  of  him 
to  bind  his  hands.  For  one  instant  the  spirit  of  his  ancestors 
rose  up  in  his  veins.  '  That,'  said  he,  '  is  an  insult  to  which  I 
will  never  submit.'  '  Yield,  sire,'  said  the  undi\jinted  Edgeworth ; 
'  it  IS  thus  that  they  bound  your  Saviour  before  you.'  Without 
another  word,  the  king  held  out  his  hands.  The  men  bound 
him,  and  cut  his  hair.  He  advanced  to  the  edge  of  the  scaffold. 
^Frenchmen,'  said  he,  *  I  die  innocent :  I  pardon  my  slayers.  I  pray 
God  that  no  vengeance  for  my  blood  may  fall  upon  this  nation.' 
The  executioners,  fearing  that  he  meant  to  make  a  long  speech, 
seized  and  fastened  him  to  the  fatal  plank.  '  Son  of  St. -Louis,' 
exclaimed  Edgeworth,  as  he  was  placed  beneath  the  knife,  ^  son 
of  St.-Louis,  ascend  to  heaven.'  The  knife  fell,  and  all  was  over. 

Of  the  character  of  Louis  XVI.,  what  has  been  said  of  the 
events  of  his  reign  and  of  his  actions  is  suiRcient  evidence.  No 
sovereign  more  absolutely  blameless  in  his  private  life  or  more 
sincere  in  his  love  for  his  people  ever  adorned  a  throne.  His  only 
fault  had  been  that  he  had  loved  them  not  wisely,  but  too  well ; 
tliat  he  had  conceded  all  their  demands,  without  considering 
whether  they  were  as  yet  qualified  rightly  to  use  and  profit  by  his 
liberality  ;  that  he  had  refrained  from  all  measures  of  rigour,  or 
even  of  restraint,  without  considering  that  to  coerce  or  even  to 
chastise  the  immoderate  desires  and  violence  of  a  few  unruly  spirits 
might  be  a  duty  which,  as  king  of  the  whole  nation,  he  owed  to 
those  of  better  regulated  judgment  and  less  unhealthy  constitu- 
tion.    If  we  compare  him  with  that  one  of  our  own  kings,  whose 


^.D.  1793.]  CHAEACTER  OF  LOL^IS.  501 

murder,  under  somewhat  similar  circumstances,  invariably  sug- 
gests the  comparison,  we  must  allow  that,  though  Charles  equalled 
him  in  a  similar  desire  for  the  happiness  of  his  subjects;  though 
he  remarkably  resembled  him  in  his  zeal  for  religion,  which  fur- 
nished one  pretext  for  the  calamities  which  befell  both;  and  though 
he  was  by  far  superior  to  him  in  intellectual  ability  and  in  active 
courage,  Louis,  on  the  other  hand,  had  the  advantage  over  Charles, 
not  only  in  good  faith  and  sincerity,  but  in  the  liberality  of  his 
government  and  his  strict  adherence  to  the  laws  of  the  land.  It 
cannot  be  denied  that  Charles,  having  succeeded  to  authority 
which,  though  kingly  in  its  name  and  nature,  was  strictly  limited 
by  written  law  and  immemorial  custom,  gave  his  people  just  and 
grave  cause  of  complaint  by  his  deliberate  violation  of  privileges 
secured  to  them  by  the  ancient  constitution  of  the  kingdom,  and 
confirmed  to  them  by  repeated  enactments  of  his  greatest  and 
wisest  predecessors.  But  Louis,  though  born  to  the  most  absolute 
authority,  voluntarily  abridged  and  limited  it ;  renouncing  prero- 
gatives, which  no  small  section  of  his  subjects  believed  to  be  suit- 
able to  his  dignity,  if  not  necessary  for  the  welfare  of  the  people 
themselves.  Charles  was  accused  of  having  designed  to  erect  an 
unlimited  and  tyrannical  government,  in  a  country  where  absolute 
power  was  a  thing  unknown  to  the  law ;  and,  though  the  doc- 
trine of  the  responsibility  of  the  ministers  for  every  act  of  the 
sovereign,  which  had  been  fully  established  for  nearly  300  years,  is 
alone  sufficient  to  condemn  his  judges  and  the  sentence  by  which 
he  died,  it  is  impossible  to  deny  that  he  had  violated  the  esta- 
blished laws  of  the  kingdom,  and  had  adopted  a  line  of  conduct 
which,  if  unchecked,  would  have  rendered  his  authority  absolute. 
Louis,  on  the  other  hand,  was  condemned,  not  because  he  had 
offended  against  a  single  law  of  either  the  old  unlimited  mo- 
narchy, or  of  the  new  constitutional  sovereignty,  but  because  he 
had  been  born  a  king ;  and  by  his  birthright  had  succeeded  to  an 
authority  to  which  all  previous  generations  of  Frenchmen  had 
made  it  their  chief  glory  to  submit. 

The  works  chiefly  consulted  for  the  three  preceding  chapters 
have  been  Lacretelle's  *  History  of  France  during  the  Eighteenth 
Century,'  and  the  *  History  of  La  Terreur,'  by  M.  Temaux  ;  '  The 
Correspondence  of  Louis  XVI.  and  Marie  Antoinette,'  edited  by 
M.  Feuillet  de  Conches  ;  *  L'Ancien  Ilegime,'  by  :M.  de  Tocque- 
ville ;  *  Considerations  sur  la  R^v.  fran9aise,'  by  Madame  de  Stjiel ; 
Dumont's  'Souvenirs  sur  Mirabeau;'  The  Memoirs  of  Madame 
Campan,  Dumouriez,  the  Frincess  de  Lamballe,  Count  Dumas, 
Bertrand  de  Moleville,  the  Marquis  de  Ferrieres;^  Dr.  Moore's 
<  Journal  during  a  Residence  in  France ;'  Lamartine's  'History  of 
the  Girondins  :'  Alison's  '  History  of  Europe,'  &c.  &c. 


602  MODEEN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1793. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 
A.D.  1793  —  1799. 

IT  might  have  been  supposed  that  the  fury  even  of  the  Jacobins 
and  Cordeliers  would  have  been  satiated  with  the  murder  of 
such  a  prince  as  Louis.  But  with  monsters  whose  sole  passion  was 
bloodshed  even  that  august  victim  seemed  but  to  whet  their  appe- 
tite for  further  slaughter.  Robespierre  was  now  master  of  Paris, 
and  he  so  used  his  power  that,  even  after  the  horrors  of  the  last 
six  months,  after  the  atrocities  of  the  insurrection  of  August,  the 
massacres  of  September,  and  the  murder  of  the  king  himself,  the 
next  year  and  a  half  are  distinguished  as  emphatically  the  Reign 
of  Terror.  God  was  formally  disowned.  Religion  was  pro- 
nounced an  imposture ;  and  those  who  led  the  nation  into  this 
blasphemy  acted  as  if  they  really  believed  these  impious  profes- 
sions. The  beauteous  and  magnanimous  queen,  the  meek  and 
holy  Princess  Elizabeth,  shared  the  fate  of  their  husband  and 
brother.  His  innocent  heir  met  a  still  more  cruel  death  from  an 
uninterrupted  course  of  ill-treatment.  Day  after  day  waggon-leads 
of  victims  were  dragged  through  the  streets  to  perish,  for  no  crime, 
beneath  the  accursed  guillotine  ;  while  the  atrocities  which  the  pro- 
Tinces  endured  outran  even  the  horrors  of  the  capital.  Batches  of 
sufferers  were  drowned  by  hundreds  in  the  Loire.  Dense  columns 
were  mowed  down  by  cannon  shot  on  the  banks  of  the  Rhone ; 
till,  at  last,  as  if  they  could  find  no  more  to  destroy,  the  murder- 
era  began  to  turn  one  upon  another.  Robespierre  hated  as  much 
as  he  despised  the  Girondins.  Within  six  months  of  the  king's 
death  he  had  sent  all  that  party  to  the  scaflbld  to  which  they 
had  consigned  their  sovereign.  His  contempt  was  equally  fatal 
to  Egalit«5 ;  his  jealousy  struck  down  even  the  audacious  Danton  ; 
and  finally,  he  perished  himself  at  the  hands  of  a  gang  of  his 
former  associates,  who  saw  no  other  way  of  saving  their  own  lives 
but  by  his  destruction.  It  is  remarkable  and  instructive,  that  of 
all  those  who  had  taken  a  prominent  part  in  the  trial  of  Louis, 
Lanjuinais,  his  intrepid  defender,  was  almost  the  only  one  who 
survived  this  race  of  mutual  murder. 

The  Reign  of  Terror  was  succeeded  by  one  of  intrigues  and 


A.D.  1793.]  EISE  OF  NAPOLEON.  503 

revolutions  ;  intrigues  too  complicated  to  unravel,  even  -were 
they  worth  unravelling;  revolution-^  too  numerous  to  be  eaf^ily 
counted.  In  the  appetite  for  universal  innovation  the  very  Calen- 
dar had  not  escaped  :  the  names  of  the  months  had  been  changed, 
and  the  memory  of  their  new  titles  is  preserved  by  the  insur- 
rections or  revolutions  of  Thermidor,  Fructidor,  Flor^al,  Prairial, 
V endemiaire,  and  Brumaire  ;  till  the  aspirations  after  liberty  and 
equality,  which  had  been  the  pretext  for  such  innumerable  and 
inexpiable  crimes,  ended  in  subjecting  the  nation  to  the  absolute 
authority  of  a  youthful  soldier,  who,  though  serving  in  the  French 
army,  was  a  foreigner  by  birth,  and  who,  though  he  from  the  first 
identified  himself  with  what  he  affirmed  and  believed  to  be  the 
glory  of  France,  and  for  a  time  induced  the  nation  to  identify  itself 
still  more  warmly  and  completely  with  his  own,  preserved  through- 
out the  characteristics  of  the  race  from  which  he  sprang ;  ming- 
ling the  supple  craft  of  the  Italian,  the  tenacious  stubbornness  of 
the  Corsican,  with  the  unscrupulous  ambition  which  had  long 
prompted  the  policy  of  French  statesmen,  and  the  unfeeling  callous 
levity  which  of  late  had  been  still  more  odiously  displayed  both  by 
the  rulers  and  the  people. 

In  some  points  it  cannot  be  denied  that  he  deserved  the  pre- 
eminence at  which  he  arrived  ;  for  history  has  handed  down  the 
names  of  few  men,  if  indeed  of  any,  richer  in  intellectual  gifts, 
in  genius  for  war,  for  organisation,  for  administration.  But,  in 
another  point  of  view  there  have  been  few  who  have  either  in- 
herited or  acquired  sovereign  power  who  have  been  less  qualified 
to  exercise  it  for  the  benefit  of  their  subjects,  since  few,  if  any, 
have  been  more  completely  destitute  of  all  principle,  more  in- 
different to,  if  we  may  not  rather  say  more  incapable  of  compre- 
hending the  claims  of  religion,  of  good  faith,  or  of  humanity ; 
few  who  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  their  lives  have  so  com- 
pletely excluded  all  considerations  but  those  of  self-aggrandise- 
ment, and  have  so  entirely  made  utter  unalloyed  selfishness  their 
sole  rule  of  action.  Such,  however,  as  he  was  both  in  his  intellec- 
tual greatness  and  his  moral  littleness,  the  interest  of  the  French 
Revolution  from  the  close  of  the  Reign  of  Terror  centres  wholly 
in  his  exploits  and  fortunes.  And  our  closing  chapters  may 
therefore  be  most  fitly  devoted  to  a  survey  of  his  career ;  equally 
startling  in  the  rapidity  of  his  rise,  in  the  vast  extent  of  the 
power  which  for  many  years  he  exerted  over  the  whole  continent 
of  Europe,  and  in  the  completeness  of  his  fall. 

In  September  1793  the  French  army  was  investing  Toulon, 
whose  citizens  in  the  preceding  month  had  revolted  against  the 
murderous  tyranny  of  the  Jacobins,  and  had  admitted  an  English 
fleet  into  their  harbour,  and  a  Spanish  garrison  into  their  town, 


5(J4  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1794. 

and  was  meeting  with  such  success  as  might  be  expected  from  a 
force  whose  commander-in-chief  was  Carteaux,  a  painter,  igno- 
rant of  the  very  rudiments  of  military  service,  and  who,  as  com- 
manders over  him,  had  a  hody  of  commissioners  from  the  conven- 
tion, equally  incapable  with  himself,  when  Captain  Napoleon 
Buonaparte,  an  olficer  in  the  artillery,  paid  a  casual  visit  to 
Salicetti,  one  of  the  commissioners  who,  like  himself,  was  a  native 
of  Corsica.  The  slightest  inspectioD  of  the  works  of  the  be&ieging 
force  was  sufficient  to  show  him  why  they  as  yet  had  made  no 
progi-ess ;  and  he  explained  to  Salicetti  the  errors  which  had 
hitherto  been  committed,  and  the  way  in  which  they  might  be 
remedied,  with  such  lucidity  that  the  commissioners  agreed  to 
detain  him  in  the  camp,  and,  in  spite  of  his  youth,  for  he  was  but 
little  more  than  four-and- twenty,*  gave  him  the  command  of  the 
artillery.  He  speedily  placed  all  the  arrangements  on  a  new 
footing  ;  procured  additional  guns,  erected  new  batteries  in  proper 
places  (those  which  Carteaux  had  constructed  to  cannonade  the 
English  fleet  would  not  carry  above  one-third  of  the  distance) ; 
and  in  all  his  arrangements  displayed  such  energy  and  capacity 
that,  though  General  Duteil  presently  arrived  to  take  the  com- 
mand of  the  artillery,  while  Carteaux  was  superseded  by  General 
Dugommier,  a  veteran  of  courage  and  experience,  the  chief  credit 
of  the  recovery  of  Toulon  was  assigned  by  the  general  opinion  of 
the  troops  who  had  been  engaged  to  the  young  captain  ;  and  it  is 
not  unlikely  that  the  perception  of  the  superiority  in  reputation 
which  he  had  attained  over  that  of  his  superiors  in  rank  first  sug- 
gested to  him  the  idea  of  eventually  making  himself  the  master  of 
the  whole  nation.  It  is  certain  that  his  political  conduct  was 
from  this  time  forth  most  skilfully  shaped  for  the  furtherance  of 
that  object,  if  he  had  as  yet  conceived  it.  He  had  previously  been 
closely  connected  with  Robespierre ;  but  he  had  too  much  pene- 
tration not  to  feel  assured  that  France  would  not  long  submit  to 
the  rule  of  such  a  monster,  and  he  began  to  detach  himself  from 
him,  refusing  to  comply  with  his  entreaty  to  hasten  to  Paris  and 
to  take  the  command  of  the  forces  in  the  metropolis.     Had  he 

*  It  seems  absolutely  certain  that  been  annexed  to  France.    But  the 

Napoleon  was  born,  not,  as  he  said  certificate  of  his  age,  signed  with  his 

after  he    had   become   Emperor,   in  own   hand,   on  the  occasion  of  his 

August  1769,  but  in  February  1768.  marriage,    gives    the    date    already 

His  motive  in  falsifying  the  date  of  mentioned  as  that  of  his  birth,  and 

his  birth  was  that  he  might  appear  seems  evidence  too  strong  to  be  dis- 

to  have  been  born  under  the  flag  of  puted.      It    must    be    remembered, 

France,  so  that  the  French  might  not  however,  that  his  latest  biographer, 

seem  to  be  ruled  over  by  an  alien:  Mr.  Lanfrey,  adheres  to  the  date  1769, 

for,  in  the  interval  between  February  for  reasons  which  it  i§.  not,  perhaps, 

1768  and  August  1769,  Corsica  hud  difficult  to  conjecture. 


A..D.  1796.]      HE  OBTAINS  TUE  COMJVUND  IN  ITALY.       505 

yielded,  he  would  have  been  involved  in  the  tyrant's  ruin,  as 
Henriot,  whom  he  was  intended  to  supersede,  was  involved  in  it ; 
and  the  subsequent  history  of  Franco  and  of  all  Europe  would 
have  been  widely  difterent  from  that  which  has  since  been  seen. 

Equal  to  the  shrewdness  with  which  he  separated  himself  from 
the  falling  Jacobins  was  the  decision  with  which,  at  the  end  of 
the  next  year,  he  placed  his  military  skill  at  the  service  of  the 
convention;  and  gained  that  victory  over  the  populace  which 
established  the  directory.  Nor  could  the  conflict  have  been  fol- 
lowed by  any  result  more  calculated  to  further  his  own  views,  for, 
with  the  exception  of  Carnot,  (prevented  from  being  formidable  to 
any  rival  by  his  impracticable  adherence  to  republican  opinions,  of 
which  France  was  weary),  the  directors  were  all  men  of  such 
moderate  capacity  as  ensured  their  overthrow  whenever  it  might 
seem  seasonable  to  get  rid  of  them ;  and  he  had  already  made 
the  acquaintance  of  the  most  influential  of  the  board,  the  Viscount 
Barras,  who  had  been  one  of  the  commissioners  at  Toulon.  In- 
deed, it  was  at  the  suggestion  of  Barras  that  he  had  been  employed 
on  that  eventful  day,  the  thirteenth  Vend^miaire,  as  it  was  called  in 
the  revolutionary  calendar,  and  he  had  now  laid  him  under  a  per- 
sonal obligation  which  was  about  to  receive  a  recompense  of  which 
Barras  at  least  did  not  anticipate  the  value.  Other  motives  in- 
deed, besides  the  high  opinion  which  the  director  had  conceived  of 
the  young  ofiicer's  military  abilities,  combined  to  make  him  desire 
to  serve  him.  Barras,  as  dissolute  in  his  manners  as  any  of  the 
courtiers  of  Louis  XV.,  had  connected  himself  with  a  lady  of 
singular  attractions,  the  widow  of  another  noble.  General  Count 
Beauhamais,  whom  Robespierre  had  sent  to  the  guillotine;  and 
just  as,  after  a  brief  acquaintance,  her  attractions  began  to  pall 
upon  him,  Buonaparte  became  fascinated  with  them.  She  was 
somewhat  older  than  he,  and  knew  the  importance  of  not  wasting 
time ;  his  impatience  was  equally  disinclined  to  admit  delay ;  and, 
in  less  than  six  months  after  the  establishment  of  the  directory,  he 
received  the  hand  of  Madame  Beauharnais,  or  Josephine,  to  give 
her  the  name  by  which  alone  she  has  been  known  since  he  placed 
a  crown  on  his  and  on  her  head :  and  with  it  the  command  of  the 
army  for  which  Sch^rer's  recent  victory  at  Lonato  had  gained  a 
secure  footing  on  the  Italian  side  of  the  Alps,  and  which  was 
henceforth  called  the  army  of  Italy. 

No  command  could  have  been  better  suited  for  the  display  of  mili- 
tary skill.  The  campaign  on  which  he  was  entering  was  indeed  on  a 
small  scale,  if  it  be  compared  with  the  gigantic  operations  of  sub- 
sequent years :  his  own  army  consisting  of  less  than  40,000  men, 
while  the  Austrians  and  Sardinians  to  whom  he  was  opposed  did 
not  greatly  exceed  that  number ;  and  they  were  commanded  by 
23 


506  MODEEN  HISTORY.  {a.d.  1796. 

General  Beaulieu,  an  officer  whose  experience  could  not  be  denied^ 
for  he  had  fought  in  all  the  wars  against  Frederic  the  Great,  but 
■who  was  seventy-five  years  old,  disqualified  by  his  very  experience 
from  anticipating  or  fully  comprehending  novelties  in  tactics,  and 
by  his  age  from  exerting  vigour  sufficient  to  cope  with  a  youthful 
and  energetic  antagonist.  Buonaparte  lost  no  time.  Quitting  the 
arms  of  his  bride  within  a  week  of  his  marriage,  he  reached  the 
head-quarters  of  the  army  before  the  end  of  the  month,  and  at 
once  put  his  troops  in  motion.  They  were  full  of  confidence  from 
their  recent  victory,  and  admirably  officered.  Massena  and  Auge- 
reau  were  generals  of  divisions :  and  among  the  subalterns  were 
Joubert,  Launes,  Junot,  Murat,  Victor,  Marmont,  and  Suchet ;  men 
to  whose  rare  capacity  for  war  the  nation  was  afterwards  indebted 
for  no  small  portion  of  its  military  glory.  The  dates  will  show 
the  rapidity  of  his  movements,  which  of  itself  was  a  novelty  to  an 
enemy  methodical  and  deliberate  by  nature,  and  fettered,  as  the 
Austrian  generals  still  were,  by  the  interference  of  the  Aulic 
council.  It  was  the  eleventh  of  April  when  the  armies  first  came 
in  sight  of  each  other ;  in  the  course  of  the  next  four  days  Buona- 
parte fought  and  won  three  actions,  at  Montenotte,  Millesimo,  and 
Dego,  by  forced  night  marches  surprising  the  enemy  at  points 
where  no  attack  was  expected,  and  finally  separating  the  Austrians 
from  the  Sardinians,  and  driving  their  armies  back  on  different  lines. 
And  on  the  twenty-fifth,  having  again  defeated  the  Sardinians  at 
Mondovi,  he  struck  such  terror  into  the  citizens  of  Turin  that  they 
compelled  their  sovereign  to  sign  an  armistice,  by  which  he 
renounced  his  alliance  with  the  Empire,  disbanded  his  army, 
and  even  made  a  temporary  surrender  of  some  of  his  strongest 
fortresses.  History  at  that  time  presented  no  other  instance  of 
a  nation,  though  but  of  inferior  power,  being  thus  humbled  in  a 
fortnight.  But  Buonaparte  did  more  than  subdue  the  Pied- 
montese ;  he  subdued  his  own  masters,  the  directory.  His  c jm- 
mission  from  them  had  been  carefully  drawn  in  terms  which 
forbade  him  to  conclude  armistices  or  truces :  and  so  emphatic  a 
warning  did  his  treaty  with  the  king  furnish  of  his  contempt  for 
their  authority  that  they  at  once  took  the  alarm,  and  conceived 
the  idea  of  dividing  his  army,  and  of  entrusting  the  division  that 
was  to  continue  to  act  against  the  Austrians  in  the  north  to 
General  Kellermann,  while  he  himself  was  to  march  with  the 
other  division  along  the  coast  upon  Rome  and  Naples.  Keller- 
mann enjoyed  a  great  renown  for  his  share  in  the  repulse  of  tlie 
Prussians  at  Valmy  in  1792,  the  first  advantage  that  had  been 
gained  by  the  French  armies  since  the  commencement  of  the  Revo- 
lution :  and,  having  been  transferred  to  the  army  in  Savoy  the 
preceding  year,   he    had  fully  maintained   his  reputation.     But 


A.D.  1796.]  HE  CONQUERS  ITALY.  607 

Buonaparte  was  resolved  to  share  his  command  with  no  one. 
Before  the  new  orders  reached  him,  he  had  gained  another  victory 
over  Beaulieu,  at  Lodi  on  the  Adda ;  and  he  felt  such  a  convic- 
tion that  he  had  made  himself  indispensable  to  the  directory  that, 
on  reading  their  despatch,  he  did  not  hesitate  to  send  in  his  resign- 
ation, telling  them  that  *  they  must  have  one  general  only,  who 
should  have  their  entire  confidence.  Every  man,'  he  said,  and 
said  truly,  <  had  his  own  way  of  making  war.  Kellermann  had 
the  greater  experience,  and  would  make  war  better  than  he  him- 
self: but  both  together  they  would  make  it  badly.' 

The  directors  were  sorely  perplexed  and  divided.  They  feared 
for  their  own  authority,  if  they  should  not  accept  his  resignation  j 
if  they  should  accept  it,  they  apprehended  the  discontent  of  the 
army,  naturally  proud  of  and  attached  to  its  victorious  chief:  and 
their  regard  for.  the  feelings  of  the  soldiers  was  reinforced  by  an 
equally  powerful  consideration.  The  state  was  almost  bankrupt, 
and  the  continuance  of  Buonaparte  in  his  command  offered  the 
best  prospect  of  replenishing  the  exhausted  treasury.  He  had  not 
only  introduced  a  new  strategy,  but  he  had  taught  his  soldiers  a  new 
motive  for  exertion,  a  desire  for  plunder.  His  order  of  the  day  on 
assuming  the  command  had  pointed  out  to  them  that  the  pro- 
vinces and  towns  of  Italy  were  rich,  and  had  promised  them  riches 
for  themselves  as  the  reward  of  victory  :  and  the  inducements 
which  he  had  found  so  powerful  with  the  troops,  he  had  already 
begun  to  apply  to  the  government  at  home.  The  very  day  after 
he  had  signed  the  armistice  with  the  King  of  Sardinia,  he  an- 
nounced to  them  his  intention  of  wringing  'some  millions  from  the 
Duke  of  Parma,'  and  also  of  enriching  the  museums  of  Paris  by 
stripping  the  different  cities  in  the  north  of  Italy  of  the  finest  of 
the  works  of  art,  the  choicest  of  the  paintings  and  statues,  with 
which  they  were  so  profusely  embellished.  Since  the  time  of 
Charles  VIII.^  there  had  been  no  instance  of  a  conqueror  stooping 
to  plunder  of  that  kind :  but  it  was  obvious  that  the  general  who 
had  conceived  the  idea  was  the  fittest  instrument  to  carry  it  out. 
Nor  did  he  lose  time  in  the  execution  of  it.  Within  a  week  of  the 
battle  of  Lodi  he  had  entered  Milan  in  triumph,  had  levied  on  the 
Milanese,  on  Modena,  and  on  Parma  above  thirty  millions  of  francs ; 
providing  pay  for  his  own  soldiers,  for  those  of  Kellermann,  for  the 
army  on  the  Rhine,  and  sending  a  long  train  of  waggons  loaded 
with  gold  and  splendid  treasures  of  art  to  Paris. 

The  directory  seemed  to  have  no  choice,  but  to  refuse  to  accept 
his  resignation,  to  leave  him  the  undivided  command,  placing 
Kellermann  under  his  orders.     They  sought,  indeed,  indirectly  to 

>  V.  ante,  p.  7. 


^ 


508  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1797- 

pledge  him  to  loyalty  to  their  own  government,  by  the  compli- 
ments they  paid  to  his  ^  republican  zeal ;'  but  it  can  hardly  be 
supposed  that  they  disguised  from  themselves  the  probable  con- 
seq^uences  of  a  conduct  which  was,  in  fact,  submission  to  his 
dictation.  And  they  did  not  conceal  them  from  him ;  since,  whether 
he  had  conceived  the  idea  before  or  not,  we  learn,  from  his  own 
language  at  St.  Helena,  that  from  this  time  forth  he  constantly 
cherished  the  anticipation  that '  he  might  become  a  decisive  actor 
in  the  political  theatre.'  It  was  ait  all  events  plain,  that  for  the 
present  he  had  become  absolute  master  of  his  own  movements,  and 
free  to  make  war  or  peace  at  his  own  discretion.  He  continued  to 
make  a  brilliant  use  of  his  power.  The  Aulic  council  took  a  strange 
method  of  checking  him  by  now  sending  against  him  Wurmser,  a 
general  a  year  or  two  older  than  Beaulieu.  The  result  was  such  as 
might  have  been  expected.  After  a  succession  of  actions  on  a  small 
scale,  every  one  of  which  was  to  the  advantage  of  the  French,  the 
Austrians  were  completely  driven  from  the  north  of  Italy,  losing 
even  Mantua  the  strongest  fortress  in  the  whole  district.  And, 
in  the  spring  of  1797,  the  conqueror  crossed  the  Tyrolese  Alps, 
into  Styria ;  and,  again  taking  upon  himself  to  negotiate  with  the 
enemy,  in  defiance  of  the  known  intentions  of  the  directory,  con- 
cluded an  armistice  at  Leoben,  which,  in  the  course  of  the  autumn, 
developed  into  the  peace  of  Campo-Formio.  The  terms  of  the 
treaty  he  himself  arranged :  it  was  even  he  that  signed  it,  though 
invested  with  no  diplomatic  authority;  and  the  terms  are  singu- 
larly characteristic  of  his  utter  disregard  of  all  the  established 
principles  of  public  law,  and  the  rights  of  nations.  He  exacted 
/^  great  cessions  from  the  Empire,  which  was  compelled  to  surrender 
//  Belgium,  and  to  recognise  the  Rhine  as  the  French  frontier ;  and,  as 

j>4^  a  compensation,  he  gave  it  up  Venice  :  a  state  with  which  France 

^•|->^-w^ad  no  quarrel  whatever ;  but  which  throughout  the  war  had 
preserved  a  careful  neutrality,  which  he  would  not  allow  to 
save  it. 

He  had  been  led  to  the  conclusion  of  this  treaty  by  a  belief  that 
the  directory  were  more  eager  than  ever  to  get  rid  of  him ;  but 
we  have  no  space  to  dwell  on  the  intrigues  and  dissensions  in  the 
capital,  nor  even  in  the  share  which  he  himself  had  in,  apparently, 
strengthening  the  hands  of  the  directory,  but  in  reality  in  ensuring 
further  their  subservience  to  the  army  or,  in  other  words,  to  himself, 
by  sending  Augereau  to  crush  their  enemies  by  force  on  the 
eighteenth  Fructidor.  He  returned  to  Paris,  where  the  directors 
did  not  dare  to  receive  him  with  anything  short  of  the  highest 
honours  ;  though  there  was  but  little  appropriateness  in  the  com- 
pliments which  Barras  paid  him,  comparing  him,  in  a  set  speech, 
not  only  to  Caesar  andPompey,but  to  Socrates;  and  but  little  cordia- 


A.D.  1798.]  HE  INVADES  EGYPT.  509 

lity  in  the  expression  of  his  thanks  in  return,  which  unmistakeably  * 
intimated  his  opinion  that  some  further  change  in  the  constitution 
was  necessary.  In  fact,  though  the  directory  owed  its  present 
supremacy  to  his  aid,  that  body  and  he  mutually  distrusted  each 
other.  They  saw  no  safety  for  themselves,  but  in  removing  him 
from  Paris ;  while  he  was  already  listening  to  those  wlio  urged 
him  to  supplant  them ;  though  he  finally  decided  that,  to  quote 
a  favourite  phrase  of  his,  *  the  pear  was  not  yet  ripe.* 

They  now  proposed  to  employ  him  on  a  new  expedition ;  the 
invasion  of  England.  He  was  willing  enough  to  find  himself 
again  at  the  head  of  an  army,  but  was  resolved  to  choose  the 
enemy  to  be  attacked.  And,  though  he  had  already  imbibed  that 
hatred  of  England  which  was  one  of  his  most  predominant 
feelings  throughout  his  life,  he  was  quite  convinced  that 
England  was  unassailable  on  her  own  shores  by  any  force  which 
the  republic  could  employ  against  her.  But  though  impreg- 
nable at  home,  he  conceived  that  she  might  be  vulnerable  in  her 
distant  settlements.  Of  these  dependencies  India  was  the  most 
valuable  ;  the  road  to  India  lay  through  Egypt :  and  he  therefore 
proposed  to  the  directory  to  direct  their  efforts  first  against  that 
country,  which  there  was  no  reason  to  believe  possessed  any 
great  means  of  resistance.  It  was  no  objection  to  such  a  step  in 
his  mind  that  France  had  no  cause  of  quarrel  whatever  with 
either  Egypt  or  Turkey.  Their  weakness  was  in  itself  provoca- 
tion sufficient  to  one  who,  as  he  wrote  to  a  minister,  some  years 
afterwards,  '  had  only  one  object,  to  succeed.'  The  directory  was 
so  eager  to  remove  him  to  the  greatest  possible  distance,  that  they 
preferred  an  expedition  against  Egypt  to  one  against  England. 
And  in  the  spring  of  1798  they  placed,  not  only  an  army  of  25,000 
men,  but  a  fleet  also  at  his  disposal,  with  almost  unlimited  authority 
to  employ  it  in  any  place,  and  in  any  manner  which  he  might 
choose.  In  a  military  point  of  view  the  expedition  against  Egypt 
would  not  be  worth  notice ;  but  some  of  the  incidents  reveal  so 
much  of  the  general's  character  that  they  cannot  be  passed  over. 
It  is  melancholy  that  it  should  be  necessary  to  add,  that  they  are 
such  as  no  subterfuge  can  palliate,  no  indulgence  can  regard  but  as 
proofs  of  the  most  absolute  indifference  to  every  principle  of 
religion,  and  even  of  humanity.  His  former  fiiends  the  Jacobins, 
had  publicly  renounced  Christianity:  it  might  have  been  sup- 
posed that  he  was  wantonly  seeking  to  identify  himself  with  them 
when  he  attended  the  worship  of  Mahomet  in  the  mosque  of  Cairo, 

1  He  said,  *  Lorsquc  le  bonheur  du  318.    He  could  hardly  allege  more 

pcuple  Frangais   sera  assis  sur   de  plainly  that  the  laws  which  she  as  yet 

meilleures    lois  organiqiies  I'Europe  had  required  alteration. 
entiere  deviendra  libre.' — Lanfrty,  i. 


510  MODEKN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1798. 

joining  audibly  in  the  responses,  and  afterwards  issued  a  pro- 
clamation in  whicli  he  assured  the  Egyptians  that  he  and  his 
army  were  true  Mussulmans  :  that  it  was  as  champions  of  Maho- 
met and  his  religion  that  they  had  lately  stripped  the  Pope  of  his 
temporal  possessions  ;  and  that  his  arrival  among  them  was  '  fore- 
told in  more  than  twenty  passages  '  of  the  holy  book  of  the  Koran :' 
while,  in  private  conversation  with  his  officers,  he  regretted  that 
in  the  age  in  which  he  lived  he  could  not  imitate  the  example  of 
Alexander,  who  had  declared  himself  the  son  of  Jupiter.  It  was  a 
profitless  blasphemy,  for  not  only  did  the  Egyptians  deride  it,  but 
his  own  soldiers  were  disgusted  by  it,  not  probably  from  any  deep 
sense  of  religion,  but  from  the  feeling  that  they  were  of  a  race  so 
far  superior  to  the  Egyptians  that  to  imitate  them  in  anything 
was  a  degradation.  But,  if  barbarity  in  deeds  is  still  more  odious 
than  blasphemy  of  language,  we  must  conceive  a  still  deeper 
detestation  of  the  massacre  of  the  garrison  of  Jaffa  in  cold  blood, 
after  the  town  was  surrendered,  when  he  deliberately  slaughtered 
2,500  prisoners  who  had  fallen  into  his  hands,  because,  if  he  had 
let  them  live,  he  must  have  released  them.  So  atrocious  did  the 
order  seem  even  to  his  own  army,  though  little  troubled  by  un- 
necessary scruples,  that  several  officers  positively  refused  to  aid  in 
carrying  it  out :  and,  that  he  himself  was  aware  of  the  universal 
reprobation  with  which  it  had  met,  is  sufficiently  evident  from  the 
various  pretexts  by  which  at  different  times  he  strove  to  account 
for,  or  to  palliate  it. 

In  all  his  operations  against  the  Egyptian  troops  alone  he  could 
not  fail  to  be  successful,  for  the  best  of  them  were  only  dashing 
cavalry,  unacquainted  with  European  manoeuvres.  When  the 
Mahometan  valour  was  guided  by  English  skill,  he  was  compelled 
to  retreat  before  it ;  and  to  leave  Acre,  the  scene  of  one  of  the 
most  brilliant  exploits  of  Coeur  de  Lion  in  the  Middle  Ages, 
to  bear  renewed  testimony  to  the  undying  superiority  of  British 
discipline  and  steadiness.  But  out  of  the  siege  of  Acre  arose  a 
sudden  and  total  change  of  his  plans.  It  was  now  the  summer  of 
1799;  and  in  the  war  with  the  Empire,  which  had  been  renewed  at 
the  beginning  of  the  year,  and  in  which  Austria  had  obtained  the 
alliance  of  Russia,  things  had  been  going  on  as  badly  as  possible 
for  the  French,  though  their  army  in  Italy  consisted  of  above 
100,000  men,  and  was  led  by  such  redoubted  captains  as  Scherer, 
Jourdan,  Macdonald,  Joubert,  and  Moreau.  But  every  one  of 
these  great  generals  were  successively  defeated  in  a  campaign 
which  did  not  last  six  months.  The  whole  army  was  driven  from 
Italy ;  and  it  seemed  for  a  moment  doubtful  whether  the  victorious 
enemy  might  not  endeavour  to  retaliate  by  an  invasion  of  the 


A.D.  1799.]  HE  RETURNS  TO  FRANCE.  511 

French  provinces  on  the  Upper  Rhine.  But  no  news  of  these 
disasters  bad  reached  Napoleon.  The  destruction  by  Nelson  of 
the  fleet  which  had  conveyed  him  to  E{?ypt  had  cut  off  all  hia 
communications  with  France;  the  army  knew  nothing  of  its 
country,  the  nation  knew  nothing  of  its  army,  till,  in  the  course  of 
negotiations  with  the  English  officers  on  the  coast  for  the  exchange 
of  prisoners,  Sir  Sidney  Smith,  to  whom  his  repulse  before  Acre 
had  been  mainly  due,  sent  him  a  bundle  of  French  newspapers 
which  one  of  our  cruisers  had  intercepted.  It  may  fairly  be  said 
that  the  communication  alTiected  the  future  fortunes  of  the  whole 
of  Europe.  It  showed  him  that  'the  pear  had  become  ripe;' 
that  the  blows  which  had  fallen  on  the  Italian  army  had  wounded 
the  directors  also ;  that,  as  in  such  a  government  was  inevitable, 
every  fresh  calamity  which  befell  the  nation  under  their  rule,  was 
imputed  to  them  by  the  people ;  that  the  directors  themselves 
were  divided  into  two  parties,  hating  and  plotting  against  each 
other ;  while  there  was  open  war  between  both  sections  and  the 
assembly,  in  which  they  would  surely  fall ;  and,  that  if  he  were 
not  on  the  spot  to  take  advantage  of  the  coming  change,  the  fruit 
would  be  gathered  by  some  other  hand.  Indeed,  though  of  this 
he  was  not  aware,  one  party  had  already  urged  Moreau  to  seize 
the  dictatorship,  but  that  general  was  too  sincerely  attached  to 
republican  principles ;  while  some  of  the  directors  themselves  were 
contemplating  the  restoration  of  the  Bourbons.  His  decision  was 
taken  in  an  instant.  He  would  leave  the  army  in  Egypt  to  take 
care  of  itself,  and  return  to  Paris.  In  spite  of  his  victories,  that 
army  was  by  this  time  in  a  deplorable  condition.  Above  a  fifth  of 
its  number  had  perished  in  the  difterent  battles ;  the  plague  had 
committed  great  ravages ;  their  supplies  and  ammunition  were 
nearly  exhausted ;  and  he  had  already  contemplated  the  proba- 
bility of  being  forced  to  make  peace  and  evacuate  the  coimtry.* 
In  such  a  state  of  things  no  commander  could  desert  his  soldiers 
without  the  deepest  dishonour.  There  was  no  man  in  the  whole 
force  whom  every  principle  of  military  duty  so  imperatively  re- 
quired to  remain  at  his  post  that  he  might  extricate  his  comrades 
from  the  difficulties  into  which  he  had  brought  them.  But  the 
Revolution  had  extinguished  all  the  ancient  ideas  of  dutj',  and 
Buonaparte  never  thought  of  anyone  but  himself.  He  even, 
for  his  own  purposes,  weakened  the  army  further  by  taking  from 
it  Lannes,  Murat,  Marmont,  and  othei-s,  the  flower  of  its  officers, 
of  whose  attachment  and  resolution  he  foresaw  he  might  have 
need.    And,  at  the  end  of  August,  he  secretly  set  sail  for  France, 

1  See  Laafrej's  History  of  Napoleon^  u  414  note. 


512  MODEKN  HISTOEY.  [a.d.  1799. 

communicating  Lis  departure  by  letter  to  General  Kleber,  who 
was  with  his  division  at  Cairo,  never  dreaming  of  his  desertion  by 
his  commander-in-chief;  and  desiring  him  to  take  the  command, 
and  to  prepare  for  the  evacuation  of  the  country  if  the  plague 
should  continue  to  thin  its  ranks. 

He  had  a  stormy  voyage,  and  a  narrow  escape  of  being  captured 
by  an  English  fleet ;  but  he  escaped  all  dangers,  and  at  the  end  of 
the  first  week  of  October  landed  at  Fr^jus,  and  hastened  to  Paris. 
By  a  fortunate  coincidence  a  despatch  announcing  his  defeat  of  the 
Turks  at  Aboukir,  on  the  twenty-fifth  of  July,  in  a  combat  which, 
though  in  reality  there  were  not  10,000  men  on  either  side,  he  had 
magnified  into  a  battle  of  great  importance,  had  arrived  a  day  or  two 
before.  As  the  first  intelligence  which  had  been  received  of  him  for 
many  months,  it  had  been  the  more  welcome ;  and  now  the  arrival 
of  himself  on  the  heels  of  his  victory  seemed  to  the  anxious  and 
unquiet  spirits,  who  had  been  alternately  desponding  over  the  dis- 
asters of  their  armies  in  Europe  and  chafing  at  the  incompetency 
of  their  rulers,  to  supply  the  only  but  the  sure  means  of  saving 
the  country  from  the  abyss  of  dishonour  and  calamity  into  which 
it  was  sinking.  Two  dates  are  sufiicient  to  show  with  what  sin- 
gular felicity  his  return  was  timed.  On  the  sixteenth  of  October 
he  reached  Paris  :  on  the  tenth  of  November  he  was  master  of 
France.  For  before  he  quitted  Egypt  he  had  resolved  to  render 
himself  such  ;  and  the  Egyptian  expedition  itself,  though  a  com- 
plete failure,  and  though,  while  Britain  was  mistress  of  the  seas, 
it  was  impossible  that  it  should  not  be  a  failure,  had  served  his 
own  objects  as  well  as  if  it  had  been  crowned  with  the  most 
brilliant  success.  It  had  kept  him  out  of  sight  while  the  mind  of 
the  nation  was  preparing  for  a  new  revolution ;  while  at  the  same 
time  the  disasters  which  had  befallen  the  French  armies  on  the 
very  ground  on  which  he  had  achieved  such  uninterrupted  tri- 
umphs had  kept  his  name  alive  in  the  men's  memories;  his  friends 
could  contrast  Areola  with  Magnano,  Bivoli  with  the  day  of  the 
Trebbia ;  and  even  those,  who  believed  that  in  similar  circum- 
stances he  would  have  fared  no  better  than  Macdonald  or  Moreau, 
could  not  venture  to  put  their  judgment  in  opposition  to  the 
popular  feeling  that  the  past  misfortunes  had  been  owing  to  his 
absence,  and  that  his  return  alone  would  be  sufficient  to  restore 
victory  to  the  standards  of  the  republic. 

The  only  persons  who  regretted  to  see  him  again  were  the 
directors,  and  they  did  not  dare  to  show  their  displeasure.  To 
remove  him  from  the  capital  they  at  once  offered  him  another 
command,  which  he  at  once  refused,  and  for  a  few  days  he  lived 
in  great  retirement.  He  had  made  the  directors  a  fine  speech, 
and  had  volunteered  one  or  two  oaths  to  preserve  the  republic ; 


A.D.  1799.]  INTRIGUES  OF  NAPOLEON.  513 

but  in  private  he  affected  to  speak  of  himself  as  of  one  whose 
health  was  impaired  by  his  past  fatigues,  and  who  required  rest. 
And  he  even  exchanged  his  uniform  for  the  dress  of  the  members 
of  the  Institute,  a  body  of  literary  and  scientific  men  among  whom 
he  had  been  admitted  before  his  departure  for  Egypt.  Meanwhile, 
his  political  friends  were  busily  intriguing  with  both  soldiers  and 
politicians,  and  daily  winning  over  fresh  adherents  to  their  pro- 
jected revolution.  On  the  original  institution  of  the  directory 
two  legislative  councils  had  been  established,  known  as  the  Five 
Hundred,  a  sort  of  imitation  of  our  House  of  Commons,  and 
the  Ancients,  so  named  because  no  one  under  forty  years  of  age 
could  be  a  member.  And  it  was  greatly  in  favour  of  the  plots 
now  forming  that  one  of  the  general's  brothers,  Lucien  Buona- 
parte, was  president  of  the  council  of  Five  Hundred  when  the 
day  of  the  struggle  came.  Our  space  forbids  our  dwelling  on  the 
steps  taken  by  the* conspirators  to  ensure  success;  and,  indeed,  it 
is  only  the  result  that  is  important  to  our  story.  Before  the 
appointed  day  Buonaparte  found  it  necessary  to  take  some  of  the 
directors  into  his  counsels ;  and  his  ablest  partisan,  Talleyrand, 
who  had  long  since  thrown  off  the  priest's  robes  which  so  little 
became  him,  had  won  over  Si^yes  and  Roger-Ducos  by  the  promise 
of  a  share  in  the  spoil,  though  Sieyes  was  in  his  heart  so  little 
friendly  to  Buonaparte  that  he  had  openly  spoken  of  the  propriety 
of  shooting  him  for  the  desertion  of  the  Egyptian  army;  and 
though  he  was  conscious  that  his  alliance  was  only  sought  as  that 
of  a  tool,  to  be  discarded  as  soon  as  it  could  be  dispensed  with. 
On  the  ninth  of  November  the  arrangements  were  concluded.. 
A  series  of  decrees  transferred  the  sittings  of  the  two  assemblies 
to  St.-Cloud,  and  invested  Buonaparte  with  the  command  of  the 
Parisian  division  of  the  national  guard,  and  of  the  guard  of  the 
assembly.  Sieyes  and  Ducos  resigned  their  seats  in  the  directory, 
and  Barras  was  temfied  into  following  their  example  :  their  acts 
dissolving  the  existing  government,  so  that  at  daybreak  on  the 
tenth  the  only  thing  to  be  done  was  to  form  a  new  one;  and  it 
was  already  arranged  what  that  should  be. 

It  seemed  as  if  nothing  could  be  done  in  France  without  some 
intermixture  of  comedy ;  and,  accordingly,  when  the  assemblies 
met,  on  the  morning  of  the  tenth,  the  only  means  of  defence 
which  the  party  opposed  to  the  designs  of  the  conspirators  could 
imagine  was  to  spend  the  greater  part  of  the  day  in  administering 
to  every  member  an  oath  to  maintain  the  existing  constitution, 
a  proceeding  which  occupied  so  much  time  that  before  it  was 
concluded  the  soldiers  who  were  to  overturn  that  constitution 
were  already  at  the  doors.  We  have  already  seen  that  the  French 
Revolution  in  many  scenes  strikingly  resembles  the  English  Rebel- 


514  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1799. 

lion  against  Charles ;  and  few  of  the  parallels  are  closer  than  that 
which  is  presented  by  the  conduct  of  Cromwell  when,  in  1653,  he 
expelled  the  Hump  Parliament,  as  a  preliminary  to  declaring  him- 
self president  of  the  council  of  state ;  Cromwell  reproached  the 
members  with  a  violation  of  their  duties  to  their  constituents : 
Buonaparte  brought  the  very  same  charge  against  the  Ancients. 
'  They  had  violated  the  constitution,'  he  declared,  *  in  Fructidor,  in 
Floreal,  and  in  Prairial ; '  and  if  Cromwell  declared  that  *  the  Lord 
had  done  with  them,  and  had  chosen  other  instruments,  for  carry- 
ing on  his  work,'  ^  Buonaparte  advanced  a  similar  claim  to  the 
protection  of  the  deities  whom  alone  he  worshipped,  bidding  the 
members  recollect,  '  that  he  was  going  forward,  accompanied  by 
the  God  of  Fortune  and  the  God  of  War.'  ^  The  French  assembly 
made  more  resistance  than  had  been  offered  by  the  Rump,  but 
the  end  was  the  same.  The  loudest  orators  were  no  match  for 
Murat  and  his  grenadiers.  The  hall  was  soon  cleared ;  and  in  the 
evening  Lucien  collected  a  small  'section  of  the  council  of  Five 
Hundred,  who  rapidly  passed  resolutions  that  Buonaparte  and  his 
lieutenants  had  deserved  well  of  their  country,  and  that  the  govern- 
ment should  in  future  be  administered  by  three  consuls :  Buona- 
parte, Si^yes,  and  Duces.  At  midnight  the  arrangement  was 
ratified,  by  the  council  of  Ancients;  Buonaparte  and  his  new 
colleagues  took  oaths  of  '  inviolable  fidelity  to  the  new  constitu- 
tion, and  to  the  principles  of  legality,  liberty,  and  the  represen- 
tative system.'  And  thus  the  curtain  fell  on  another  act  of  the 
Revolution. 

Buonaparte  was  now,  at  thirty-one,  absolute  master  of  France. 
For  even  amid  the  first  excitement  of  success  his  nominal  col- 
leagues did  not  deceive  themselves  as  to  their  own  position  in  the 
government.  Buonaparte,  as  Sieyes  truly  said,  was  the  master : 
'  he  meant  to  do  everything  ;  he  knew  how  to  do  everything ; 
and  he  had  power  to  do  everything.'  He  allowed  his  colleagues, 
indeed,  to  amuse  themselves  with  framing  a  constitution,  which 
should  be  a  wholesome  and  efficient  restraint  on  the  consular 
power ;  and  Sieyes,  who  was  wont  to  boast  that  he  had  mastered 
the  whole  science  of  politics,  devised  an  elaborate  system,  with  a 
senate,  a  legislative  body,  and  a  tribunate  whose  mode  of  ap- 
pointment was  as  complicated  as  their  duties.  But  we  need  not 
waste  time  in  discussing  the  power  and  character  of  bodies  which 
were  created  on  purpose  to  have  neither  power  nor  character,  but 
solely  to  serve  as  screens  to  conceal  the  concentration  of  the  whole 
authority  of  the  state  in  a  single  hand ;  especially  as  the  nation 
itself  desired  no  such  screen,  but  regarded  the  recent  changes  witli 

I  Hume,  c.  60.  ^  Lanfrey,  i.  469. 


A.D.  1799.]     ESTABLISHMENT  OF  THE  CONSULATE.       515 

indifference,  if  not  with  something  like  approbation.  The  general 
feeling  was  a  weariness  of  the  ceaseless  agitation  and  continual 
changes  of  the  last  live  years,  and  a  disposition  to  welcome  any 
arrangement  which  held  out  a  hope  of  tranquillity  and  stability. 
And  so  stable  was  the  new  government,  that  the  substitution  of 
two  new  consuls,  Canibaceres  and  Lebrun  for  SitSyes  and  Ducos, 
which  took  place  before  the  end  of  the  year,  made  no  difference  in 
the  opinion  of  anyone.  It  was  even  a  greater  proof  of  its  stability, 
or,  at  least,  of  the  confidence  of  Buonaparte  himself  in  the  general 
favour  with  which  it  was  regarded,  that  one  of  his  first  measures  in 
the  new  year  was  to  take  possession  of  the  Tuileries,  the  palace  of 
the  ancient  kings,  from  which  all  the  republican  emblems  and 
inscriptions  with  which  it  had  been  disfigured  since  the  king's 
murder  had  been  carefully  effaced,  and  to  which  he  now  removed 
with  great  pomp,  accompanied  by  the  other  consuls,  drawn  by  six 
white  horses,  and  escorted  by  a  splendid  body-guard,  under  the 
command  of  the  most  distinguished  generals ;  and  he  was  no 
sooner  installed  there  than  he  began  to  revive  the  custom  and 
parade  of  the  royal  court;  the  titles  of  chamberlains,  equenies, 
and  pages ;  well  estimating  the  fondness  of  the  French  people  for 
show  and  splendour,  and  confident  that  the  interest  that  this 
reproduction  of  old  fashions  would  excite  would  draw  off  the 
attention  of  the  people  in  general  from  graVer  measures  of  his 
government,  to  which  he  did  not  wish  them  to  pay  too  great 
attention. 

Not  that  in  all  matters  he  despised  public  opinion.  On  the  con- 
trary, though  from  the  first  he  resolved  that  not  one  of  his  ministers 
should  be  supreme  in  his  own  department,  but  that  they  should 
practically  be  nothing  more  than  so  many  clerks  to  carry  out 
his  designs,  and  to  execute  his  orders,  he  chose  them  with  great 
care  from  the  different  parties  which  had  hitherto  divided  the 
state,  so  that  each  should  feel  itself  represented  in  the  cabinet. 
Talleyrand  became  foreign  minister;  Fouche,  in  spite  of  the 
infamy  attached  to  his  name  as  the  author  of  the  massacres  of 
Lyons,  was  minister  of  police.  And  the  First  Consul's  comment  on 
these  appointments  sufficiently  reveals  their  object.  *  What  revo- 
lutionist,' said  he  to  his  brother  Joseph,  *  will  not  have  confidence 
in  an  order  of  things  when  Fouche  is  a  minister  ?  What  man  of 
birth  will  not  hope  to  find  life  endumble  under  the  former  Bishop 
of  Autun  ?  The  one  guards  my  right,  the  other  my  left ;  I  open 
up  a  highway  that  everyone  can  use.'  In  another  way  also  he 
studied  to  conciliate  public  feeling,  though,  as  the  wish  of  the 
people  in  general  was  opposed  to  his  own,  it  required  some  skill 
to  secure  his  own  object,  while  seemingly  endeavouring  to  obtain 
theirs.    The  people  were  eager  for  peace ;  he  desired  a  continuance 


r>16  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1800. 

of  the  war  :  and  resolved  at  the  same  time  to  secure  this  end, 
and  to  gratify  the  nation,  "by  offering  peace  to  the  sovereigns  who 
were  armed  against  France,  but  offering  it  in  such  a  manner  as 
to  ensure  the  rejection  of  his  proposals.  He  wrote  letters  with 
his  own  hand  to  the  King  of  England,  and  to  the  Emperor  of 
Germany;  knowing  well  that  in  England,  his  letter  would  bo 
regarded  as  irregular  in  form,  since  the  discussion  of  such  points 
belongs  not  to  the  king,  but  to  one  of  his  ministers ;  and  pro- 
posing terms  to  the  Emperor  which,  after  the  last  campaign,  there 
was  no  chance  of  his  accepting.  He  received,  as  he  had  hoped, 
unfavorable  answers  from  both  countries ;  and,  judging  that 
the  people  were  sufficiently  conciliated  by  his  apparent  attempt  to 
carry  out  their  wishes,  and  were  also  gratified  in  their  feelings  of 
v.anity,  by  seeing  the  new  magistrate  of  their  choice  write,  as  if  on 
equal  terms,  to  the  ancient  sovereigns  of  Europe,  he  eagerly  pre- 
pared for  a  new  campaign,  against  the  Empire,  both  in  Germany 
and  Italy.  He  was  not,  however,  without  his  difficulties.  The 
consulate  was  established  for  only  a  limited  number  of  j^ears; 
and  his  place  at  its  head  was  so  clearly  due  to  his  military  renown, 
that  he  feared  being  supplanted  if  any  other  general  should  achieve 
still  greater  triumphs.  It  was  necessary,  therefore,  in  his  view, 
not  only  that  the  A^^trians  should  be  defeated,  but  that  he  himself 
should  strike  the  heaviest  and  most  decisive  blow :  and  to  one 
more  scrupulous,  or  less  audacious,  it  would  have  been  no  trifling 
hindrance  that  the  constitution  regarded  the  consuls  as  civil 
magistrates,  and  forbade  their  taking  on  themselves  any  military 
command.  But  as  no  law  which  stood  in  the  way  of  his  own 
aggTandisement  was  now  regarded  by  him  as  an  obstacle,  he 
resolved  to  trample  on  this  one:  paying  just  so  much  deference 
to  it  as  to  call  the  force  which  was  to  be  under  his  own  guidance 
the  army  of  reserve.  The  army  of  Germany,  on  the  Danube,  was 
entrusted  to  Moreau  :  that  of  Italy  to  Masse n a ;  while  the  com- 
mand of  the  reserve  of  60,000  men  was  nominally  given  to  General 
Berthier,  lately  minister  of  war,  and  excellent  as  a  staff  officer, 
but  of  a  capacity  only  suited  to  the  discharge  of  secondary  duties. 
But  at  the  end  of  the  second  week  in  May,  Buonaparte  joined  this 
army  himself  at  Lausanne ;  and  at  once  led  it  across  the  Great 
St.  Bernard  into  the  plains  of  Piedmont.  The  weather, was  so 
favorable  that  a  single  week  sufficed  for  the  passage  of  the  whole 
army  ,•  and,  on  the  twenty-first,  Melas,  who  had  received  no  intelli- 
gence of  even  the  existence  of  this  third  army,  learnt  to  his 
astonishment  that  it  was  encamped  in  force  in  what  might  almost 
be  called  his  immediate  neighbourhood.  AVith  great  promptitude 
he  called  in  various  detachments,  for  his  army  was  greatly 
scattered,  and  stood  upon  his  defence.     For  the  initiative  was  in 


A.D.  1800.]  OPEKATIONS  IN  PIEDMONT.  517 

the  power  of  the  French,  and  the  brave  old  Austrian  was  forced 
to  wait  till  the  invader's  plan  of  attack  should  be  developed. 

For  Buonaparte  had  the  choice  of  several  lines  of  operation, 
lie  might  at  once  descend  upon  Turin,  and  force  Melas  to  an  imme- 
diate battle ;  or  he  might  turn  to  the  south  to  relieve  Massdna, 
who  with  16,000  men  had  for  above  a  month  been  cooped  up  in 
Genoa,  blockaded  on  the  side  of  the  sea  by  an  English  fleet,  on 
the  side  of  the  land  by  General  Ott,  with  a  powerful  Austrian 
division,  and  who  was  known  to  be  in  such  distress  for  want  of 
supplies  that,  unless  he  were  relieved,  it  was  certain  that  he  must 
speedily  surrender.  But  neither  of  these  plans  promised  a  triumph 
which  the  First  Consul  desired  should  be  both  decisive  and  showy. 
Moreau  had  already  gained  such  advantages  over  the  Austrian 
General  Kray  in  Germany,  as  to  prevent  all  danger  of  that  officer 
being  able  to  aid  Melas ;  and  had  even  obeyed  the  order  which  had 
been  sent  him  by  Buonaparte,  jealous  lest  one  whom  he  regarded 
as  his  rival  should  be  too  successful,  to  send  one  of  his  divisions 
to  reinforce  the  army  in  Piedmont.  But  though  Kray  could  not 
join  Melas,  it  was  possible  that  Melas,  if  defeated  in  a  battle  which 
should  result  from  a  march  upon  Turin,  might  fall  back  and  unite 
with  Kray.  And  far  greater  advantages  were  to  be  obtained  by 
first  cutting  him  oft'  from  that  line  of  retreat,  and  not  bringing 
him  to  action  till  the  French  had  gained  such  a  position  that  the 
Austrians,  if  defeated,  should  be  unable  to  extricate  themselves. 
With  this  design  Buonaparte  decided  on  marching  first  towards 
Milan,  thus  placing  himself  on  the  line  between  the  army  of 
Melas  and  Germany ;  while  his  own  retreat,  in  case  of  disaster, 
would  be  secured  by  his  command  of  the  roads  to  the  St.  Gothard 
passes  of  the  Alps.  It  was  true  that,  by  this  plan  of  the  campaign, 
Massena  would  be  left  to  his  ftite  ;  and,  in  fact,  at  the  beginning  of 
June  he  was  compelled  to  capitulate,  having  lost  half  his  army  by 
actual  famine  in  little  more  than  six  weeks ;  but  Buonaparte  had 
no  objection  that  other  generals  should  seem  unfortunate,  in  order 
that  his  own  triumphs  might  be  rendered  the  more  brilliant  by  the 
contrast.  He  was  admirably  seconded  by  the  zeal,  and  ability  of 
his  lieutenants,  by  the  skill  with  which  Lannes  seized  and  occu- 
pied Pavia,  and  the  vigour  with  which  Murat,  though  his  peculiar 
talent  as  a  leader  of  cavalry  was  not  yet  discovered,  made  him- 
self master  of  Piacenza.  Besides  the  sacrifice  of  Ma.?s«5na's  array 
which  it  involved,  the  soundest  military  critics  have  found  much  to 
object  to  in  the  plan  itself,  as  one  accompanied  with  unnecessary  risk 
from  the  great  extension  of  the  line  of  operations  which  it  neces- 
sitated, though,  on  the  first  arrival  of  the  French  army  on  the 
Italian  side  of  the  Alps,  the  Austrian  army  was  so  scattered  that 
it  might  easily  have  been  desti'oyed  in  detail.     And  it  seems  plain 


518  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1800. 

that  it  did  allow  Melas  time  to  concentrate  his  army  solely  for  the 
Bake  of  the  effect  to  be  produced  by  its  defeat  as  a  whole  :  while 
the  same  object  might  have  been  obtained  more  safely  by  the 
march  upon  Turin.  Indeed,  the  event  itself  proves  that  the  plan 
needlessly  imperilled  the  success  of  the  campaign,  for  it  was  a 
mere  accident  that  changed  the  battle  which  ensued  from  a 
defeat  into  a  victory.  But  those  who  most  condemn  the  plan 
itself  admit  that  nothing  could  be  more  admirable  than  the  strate- 
gical skill  with  which  it  was  executed. 

There  was  no  Austrian  force  to  oppose  Buonaparte's  advance  to 
Milan,  and  in  that  city  he  remained  several  days  fully  occupied  with 
political  and  military  arrangements,  and  waiting  for, more  precise 
information  as  to  the  position  of  Melas,  which  he  never  received. 
At  last,  on  the  twelfth  of  June,  believing  him  to  be  retreating 
towards  Genoa,  in  order  to  keep  open  his  communications  -vrith 
the  English  fleet,  he  himself  quitted  Milan ;  the  next  day,  he 
reached  the  gates  of  Alexandria  ;  found  to  his  surprise  that  that 
strong  fortress  was  the  head-quarters  of  the  enemy  j  and  passing 
on  a  mile  or  two  to  the  southward,  encamped  for  the  night  around 
the  little  village  of  Marengo ;  feeling  little  doubt  that  the  know- 
ledge of  his  arrival  would  at  once  compel  Melas  to  a  retreat.  But 
Melas  was  not  only  skilful,  but  resolute  ;  though  he  believed  the 
French  army  to  be  stronger  than  his  own,  which  in  truth  it  was 
not,  he  conceived  that  that  very  circumstance  made  it  safer  to 
attack  it  and  to  endeavour  to  open  a  passage  by  force  to  Piacenza, 
than  to  retreat  before  it ;  and  the  next  morning  saw  his  whole 
force  moving  upon  Marengo. 

Important  as  the  battle  which  ensued  proved  to  be,  it  was,  like 
those  of  the  campaign  of  1797,  on  but  a  comparatively  small  scale. 
The  two  armies  were  very  nearly  equal  in  number,  neither  of 
them  much  if  at  all  exceeding  30,000  men.  What  difference  did 
exist  was  in  the  cavalry  and  artillery,  and  in  both  those  points  the 
Austrian  was  the  stronger.  Marshal  Marmont  has  recorded  in  his 
Memoirs  an  opinion  that  Buonaparte  had  but  little  tactical  skill, 
accounting  for  his  deficiency  in  that  point  by  the  fact  of  his  never 
having  had  the  command  of  a  battalion  or  a  brigade,  but  having 
been  promoted  at  once  from  the  rank  of  a  captain  to  that  of 
commander-in-chief ;  and  it  is  certain  that,  however  admirable 
his  strategy  before  the  battle,  in  his  handling  of  his  troops  in  the 
actual  fight  he  showed  no  superiority  to  his  adversary.  Melas 
concentrated  his  first  attack  on  Marengo  itself,  as  the  key  of  the 
French  position,  and  carried  it  after  a  fearful  carnage.  Exulting 
in  their  success,  the  Austrians  pressed  on  gallantly.  Victor  was 
driven  back  in  great  disorder  on  the  left.  In  another  quarter  Lannes 
met  with  an  equal  check,  and,  though  giving  ground  more  slowly, 


A.D.  1800.]  THE  BATTLE  OF  MARENGO.  519 

suffered  heavy  loss  from  the  terrible  fire  of  the  Austrian  batteries. 
Buonaparte  in  person  brought  up  a  strong  column  to  his  support, 
but  found  himself  utterly  unable  to  arrest  the  steady  advance  of 
the  Hungarian  infantry.  Square  after  square  of  the  French  was 
broken.  Buonaparte  began  to  make  up  his  mind  to  retreat ;  and 
Melas  himself,  exhausted  with  his  exertions  under  an  Italian  sun, 
and  believing  the  battle  won,  retired  to  Alessandria  to  rest  himself, 
as  a  veteran  nearly  eighty  years  of  age  might  well  be  excused  from 
doing.  But  the  night  before,  Desaix,  one  of  the  ablest  of  the 
officers  who  had  been  left  in  Egypt,  had  arrived  from  Toulon  at 
Marengo,  and  Buonaparte  had  given  him  the  command  of  a  division, 
with  which  about  four  o'clock  he  reached  the  field ;  and  the  arrival 
of  the  fresh  division  and  his  own  eagerness  for  combat,  decided 
Buonaparte  to  make  one  more  effort  for  victory.  Yet  for  a  moment 
it  seemed  as  if  the  attempt  had  only  aggravated  the  disasters  of  the 
day.  Leading  on  his  column  against  a  large  body  of  Austrian  infantry, 
under  General  Zach,  to  whom  Melas  had  left  the  task  of  completing 
the  victory,  Desaix  was  shot  through  the  heart.  Dismayed  by 
his  loss,  the  French  wavered.  Zach  pressed  them  with  increased 
vigour ;  when  the  whole  fortune  of  the  day  was  suddenly  changed 
by  the  presence  of  mind  of  Kellermann,  whose  vigour  had  won 
the  victory  of  Valmy  in  the  first  year  of  the  war.  lie  had  under 
his  orders  a  stout  division  of  800  horse,  which  had  hardly  been 
engaged,  and  which  was  watching  the  events  of  the  battle  while 
posted  in  a  vineyard  high  enough  to  conceal  his  troopers  from 
sight.  Zach  passed  the  cavalry  without  seeing  it ;  as  he  pressed 
on,  and  the  moment  that  his  flank  was  exposed  by  his  advance, 
Kellermann,  with  happy  promptitude,  fell  upon  it.  The  effect 
was  instantaneous  and  decisive.  The  Austrians,  amazed  at  find- 
ing an  enemy  whom  they  had  never  seen  on  their  flank,  and  some- 
what disordered  by  the  rapidity  of  their  own  advance,  were 
struck  with  a  sudden  panic.  They  wavered,  broke,  and  fled. 
Zach  himself  and  2,000  of  his  men  were  taken  prisoners.  The 
other  French  divisions,  which  had  been  beaten,  recovered  heart, 
and  returned  to  the  charge  ;  and  when  Melas,  whom  the  news  of  this 
change  of  fortune  had  brought  back,  returned  to  the  field,  nothing 
was  feft  him  to  do  but  to  rally  his  broken  troops  and  secure  a  safe 
retreat  for  the  main  body. 

The  battle  had  been  won  by  the  merest  accident,  to  which 
Buonaparte  was  as  far  as  possible  from  having  contributed.  But 
the  results  of  the  victory  vindicated,  or  seemed  to  vindicate,  his 
scheme  of  the  campaign,  since  Melas  found  his  retreat  so  entirely 
cut  off  that  he  had  no  resource  but  to  agree  to  an  armistice,  by 
which  he  surrendered  a  large  district  and  a  great  number  of  the 
Btron^^est   fortresses   to   the   conqueror.     It  was  m  Buonaparte's 


520  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1800. 

power  to  have  imposed  even  harder  terms ;  but  he  was  politic  in 
his  moderation ;  he  hoped  to  make  the  armistice  a  means  of 
separating  the  Empire  from  Britain,  and  to  conclude  a  final  peace 
with  the  Emperor  before  Moreau  should  have  an  opportunity 
of  earning  fresh  laurels.  Jealousy  of  competitors  in  military 
glory  was  a  weakness  from  which  he  was  never  free;  and  it 
was  often  remarked  by  those  who  knew  him  best  that  he  never 
forgave  Kellermann  for  having  won  Marengo,  as  the  imanimous 
voice  of  the  army  declared  that  he  had,  after  the  battle  had 
been  more  than  once  lost.  Peace  with  the  Empire  did  not,  how- 
ever, follow  at  once.  The  Emperor  had  recently  entered  into  a 
fresh  treaty  with  England,  which  bound  him  to  continue  the  war ; 
but  at  the  beginning  of  winter  his  armies  received  from  Moreau 
at  Hohenlinden  a  still  more  crushing  defeat  than  that  of  Marengo; 
and  two  months  afterwards  a  treaty  was  concluded  at  Luneville, 
on  nearly  the  same  terms  as  had  been  agreed  on  at  Campo-Formio. 
England  showed  itself  equally  ready  to  terminate  the  war ;  and 
though  negotiations  with  her  government  were  more  protracted, 
peace  with  England  also  was  signed  at  Amiens  in  the  spring  of  1802; 
and  Buonaparte  was  left  at  leisure  to  take  what  steps  he  might 
desire  for  the  consolidation  or  extension  of  his  power. 

He  had  much  to  do :  for  if  France  had  latterly  been  tranquil, 
its  tranquillity  did  not  as*yet  proceed  from  any  definite  principle 
of  obedience  to  established  authority  and  law ;  nor  indeed  could 
even  the  consular  authority  be  regarded  as  firmly  established  while 
its  chief  was  engaged  in  violating  the  very  constitution  to  which 
it  owed  its  existence.  But  the  peace  of  Luneville  left  him  at 
liberty  to  organise  a  system  of  government ;  and  with  his  usual 
preference  of  his  personal  interests  to  every  other  consideration, 
he  determined  that  the  first  step  should  be  the  continuance  of  his 
own  power.  Kellermann,  conscious  of  the  value  of  his  own 
services,  when  coldly  praised  in  the  evening  of  Marengo  for  his 
*  good  charge,'  had  rejoined  that  Hhe  First  Consul  had  reason  to 
be  pleased,  for  it  had  placed  the  crown  upon  his  head.'  And 
perhaps  Buonaparte's  own  opinion  did  not  greatly  differ  from  his ; 
but  he  said  that  the  time  was  not  come,  and  for  the  present  re- 
solved to  content  himself  with  a  prolongation  of  his  authority  foi 
ten  years,  and  a  power  ,of  naming  his  successor.  He  had  tools 
ready  to  make  a  motion  to  that  efi'ect  in  the  senate.  The  senate 
was  far  too  obsequious  to  demur  at  agreeing  to  it.  An  address 
was  voted  and  presented,  requesting  him  to  sanction  the  change ; 
and  he  himself,  with  superfluous  hypocrisy,  expressed  his  willing- 
ness to  sacrifice  his  own  wishes  for  an  early  relief  from  his  labours 
to  the  welfare  of  the  nation,  if  the  people  itself  judged  it  desirable 
to  impose  such  a  burden  on  him. 


A.D.  1802.]  THE  CODE  NAPOLEON.  521 

But,  as  soon  as  lie  had  thus  established  his  own  authority  on  a 
permanent  footing,  (for  the  subsequent  prolongation  of  the  consul- 
ate for  his  entire  life,  and  the  exchange  of  the  title  of  First  Consul 
for  that  of  Emperor,  which  was  not  long  in  following  it,  were  but 
inevitable  developments  of  the  measure  now  adopted,  and  added 
nothing  to  the  stability  nor  to  the  extent  of  his  power),  he 
applied  himself  to  strengthen  its  foundations  by  a  general  reform 
of  the  legislation  and  administration,  which  should  not  only  give 
the  government  itself  a  solid  foundation,  but  should  inspire  the 
nation  itself  with  confidence  in  that  solidity.  It  was  a  work  for 
which  he  had  already  shown  himself  to  be  well  qualified,  by  the 
extreme  capacity  for  organisation  and  administration  which  he 
had  displayed  in  Egypt,  where,  scanty  as  was  the  leisure  which  he 
could  bestow  on  such  objects,  he  had  done  much  for  the  material 
improvement  of  the  country.  And  it  was  one  which  he  professed 
to  be  in  especial  accordance  with  his  own  natural  taste,  more  than 
once  declaring  that  in  the  eyes  of  posterity  his  fame  would  depend 
on  his  civil  labours  far  more  than  on  the  most  brilliant  of  his 
victories.  He  now  exhibited  all  his  characteristic  energy  in  its 
prosecution ;  and  at  the  same  time  the  practical  character  of  his 
genius.  He  had  a  profound  contempt  ^  for  those  hazy  metaphy- 
sics which  would  found  legislation  on  abstract  principles,  instead 
of  adapting  the  laws  to  the  lessons  of  history  and  the  characters 
of  men.  It  was  to  such  theorists,  ideologists  as  he  named  them, 
doctrinaires  as  they  are  often  called  now,  that  he  rightly  attri- 
buted the  chief  part  of  the  miseries  that  had  afflicted  and  di»*- 
graced  the  country.  They  were  not  yet  extinguished,  but  he  was 
resolved  to  put  an  end  to  their  influence.  He  appointed  a  com- 
mission to  reduce  the  laws  into  one  plain  and  intelligible  code  :  a 
measure  in  no  country  more  necessary  than  in  France,  where  the 
variety  of  practice  recognised  by  the  different  provincial  parlia- 
ments had  produced  more  than  ordinary  confusion.  The  com- 
missioners consisted  chiefly  of  lawyers  of  the  highest  reputation  ; 
and  it  is  a  remarkable  proof  of  his  resolution  that  the  work  should 
be  well  done  that  the  one  to  whom  he  allowed  the  greatest  influ- 
ence was  Tronchet,  though  he  had  been  one  of  tlie  counsel  of 
Louis  XVI.  on  his  trial.  Not  that  he  trusted  the  final  settlement 
of  any  point  to  the  lawyers  any  more  than  he  entrusted  the  chiet 
regulation  of  any  department  to  its  ostensible  head  :  he  himself 
acted  as  president  of  the  commission  ;  attended  nearly  all  its  meet- 

1  *  C'est  h  la  ideologie,  h.  cette  tene-  humain  et  aux  lemons  d'histoire,  qu'il 

breuse  metaphysique  qui,  en  recher-  faut  atrribuer  tons  les  malheurs  qu'a 

chant  avec  subtilite  les  causes  pre-  eprouv^j  notre  belle  France.'  —  His 

miferes,  veut  sur  ces  bases  fonder  la  le-  reply  to  the  address  of  the  Council  of 

gislation  des  peuples,  au  lieu  d'appro-  State. — Correspondance^  vol.  24,  JJo. 

prierlesloisalaconnaissanceducoeur  19,390,  dated  December  20,  1812. 


522  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.i>.  1802. 

ings,  and  took  an  active  part  in  every  discussion,  in  which  he  often 
showed  as  thorough  an  acquaintance  with  the  principles  of  general 
jurisprudence  and  the  working  of  particular  laws  as  was  possessed 
by  those  who  had  devoted  their  lives  to  the  study  of  their  pro- 
fession. Yet,  absolute  as  he  was,  he  was  often  willing  to  yield 
his  opinion  to  theirs  in  matters  in  which  he  did  not  conceive  his 
personal  authority  as  ruler  of  the  nation  to  be  concerned.  On 
these  points  he  was  inflexible.  The  constitution  of  the  year  VIII, 
as  it  was  called,  had  already  laid  the  foundation  of  one  general 
system  of  centralisatiou  which  is  incompatible  with  liberty,  and 
which,  in  so  many  subsequent  revolutions,  has  made  France  the 
prize  of  the  party  which  has  been  master  of  Paris ;,  and  many  of 
the  new  laws  were  carefully  framed  with  a  view  to  the  extension 
of  that  system.  The  press,  too,  was  placed  under  the  most  severe 
restrictions.  Some  limitations  of  freedom  of  speech  and  writing 
may  almost  be  regarded  as  one  of  the  inevitable  consequences  of 
his  position,  for  tyranny  is  unavoidably  jealous  ;  but  no  despot  had 
ever  carried  his  interference  to  the  lengths  which  he  afterwards 
permitted  himself  as  Emperor,  when  he  made  the  journals  of  the 
day  instruments,  not  for  communicating  news  to  the  people,  but 
for  keeping  it  from  them ;  ordering  them  to  look  on  *  any  intelli- 
gence that  was  disagreeable  or  unfavorable  to  France  as  an  in- 
vention of  England,'  and  to  punish  that  country  for  its  perverse 
ingenuity  by  '  constant  attacks  on  her  fashions,  customs,  literature, 
and  constitution.'  ^  By  such  regulations  as  these  he  was  tarnishing 
the  fame  which  he  hoped  to  establish  as  a  legislator,  and  con- 
descending to  become  ridiculous.  As  an  administrator,  his  merits 
are  liable  to  less  deduction ;  he  greatly  extended  the  internal 
communications  of  the  country;  he  introduced  sanitary  regula- 
tions, and  compelled  attention  to  them.  He  founded  chambers  of 
commerce,  of  agriculture,  and  schools  in  which  the  scholars  were 
maintained  at  the  expense  of  the  state,  though  even  here  he  could 
not  be  entirely  magnanimous,  nor  entirely  lay  aside  his  fear  of 
conspiracies  against  his  authority;  and,  accordingly,  one  funda- 
mental rule  was  that  no  pupil  was  to  be  admitted  '■  whose  family 
was  not  attached  to  the  principles  of  the  Revolution.' 

But  the  greatest  civil  service  which  at  this  time  he  rendered, 
as  it  was  the  greatest  which  he  could  possibly  have  rendered  to 
the  nation,  was  the  formal  abolition  of  the  Jacobin  profession  of 
infidelity,  and  the  re-establishment  of  Christianity  as  the  religion 
of  the  state  ;  though,  in  the  measures  which  he  took  for  this  object, 
he  stained  his  fame  with  an  act  of  petty  dishonesty  which  it  would 

^  See  some  of  his  letters  to  Fouche,      1805,  when  he  was  preparing  for  the 
in    the    Napoleon    Correspondence,      invasion  of  this  kingdom, 
especially  those  in  May  and  June 


A.i>.  1802. J  THE  CONCORDAT.  523 

be  hard  to  parallel  by  any  act  of  the  most  corrupt  ministers  of  the 
old  monarchy.  His  own  conduct  towards  tlie  Pope  had  been 
strangely  inconsistent,  varying-  with  the  liews  which  at  diiTer- 
ent  times  he  took  of  his  own  interest.  In  his  first  Italian  cam- 
paign, when  his  object  was  to  reconcile  the  directory  to  his 
disregard  of  their  wishes  by  the  magnitude  of  his  acquisitions,  he 
had  sent  a  division  into  Central  Italy  to  overrun  the  States  of  the 
Church,  and  had  not  only  stripped  the  Pontiff  of  nearly  all  his 
territories  beyond  the  walls  of  llome,  but  had  compelled  him  to 
pay  a  contribution  of  many  millions  of  francs,  and  a  hundred  of 
his  finest  pictures,  not  concealing  from  the  directory  his  expecta- 
tion that  the  *  old  machine,'  as  he  called  the  Romish  Church,  when 
denuded  of  its  temporal  power,  ^  would  tumble  to  pieces  of  itaelf.' 
But  after  Marengo,  he  began  to  conceive  the  idea  of  reviving  the 
Empire  of  Charlemagne.  He  related,  in  one  of  his  bulletins,  that 
he  had  been  publicly  received  by  the  civil  and  ecclesiastical 
authorities  of  Milan  in  the  great  cathedral,  *  on  a  dais  upon  which 
the  consuls  and  first  magistrates  of  the  West  were  usually  re- 
ceived.' And  as  the  Pope  seemed  to  be  an  useful  instrument  in 
carrying  out  such  a  purpose,  he  began  to  retrace  his  steps,  and  to 
seek  to  conciliate  the  goodwill  of  Pius  VII.,  who  had  just  suc- 
ceeded to  the  triple  crown,  by  promises  which  cost  him,  and  were 
likely  to  cost  him  nothing,  since  no  one  could  compel  him  to  fulfil 
them. 

Pius,  a  devout  and  sincere  man,  little  suspecting  that  one  so 
powerful  should  have  need  to  stoop  to  craft  and  treachery,  or  that 
the  First  Consul's  design  was  simply  to  use  him  as  a  tool  for  his 
own  purposes,  and  that  he  would  be  equally  prepared  to  receive 
him  as  a  guest,  or  to  drag  him  from  his  palace  as  a  prisoner,  re- 
ceived his  advances  gladly.  And  thus  the  way  was  already 
smoothed  when,  in  the  spring  of  1801,  Buonaparte  proposed  the 
establishment  of  a  Concordat  by  which  the  future  relations  of  the 
Galilean  Church  to  the  Papacy  should  be  detormined.  Even 
while  making  this  proposal  he  did  not  affect  to  conceal  from  those 
in  his  confidence  his  own  perfect  indifference  to  religion.  He 
looked  upon  a  religion  of  some  kind  as  a  serviceable  instrument  ol 
a  government,  so  indispensable  indeed,  that,  to  use  his  own  words, 
'  if  the  Pope  had  not  already  existed,  he  should  have  been  created 
on  purpose ; '  but  for  himself  he  declared  that  he  believed  in  no 
particular  creed :  but  that,  as  he  had  been  a  Mahometan  in  Egypt, 
where  the  worship  of  Allah  was  established,  so  in  France  he  would 
be  a  Catholic,  because  that  had  been  the  religion  of  the  French 
when  they  had  acknowledged  one.  And  he  was  so  far  from  de- 
siring to  encourage  any  feelings  of  devotion,  that  he  added,  with 
reference  to  Jenner's  great  discovery,  that  was  just  at  that  time 


524  MODEEN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1802. 

attracting  the  general  notice  of  scientific  men,  that  he  was  vac- 
cinating the  people  with  religion,  to  make  them  take  it  lightly ; 
and  that  in  fifty  years  it  would  be  almost  worn  out  in  France.  To 
accelerate  the  negotiation,  Pius  sent  his  secretary  of  state,  the  Car- 
dinal Consalvi,  to  Paris ;  but  the  conclusion  of  the  arrangements 
was  not  in  every  case  as  easy  as  the  Holy  Father  had  expected. 
Buonaparte's  own  brother  Joseph  and  the  Abbe  Bernier  were  the 
French  commissioners,  though  their  power  was  but  nominal,  for 
every  point  of  importance  was  submitted  to  the  First  Consul :  who 
required  the  insertion  in  the  treaty  of  many  clauses  to  which  the 
cardinal  could  not  in  his  conscience  consent.  Consalvi,  however, 
had  not  only  eminent  diplomatic  skill,  but  firmness ,  also  ;  as  his 
biographer  describes  him,  he  was  half  a  churchman  and  half  a 
man  of  the  world :  and,  by  making  concessions  on  points  which  he 
did  not  consider  essential,  he  induced  Joseph  and  his  colleague  to 
meet  him  on  others,  the  most  important  of  which  were,  in  his 
opinion,  those  articles  which  secured  absolute  freedom  for  the 
Church,  and  the  right  of  celebrating  its  ordinances  in  public.  At 
last  everything  was  amicably  settled :  and  a  day  was  fixed  for  the 
formal  signature  of  the  treaty,  the  conclusion  cf  which  was  to  be 
announced  at  a  banquet  to  be  given  by  Napoleon  in  honour  of  the 
event :  when,  at  the  last  moment,  Consalvi  learnt,  to  his  amaze- 
ment and  indignation,  that  it  was  designed  to  cheat  him  out  of  the 
concessions  which  had  been  made  to  him,  though  deliberately 
agreed  to  by  the  First  Consul's  brother,  and  sanctioned  by  the 
First  Consul  himself  j  and  that  for  that  object  the  mighty  framer 
of  the  Code  Napoleon  could  descend  to  a  fraud  for  which  his  own 
code  would  have  sent  one  of  his  subjects  to  the  galleys.  Two 
copies  of  the  treaty  had  been  made  from  the  original  draft,  one 
by  the  Italian,  the  other  by  the  French  clerks  but  when  Consalvi 
took  the  pen  in  his  hand  to  sign  the  French  copy,  he  perceived 
that  it  was  widely  diff'erent  from  that  made  by  his  clerks  and  de- 
signed to  be  retained  by  himself.  Buonaparte  had  actually  ordered 
his  clerks,  not  only  to  omit  from  his  copy  all  the  articles  which  he 
had  himself  consented  to  abandon,  or  to  modify,  but  even  to  insert 
others  which  were  so  offensive  and  inadmissible  that  his  commis- 
sioners had  not  even  ventured  to  propose  them.  It  is  hard  to  say 
whether  the  temper  of  the  diplomatist  was  more  severely  tried  by 
the  discovery  of  so  base  a  trick,  or  his  firmness  by  the  necessity  of 
defeating  it.  But  he  had  yielded  all  that  his  duty  to  his  Church 
would  permit ;  on  what  remained  he  was  immoveable :  and  Buona- 
parte himself  could  hardly  dare  to  allow  the  treaty  to  be  broken 
off  by  tricks  of  his  own,  which,  if  known,  would  indispose  any 
other  sovereign  to  negotiate  with  him.  Finally,  the  Concordat  was 
signed  ;  and  the  re- establishment  of  religion  was  celebrated  by  a 


^,D.  1802.]  THE  CONCORDAT.  525 

public  ceremony  in  Notre-Dame,  wliicli  was  attended  by  all  the 
constituted  authorities,  the  foreign  ambassadors,  and  a  mag- 
nificent staff;  though  not  without  exciting  great  dissatisfac- 
tion among  those  who  still  adhered  to  what  they  called  the 
principles  of*  the  Revolution,  a  dissatisfaction  which  they  did 
not  care  to  conceal  from  the  First  Consul  himself.  *"VVhat 
thought  you  of  the  ceremony  ? '  said  he  to  General  Delmas, 
while  the  last  notes  of  the  organ  were  resounding  in  the  great  his- 
torical cathedral  which  had  been  so  long  closed.  *  It  was  a  fine 
piece  of  mummery,'  replied  the  surly  republican ;  '  nothing  waa 
wanting  but  the  million  of  men  who  have  perished  to  destroy 
what  you  have  now  re-established.'  He,  like  many  more,  regarded 
the  re-opening  of  the  church  as  a  prelude  to  the  restoration  of 
the  throne.  And  Buonaparte  had,  perhaps,  no  objection  to  its 
being  so  considered  j  though  Delmas's  frankness  was  punished  by 
banishment. 


526  MODEEN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1802. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 
A.D.   1802. 

BUONAPARTE  never  made  a  speech  in  which  there  was  less 
sincerity  than  when  he  professed  a  desire  to  rest  his  fame  on 
the  arts  of  peace,  rather  than  on  his  achievements  in  war.  On 
the  contrary,  he  only  concluded  the  peace  of  Amiens  in  order  to 
make  preparations  for  renewing  war  on  a  more  extensive  scale 
than  ever.  Conquest  was  his  one  absorbing  idea :  and,  before  the 
end  of  the  year  in  which  the  treaty  was  signed,  a  series  of  encroach- 
ments on  the  liberties  of  neighbouring  states  showed  how  insati- 
able was  his  appetite  for  a  further  extension  of  the  influence 
and  dominion  of  France.  The  establishment  of  Republics  in  other 
countries  had  been  a  favourite  object  with  the  revolutionists  :  a 
Batavian  Republic  had  been  substituted  for  the  old  government 
of  Holland  :  a  similar  constitution,  with  the  name  of  the  Hel- 
vetian Republic,  had  been  given  to  Switzerland  j  he  himself  had 
constructed  a  Cis-Alpine  Republic  in  the  north  of  Italy,  out  of 
some  of  the  old  duchies ;  and  in  the  recent  treaties  of  peace,  the 
independence  of  these  and  other  republics  had  been  formally 
guaranteed.  But  Buonaparte  was  as  fully  imbued  as  Jjouis  XIV. 
with  the  idea  of  the  invalidity  of  all  such  obligations.  And  the 
treaty  of  Amiens  had  hardly  been  signed  when  one  French 
ambassador  was  sent  into  Holland  to  compel  the  Dutch  authorities 
to  alter  their  constitution  so  as  to  assimilate  it  to  that  now 
established  in  France ;  and,  when,  though  the  magistrates  at  the 
Hague  were  obsequious  enough,  the  Dutch  chambers  proved 
refractory,  a  body  of  French  troops  aided  the  authorities  to  dis- 
solve them  ;  and  the  new  constitution  was  imposed  by  main  force 
on  the  indignant  people.  The  next  month  a  similar  revolution 
was  eifected  in  Switzerland  ;  at  the  same  time  (a  step  of  far 
greater  significance,  as  a  proof  of  a  design  again  to  attack  Austria), 
the  whole  of  Piedmont  was  formally  annexed  to  France ;  while 
General  Sebastiani,  an  officer  of  great  ability,  was  sent  to  Egypt 
to  make  a  fresh  examination  of  that  country,  and  ostentatious 
publicity  was  given  to  his  report,  which  scarcely  concealed  a  re- 
commendation to  renew  the  invasion  of  1798.      And  all   these 


A.D.  1803.]  RENEWAL  OF  WAR.  527 

circumstances  combined  left  so  little  doubt  on  the  First  Consul's 
resolution  to  renew  the  war,  that  the  English  ministry  considered 
themselves  justified  in  refusing  to  carry  out  one  of  the  clauses  of 
the  recent  treaty,  which  bound  them  to  evacuate  Malta  as  soon 
as  one  or  two  preliminary  arrangements  had  been  completed. 
Malta  was  of  no  value  to  France,  except  as  facilitating  an  attack 
upon  Egypt ;  but  Buonaparte's  anger  at  its  retention  wa«  alone 
sufficient  to  show  how  greatly  his  mind  was  set  on  a  resumption 
of  that  enterprise  ;  and,  after  complaining  in  unusually  bitter  terms 
of  the  bad  faith  of  the  British  government,  and  openly  insulting  the 
British  ambassador,  in  the  spring  of  1803,  he  once  more  went  to 
war  on  that  ground  alone.  And  it  is  too  characteristic  of  that 
extreme  enmity  to  England,  which,  as  his  correspondence  shows, 
he  had  conceived  even  before  he  had  ever  been  opposed  to  an 
English  force,  and  also  of  that  disposition  to  set  himself  above 
all  law,  of  which  he  gave  so  melancholy  a  specimen  in  the  follow- 
ing year,  that  he  took  upon  himself  to  aggravate  the  horrors  of 
war  in  a  manner  absolutely  unprecedented,  and  opposed  to  the 
usage  of  every  civilised  nation,  by  issuing  an  order,  the  moment 
that  war  was  declared,  to  arrest  every  Englishman,  who  for 
pleiisure  or  business  happened  to  be  in  France  at  the  time.  Above 
10,000  persons,  chiefly  of  course  of  the  wealthier  classes  of  society, 
were  at  once  seized,  and  detained  as  prisoners  till  the  end  of  the 
war.  His  own  officers,  and  especially  Junot,  on  whom,  as  governor 
of  Paris,  the  duty  of  making  the  greater  number  of  the  arrests 
devolved,  remonstrated  so  earnestly  against  the  measure,  as  to 
provoke  no  slight  expression  of  his  displeasure,  and  even  threat-?. 
But  no  remonstrances  could  ever  move  Buonaparte  from  any 
course  on  which  he  had  resolved.  He  admitted  its  injustice,  but 
declared  that  the  more  flagrant  that  injustice  was  the  more 
it  answered  his  purpose.  He  wished,  it  may  be  supposed,  as  he 
said,  in  another  case  a  year  later,  to  show  the  world  of  what  he 
was  capable  if  his  demands  were  rejected:  but  the  demonstration 
produced  not  terror,  but  indignation  :  the  ministers  of  every  country 
protested  against  it,  and  few  of  his  acts  contributed  more  to  excite 
against  him  the  lasting  feeling  of  distrust,  if  we  may  not  say 
hatred,  with  which  he  was  regarded  in  foreign  countries,  and 
which  contributed  so  greatly  to  his  eventual  fall. 

At  first,  till  Pitt's  diplomatic  skill  had  procured  him  allies  on 
the  Continent,  the  war  gave  him  personally  but  little  employment, 
since  England  as  yet  limited  her  effiirts  to  naval  operations.  It 
might  have  been  well  for  his  fame  had  it  been  otherwise  ;  as  if  he 
had  been  personally  engaged  in  the  conduct  of  a  campaign,  he 
might  have  found  no  time  for  an  action  which,  in  the  general 
estimation,  has  left  a  deeper  stain  on  his  memoiy  than  even  the 


528  MODEEN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1804. 

massacre  of  Jafl'a ;  and  which  seems  so  utterly  without  an  object, 
that  historians  have  been  driven  to  impute  it  to  the  most  far- 
fetched motives ;  and  one  shrewd  critic  of  his  actions,  Madame  de 
Stael,  expresses  her  belief  that,  being  resolved  to  assume  the 
crown,  he  thought  it  requisite,  on  the  one  hand,  to  inspire  with 
confidence  the  revolutionary  party,  and  to  relieve  them  from  any 
fear  of  the  return  of  the  Bourbons,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  to  prove 
to  the  royalists  tliat  in  attaching  themselves  to  him  they  were 
irretrievably  breaking  with  the  ancient  dynasty.  For,  at  the  be- 
ginning of  1804,  he  resolved  to  exchange  the  title  of  consul  for 
life  for  that  of  sovereign,  choosing  the  title  of  Emperor  rather  than 
king,  because  in  old  times  it  had  been  borne  by  Charlemagne. 
And  again  he  found  the  legislative  bodies  and  the  people  obsequi- 
ous to  his  will,  and  docile  enough  to  solicit  his  acceptance  of  a 
rank  which  had  not  been  heard  of  in  France  for  a  thousand  j^ears, 
as  indispensable  for  the  safety  of  the  state. 

Yet  even  when  thus  on  the  point  of  attaining  his  proudest  wish, 
he  was  anxious  and  alarmed.  He  suspected  both  royalists  and 
republicans  of  conspiracies  against  him;  and  he  determined  to 
strike  terror  into  both,  though  his  first  victim  could  not  be 
reached  without  a  flagrant  violation  of  the  law  of  nations.  The 
Duke  d'Enghien,  son  of  the  Duke  de  Bourbon,  and  heir  of  the 
glories  of  the  house  of  Conde,  was  residing  at  this  time  at  Etten- 
heim,  in  the  Duchy  of  Baden,  spending  his  time  chiefly  in  hunting, 
and  altogether  removed  from  plots  and  plotters.  He  had  been 
warned  of  the  danger  of  remaining  so  near  the  frontier  even  by 
Talleyrand,  who,  seared  as  his  conscience  was,  was  too  astute  a 
politician  not  to  dread  his  master's  embarrassing  himself  by  what 
others,  equally  callous,  described  as  'worse  than  a  crime,  a  blunder ;' 
and  he  was  preparing  to  retreat  to  a  safer  distance,  when,  in  the 
middle  of  March,  a  body  of  gensd'armes  crossed  the  frontier,  seized 
him,  and  carried  him  off"  to  Paris.  It  was  the  evening  of  the 
twentieth  when  he  reached  Vincennes ;  before  midnight  he  was 
brought  before  a  court-martial  to  go  through  the  mockery  of  a 
trial,  on  the  charges  of  having  borne  arms  against  the  Republic,  of 
having  offered  his  services  to  the  English  government,  of  having 
put  himself  at  the  head  of  an  army  of  emigrants,  and  of  having 
engaged  in  conspiracies  against  the  life  of  the  First  Consul ;  some 
of  which  were  notoriously  false,  and  not  one  of  which  was  at- 
tempted to  be  proved.  Indeed,  nothing  whatever  was  attempted 
to  be  proved,  for  not  a  single  witness  was  examined  ;  and  nothing 
could  be  disproved,  for  he  was  not  allowed  the  aid  of  counsel,  nor 
a  moment's  delay  to  procure  evidence  of  his  innocence.  He  was 
found  guilty,  condemned,  hurried  at  once  downstairs  into  the 
courtyard,  where  iiis  grave  had  been  dug  even  before  his  arrival, 


A.i>.  1804]      DEATH  OF  THE  DUKE  D'ENGEIEN.  529 

and  shot  by  a  file  of  grenadiers  before  he  had  been  twelve  hours 
at  VincenJfes. 

It  is  needless  to  spend  a  single  word  in  commenting  on  so  un- 
paralleled an  atrocity.  And  he  was  not  the  only  victim.  Not 
that  Napoleon  was  cruel,  like  Ilobespierre  and  Danton,  loving 
bloodshed  for  its  own  sake,  but  he  was  profoundly  indifferent  to 
human  life,  or  to  any  consideration,  but  to  that  of  the  best  way  of 
securing  his  power,  and  careless  whether  he  reigned  by  love  or 
fear,  so  long  as  he  reigned  in  undisputed  and  unassailed  power ; 
and  he  expected  to  secure  his  own  safety  by  letting  people,  as  he 
said  himself,  '  see  of  what  he  was  capable '  to  revenge  himself  on 
his  enemies.  The  death  of  the  duke  was  his  warning  to  the 
royalists.  He  desired  to  read  a  similar  lesson  to  the  republicans ; 
and  to  prevent  any  sympathy  being  felt  for  them  by  mixing  up 
their  case  with  that  of  avowed  partisans  of  the  exiled  royal  family. 
And  for  his  victims  from  that  party  he  selected  two  general? 
of  the  very  highest  reputation  and  popularity.  For  among  his 
meanest  weaknesses  was  a  constant  jealousy  of  those  who  had 
made  themselves  a  name  in  war  without  any  connection  with, 
or  dependence  on  himself.  He  had  shown  this  feeling  in  the 
very  first  days  of  the  consulate  when,  in  a  list  of  men  whom  he 
designed  to  banish  to  Guiana,  for  no  offence  except  that,  as  he 
suspected,  they  disapproved  of  the  violent  dissolution  of  the  former 
government,  he  included  the  name  of  General  Jourdan,  the  gallant 
officer  whose  victory  over  the  Austrians  at  Fleurus,  in  1794,  had 
retrieved  the  credit-of  the  French  army  after  a  campaign  of  great 
reverses  under  other  generals.  The  indignation  of  all  Paris  had 
compelled  him  to  recall  the  proscription  of  one  so  popular ;  but  he 
now  proceeded  to  strike  down  men  whose  deeds  and  reputation 
greatly  exceeded  Jourdan's.  Of  all  the  commanders  in  the  first 
years  of  the  war  Pichegru  had  done  the  greatest  service  to  the 
llepublic.  His  were  the  operations  which,  in  1794,  drove  the 
English  to  evacuate  Holland,  expelled  the  Stadtholder,  and  en- 
abled the  democratic  party  to  revolutionise  the  whole  country. 
Moreau's  exploits  had  been  still  more  brilliant ;  indeed,  his  victory 
of  Hohenlinden  was  the  greatest  achievement  of  a  French  army 
since  the  days  of  Saxe.  But  as  neither  of  these  generals  owed 
anything  to  the  Emperor,  he  regarded  them  with  suspicion, 
and  arrested  them  on  the  charge  of  being  accomplices  with  a 
body  of  royalist  nobles  in  the  design  of  replacing  the  Bourbone  on 
the  throne,  refusing  them  a  trial  by  jury,  and  personally  canvassing 
the  judges  to  procure  an  adverse  sentence.  That  a  royalist  con- 
spiracy was  in  agitation  was  notorious;  indeed,  the  head  of  the 
party,  Georges  Cadoudal,  a  Breton  noble,  who  was  seized  at  the 
same  time,  admitted,  if  we  may  not  say  boasted,  of  his  intentions, 
24 


530  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1804. 

But  it  was  equally  certain  that  Moreau  was  far  from  sharing' 
them ;  and  though  Pichegru,  who,  after  the  revolution  of  Fruc- 
tidor,  had  been  treated  with  the  most  ungrateful  injustice  by  the 
directory  and  banished,  had  since  that  time  undoubtedly  been  in 
occasional  communication  with  the  royalists,  not  a  shadow  of 
evidence  could  be  discovered  of  his  complicity  in  this  particular 
plot;  while  in  the  preliminary  examinations  to  which  he  was  sub- 
jected, he  avowed  his  determination  of  exposing  the  artifices  by 
which  Fouche  and  the  police  had  endeavoured  to  seduce  him  and 
others  to  offences  against  the  state,  in  order  afterwards  to  make  a 
merit  of  detecting  them.  The  government  was  not  inclined  to 
run  the  risk  of  such  disclosures,  and  before  the  day  fixed  for  the 
trial  the  conqueror  of  Holland  was  found  strangled  in  his  bed. 
An  attempt  was  made  to  attribute  his  death  to  his  own  hands,  but 
the  circumstances  disproved  the  possibility  of  suicide ;  and  all  the 
world  perceived  that  the  act  could  only  have  been  perpetrated  either 
by  the  express  order  of  the  Emperor  or  by  those  in  his  confidence, 
who  felt  sure  of  his  approval.^  The  evidence  of  Pichegru,  an 
old  comrade  and  friend,  it  was  well  known  would  have  established 
the  innocence  of  Moreau  beyond  all  dispute ;  and  now  that  he  was 
removed,  the  Emperor  renewed  his  endeavours  to  induce  the 
judges  to  convict  and  condemn  him.  At  a  later  period,  he  declared 
to  Bourrienne,  his  secretary,  that  he  had  never  intended  to  allow 
the  capital  sentence  to  be  executed,  but  that  he  should  have  been 
contented  to  feel  that  the  mere  fact  of  the  general's  condemnation 
prevented  him  from  being  any  longer  dangerous,  while  the  possi- 
bility of  the  sentence  being  carried  into  effect  would,  as  it  were, 
have  bound  over  the  whole  republican  party  to  good  behaviour. 
But  the  judges,  who  could  not  divine  what  was  in  his  mind,  and 
who  perhaps  would  have  felt  no  certainty  of  his  adhering  to  his 
merciful  intentions,  had  too  great  a  regard  for  their  own  characters 
to  comply ;  and  all  that  his  solicitations,  which  went  to  the  very 
verge  of  compulsion,  could  procure  was  a  sentence  of  detention 
for  two  years,  of  which  the  grounds  were  not  stated  with  preci- 
sion, and  which  was  received  by  all  Paris  with  ridicule.  Emperor 
as  he  was,  he  doubted  whether  it  would  be  safe  to  keep  one  so 
popular  in  imprisonment,  and  Fouche  consequently  was  employed 

^  It  is  curiously  characteristic  of  murder  either,  or  as  he  more  deli- 

the  general  unscrupulousness  of  those  cately  phrases  it,  '  to  cause  either  to 

in  lni:;h  office,  both  under  the  Con-  disappear  by  extraordinary  means,' 

sulate  and  the  Empire,  that  Savary,  he   would   certainly  have   preferred 

who,  in  his  Memoires  labours  diU-  getting  rid  of  Moreau    {Memoires 

gently  to  exculpate  his  master  from  du  Due  de  Rovign,  ii.  85)  ;  and  Las 

any  share  in  the  death  of  Pichegru,  Cases  represents  Buonaparte  himself 

adduces  as  one  of  his  strongest  ar-  as  having  nsed  the  same  argument 

guments  that,  if  he  had  wished    to  at  St.  Helena. 


A.D.  1804.]  THE  POPE  VISITS  PARIS.  531 

to  work  on  Madame  Moreau's  fears,  lest  her  husband  should  meet 
the  fate  of  Pichegru,  and  then  to  offer  a  commutation  of  the  sen- 
tence to  one  of  banishment  to  America,  which  she  jrladly  acceptted, 
and  to  which,  not  without  difficulty,  she  prevailed  on  her  less 
nervous  husband  also  to  submit. 

It  was  while  these  events  were  taking  place  that  the  Imperial 
dignity  was  conferred  on  the  First  Consul,  not  by  the  legislative 
body  alone,  but  by  the  whole  nation,  whose  votes  were  taken  on 
the  question,  and  which,  by  a  majority  of  abof  e  three  millions  and 
a  half,  ratified  the  act  of  the  senate.  It  must  be  admitted  that  he 
was  guilty  of  no  usurpation,  but  that  he  ascended  the  throne  by 
an  act  as  legitimate  as  that  to  which  our  own  sovereigns  owed 
their  title ;  and  he  was  resolved  to  give  his  accession  a  sanc- 
tion which  no  monarch  of  France  had  received  since  the  days 
of  Charlemagne,  and  which  even  that  great  prince  had  obtained, 
not  at  Paris,  but  at  Rome,  and  to  be  crowned  by  the  Pope  him- 
self in  Notre-Dame.  There  were  difficulties  of  no  slight  mag- 
nitude in  the  way.  Many  of  the  members  of  his  own  council 
of  state  remonstrated  vehemently,  on  the  ground  that  such  an  act 
seemed  to  involve  not  only  a  renewal  of  the  old  connection  between 
the  Church  and  the  State,  but  the  subordination  of  the  civil  to  the 
ecclesiastical  authority,  while  the  councillors  of  Pius  raised  still 
more  practical  objections,  fearing  that  Austria  might  take  um- 
brage at  so  unparalleled  a  condescension  as  a  visit  of  the  Pope  to 
a  foreign  metropolis  to  inaugurate  a  new  dynasty ;  or  that  the 
new  Emperor  might  take  advantage  of  his  Holiness  thus  placing 
himself  in  his  power  to  extort  a  renunciation  of  those  conditions 
of  the  Concordat  to  which  he  was  known  not  to  have  consented 
without  great  reluctance. 

However,  the  obstacles  on  both  sides  were  soon  removed. 
Buonaparte  himself  cut  the  French  objectors  short  with  the  asser- 
tion that  all  Europe  would  regard  the  Pope's  visit  to  Paris  as  a 
great  moral  triumph  for  France ;  and,  moreover,  that  it  was  his 
will :  while  Pius  won  over  the  dissentients  at  his  court  by  the 
argument  that  he  should  be  laying  the  new  Emperor  under  obli- 
gations in  which  it  was  inconceivable  that  the  Papacy  should  not 
find  its  account.  But  he  greatly  overrated  the  degree  in  which 
he  with  whom  he  had  to  deal,  and  whom  for  the  future  we  must 
call  by  his  imperial  title  of  Napoleon,  was  accessible  to  gratitude. 
He  had  overcome  the  objections  of  his  advisers  by  the  peremptory 
assertion  of  his  will ;  but  it  seemed  as  if  he  designed  to  make  them 
some  recompense  for  the  slight  which  he  had  put  upon  their 
councils  by  marked  discourtesy  to  the  Pope  himself.  When  the 
negotiations  were  concluded,  and  it  had  been  ascertained  that  his 
invitation  lo  his  Holiness  to  visit  Paris  would  be  accepted,  it  was 


532  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1804. 

sent,  not,  according  to  the  usage  invariaWy  observed  "by  all  Roman 
Catholic  sovereigns  in  their  communications  with  the  Holy  See,  by 
a  dignified  ecclesiastic,  but  by  a  rude  soldier.  He  compelled  him 
to  hasten  his  departure  from  Rome,  and  to  quicken  his  speed  on 
the  journey,  so  that,  as  his  secretary  complains,  the  poor  old  man 
travelled  more  like  a  courier  than  a  great  prince.  He  received 
him,  on  his  arrival  at  Fontainebleau,  with  no  state  ceremonial, 
but  on  horseback,  at  the  head  of  a  pack  of  hounds.  He  even 
took  every  opportunity  of  withholding  from  his  visitor  the  ordi- 
nary courtesy  due  to  a  guest;  when  they  drove  out  together 
sometimes  entering  the  carriage  before  him ;  sometimes,  in  the 
spirit  of  what  General  Rapp,  his  aide-de-camp,  called,  '  a  singular 
comedy,'  having  both  the  carriage  doors  opened  at  the  same  time 
that  they  might  get  in  together,  and  generally  appropriating  the 
seat  of  honour  ;  and,  finally,  in  the  ceremony  itself,  he  would  not 
allow  Pius  to  crown  him,  though  he  had  brought  him  from  Rome 
on  purpose,  but  snatched  the  crown  from  his  hands,  placed  it  on 
his  head  with  his  own  hands,  as  he  afterwards  crowned  Josephine. 

The  ceremony  was  as  gorgeous  as  had  ever  been  witnessed  in 
the  days  of  the  old  monarchy :  for  a  court  had  already  been 
created ;  titles  had  been  restored ;  Napoleon's  brothers  and  sisters 
had  received  imperial  rank ;  the  most  distinguished  commanders 
had  been  made  marshals;  and  those  dukes  and  princes,  and 
members  of  the  old  nobility  who  had  survived  the  Jacobin  pro- 
scriptions, and  still  remained  in  France,  were  studiously  invited  to 
the  Tuileries,  those  who  came  being  received  with  such  pointed 
favour  as  gradually  won  over  a  great  majority  of  those  who  had 
not  emigrated  ;  many  even  of  those  who  had  been  most  resolute 
in  their  loyalty  to  the  old  race  not  being  able  to  resist  the  honor- 
able and  valuable  appointments  offered  to  them  under  the  new 
Empire.  To  carry  out  still  further  his  resemblance  to  the  great 
Emperor  of  the  West,  in  the  spring  of  the  next  year,  he  assumed 
the  title  of  King  of  Italy ;  and  crossed  the  Alps  to  receive,  at 
Milan,  the  iron  crown  which  had  pressed  the  brows  of  Charle- 
magne himself;  but  which,  as  at  Paris,  he  would  sufier  no  hand 
but  his  own  to  place  on  his  head.  And,  because  under  the 
Romans  the  eagle  had  been  the  standard  under  which  the  legions 
had  won  the  victories  which  enabled  the  first  Caesars  to  turn  the 
republic  into  an  empire,  he  now  with  great  pomp  distributed 
eagles  to  different  regiments  of  his  own  army  as  their  ensigns,  and 
with  his  own  voice  exhorted  the  soldiers  to  swear  to  carry  them 
constantly  forward  on  the  path  of  victory. 

The  opportunity  for  fresh  triumphs  was  at  hand.  The  diplo- 
matic skill  of  Pitt  had  secured  the  alliance  of  Austria  and  Russia ; 
the  great  English  minister  having  been  materially  helped  in  his 


A.D.  1805.]  PLAN  rOR  THE  INVASION  OF  ENGLAND.    533 

negotiations  by  the  indignation  which  the  Emperors  of  both  coun- 
tries felt  at  the  insult  offered  to  every  sovereign  in  Europe  by  the 
seizure  of  the  Duke  d'Enghien  on  foreign  territory,  and  his  eubse- 
quent  execution ;  and  though  Napoleon  did  not  originally  design 
to  make  those  countries  the  objects  of  his  first  attack,  before  the 
end  of  the  year  he  had  been  compelled  to  alter  his  intention.  The 
negotiations  of  England  with  the  continental  monarchs  had  not 
escaped  his  notice  ;  but  he  had  hoped  to  crush  her  before  her  new 
allies  could  be  ready  to  take  the  field ;  and  at  the  beginning  of 
the  year  had  revived  the  old  plan  of  Philip  IL  and  the  Duke  of 
Parma  to  bring  into  the  Channel  buch  a  fleet  as  should  give  him, 
if  only  for  a  week,  the  command  of  the  sea,  and  under  its  escort 
to  convey  to  the  Kentish  coast  an  army  which  he  made  no  doubt 
the  whole  power  of  these  islands  would  be  unable  to  resist 
But  a  plan  which  rested  on  the  hope  of  French  crews  proving  a 
match  for  English  sailors  was  hopeless  from  the  beginning,  though 
France  had  never  sent  forth  braver  or  abler  admirals  than  those 
to  whose  skill  he  trusted  for  carrying  it  out.  His  finest  fleet  waa 
checked  in  July  by  Sir  Robert  Calder,  was  destroyed  in  October 
by  Nelson,  and  from  that  day  all  idea  of  invading  England  waa 
for  ever  laid  aside  by  even  his  audacious  spirit. 

But  no  event  in  his  history  displays  to  more  brilliant  advan- 
tage his  extraordinary  genius  for  war.  One  Austrian  army  was 
assembled  in  the  valley  of  the  Danube,  and  above  100,000  Russians 
were  marching  through  Poland  to  unite  with  it ;  other  armies 
were  forming  in  other  districts,  in  the  Tyrol,  and  in  Italy,  suffici- 
ent, if  time  were  given  them,  to  overwhelm  the  greatest  force 
which  France  could  assemble.  But  Napoleon  saw  the  possibility 
that  out  of  the  very  abandonment  of  his  enterprise  against 
England  he  might  find  means  of  striking  a  fatal  blow  at  her  allies 
before  they  were  ready  to  receive  it.  lie  at  once  prepared 
to  transfer  the  army  under  his  own  command,  and  the  other 
very  strong  divisions  which  had  been  occupying  Holland  and 
Hanover,  to  the  Danube ;  appointing  every  column  its  march  with 
such  an  admirable  nicety  of  skill  that  they  all  arrived  at  their 
destined  points  almost  at  the  very  moment  that  he  had  directed ; 
and  in  the  last  week  in  September  he  himself  arrived  at  Stras- 
burg  to  take  the  command.  So  secret  had  been  his  operations 
that  the  Aulic  council,  believing  him  to  be  still  occupied  on  the 
coast,  had  a  few  weeks  before  directed  the  invasion  of  Bavaria,  in 
the  hope  of  inducing  the  elector  and  some  others  of  the  lesser 
German  princes  to  join  the  alliance;  with  inconceivable  folly 
trusting  the  command  to  Mack,  the  general  who,  seven  years 
before,  had  so  mismanaged  a  review  at  Naples,  that  Nelson,  who 
was  present,  declared  that  he  did  not  understand  his  business,  and 


534  '     MODERN  HISTOEY.  [a.d.  1805. 

who,  a  few  weeks  afterwards,  had  fully  justified  the  opinion  of 
that  greatest  of  sailors,  aggravating  his  incapacity  by  conduct 
which  bore  the  appearance  of  treachery  also.  To  defeat  such  a 
commander  was  no  hard  task ;  and  Napoleon,  by  a  series  of  skilful 
manoeuvres,  so  completely  surrounded  him  at  Ulm,  that,  after 
losing  nearly  half  his  army  in  actions  on  a  small  scale  against 
Ney,  Murat,  Soult,  and  others  of  the  Emperor's  lieutenants,  he 
concluded  a  shameful  capitulation  for  the  other  half,  surrendering 
30,000  men  and  60  guns,  the  day  before  Nelson  annihilated  Ville- 
neuve's  fleet  at  Trafalgar. 

Napoleon  did  not  intermit  for  a  moment  that  celerity  of  move- 
ment to  which  he  had  owed  so  many  of  his  earliei:  triumphs,  but 
pressed  across  Bavaria  with  the  utmost  speed,  designing  to  march 
down  the  Danube  to  Vienna,  for  the  defence  of  which  the  Austrian 
government  now  began  to  collect  all  its  forces,  recalling  the 
Archduke  Charles  from  Italy,  the  Archduke  John  from  Vienna; 
bringing  up  fresh  levies  from  Hungary  and  the  southern  provinces 
of  the  Empire  ;  and  hoping,  almost  against  hope,  that  the  Russian 
army,  which  was  advancing  through  Poland,  would  arrive  in  time  to 
unite  with  its  own  generals  for  the  preservation  of  the  capital. 
They  had  not  even  the  satisfaction  of  striking  a  single  blow  in  its 
defence.  KutusofF,  the  commander  of  the  Russian  advanced  guard, 
did,  indeed,  gain  a  trifling  advantage  over  Mortier,  the  commander 
of  one  of  the  French  divisions :  but  no  Austrian  general  was  able 
to  interpose  a  single  brigade  between  the  advancing  enemy  and 
Vienna ;  and,  on  the  twelfth  of  November,  only  three  weeks  after 
Mack's  surrender  at  Ulm,  the  Emperor  Francis  was  compelled  to 
quit  the  city,  to  retire  to  Presburg,  and  to  send  an  envoy  to  make 
such  terms  for  his  capital  as  the  conqueror  would  grant.  Napoleon 
was  never  moderate  in  the  hour  of  victory.  He  demanded  an 
enormous  contribution  in  money,  with  the  instant  cession  of  the 
Tyrol  and  Venice,  which  he  had  so  lately  given  to  Austria,  as  the 
price  of  even  an  armistice ;  concessions  which  no  sovereign  who, 
like  Francis,  had  300,000  men  in  arms,  could  make  without  dis- 
honour. And,  as  the  conditions  were  refused,  he  at  once  occu- 
pied Vienna  :  got  possession,  by  treachery,  of  the  bridge  over  the 
Danube,  which  the  Austrian  engineers  had  prepared  to  destroy, 
and,  sending  a  strong  division  across  the  river  in  pursuit  of  Kutu- 
sofF, who  was  now  forced  to  retreat,  make  great  exertions  to  over- 
take and  crush  that  ofiicer  before  he  could  effect  his  junction  with 
the  main  Russian  army,  which  was  known  to  have  reached  the 
frontier  of  Moravia.  But  Kutusoff  was  a  pupil  of  Souvarof,  full  of 
resources,  and  dauntless  in  resolution,  and  made  so  gallant  a  stand 
with  his  rearguard  that,  though  he  could  not  save  one  column 
from  being  made  prisoners,  he  conducted  the  rest  of  his  force  for 


A.D.  1805.]   THE  KUSSIANS  ADVANCE  TO  AUSTERLITZ.    535 

safety  to  Wischau,  in  Moravia,  where,  on  the  nineteenth  of 
November,  they  joined  their  comrades,  under  the  command  of  the 
Czar. 

The  concentration  of  this  army  might  have  been  the  commence- 
ment of  a  new  campaign,  in  which  the  allies  would  have  had  every 
chance  of  retrieving  the  disasters  of  the  last  six  weeks.  For  Alexander 
was  now  at  the  head  of  a  well-appointed  army  of  75,000  men  :  and 
though  for  the  moment  he  was  outnumbered  by  the  French  under 
Napoleon,  who  lay  between  him  and  the  Danube,  the  Austrian 
archdukes  were  both  hastening  to  join  him  with  forces  which, 
when  united  with  his  own,  would  constitute  an  army  greatly  ex- 
ceeding in  numerical  strength  any  that  the  French  Emperor  could 
possibly  bring  against  him.  The  Prussians,  also,  had  a  large  army 
in  Silesia  ready  for  instant  service,  which  was  sure  to  join  him 
soon,  as  indeed  their  king,  Frederic  IV.,  had  formally  undertaken 
that  it  should,  though,  with  the  habitual  perfidy  of  that  govern- 
ment, it  was  for  the  present  detained  in  uncertainty,  waiting  to 
see  whether  circumstances  would  render  it  safe  or  dangerous  to 
keep  its  sovereign's  engagements.  Every  consideration,  both  poli- 
tical and  military,  recommended  that  the  Russians  should  wait 
for  the  reinforcements  which  a  brief  delay  must  bring  them. 
And,  as  their  position  was  so  strong  that  it  could  not  be  attacked 
with  advantage,  the  choice  of  the  time  for  active  operations  was 
entirely  in  their  power.  Unluckily,  Alexander  had  neither  the 
sagacity  of  a  statesman  nor  the  judgment  of  a  general:  he  was  a 
vain  man,  easily  led  to  adopt  whatever  measures  might  seem  cal- 
culated to  enhance  his  own  consequence  :  and,  in  opposition  to  the 
advice  of  the  most  experienced  veterans,  he  allowed  himself  to  be 
guided  by  those  who  assured  him  that  Napoleon  had  not  40,000 
men  with  him,  and  to  decide  on  attacking  him  with  hia  own  un- 
assisted forces.  A  few  days  were  of  necessity  allowed  for  the 
army  to  rest  to  refresh  itself  after  its  long  and  toilsome  march. 
And  in  the  last  days  of  November  the  order  was  given  to  march 
towards  the  enemy.  Napoleon's  head-quarters  had  for  some  days 
been  established  at  Brunn,  a  strongly  fortified  town  of  some  mag- 
nitude a  few  miles  to  the  south-west  of  Wischau ;  and  at  a  small 
distance  from  Brunn,  lay  a  village  called  Austeriitz  ;  where  the 
character  of  the  ground,  varied  by  hills  on  one  side,  by  lakes  and 
marshes  on  another,  seemed  to  the  practised  eye  of  Napoleon  so 
well  suited  to  the  object  which  he  had  in  view,  of  inflicting  on  the 
Russians  a  defeat  which  should  be  decisive  of  the  contest,  that 
some  days  before,  while  reconnoitring  the  country  around,  he  had 
announced  to  his  staff  that  that  should  be  his  battle-field.  The 
Russians  now  hastened  to  enable  him  to  fulfil  his  prediction,  and 
to  accomplish  his  object. 


536  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1805. 

They  had  begun  their  advance  on  the  twenty-seventh  ;  the 
moment  that  their  design  was  made  clear  "by  their  movements, 
Napoleon  called  in  all  his  outlying  detachments,  which  eagerly 
obeyed  a  summons  to  battle  ;  so  that  by  the  night  of  the  first  of 
December,  90,000  men  were  assembled  under  his  banner.  And 
all  that  day  the  Kussian  columns  had  been  seen  coming  up  in 
manifest  readiness  for  immediate  action.  Their  line  of  march  had 
even  revealed  their  plan.  AVeyrothen,  the  chief  of  his  staff,  had 
not  only  persuaded  the  Czar  five  days  before  that  Napoleon's 
numbers  only  equalled  the  half  of  his  own,  but  had  induced  him 
now  to  determine  on  operations  based  on  the  idea  that  he  had 
received  no  reinforcements  since  that  day.  Before  morn  on  the 
first,  the  Russian  columns  were  seen  by  Napoleon  moving  across 
his  position,  with  the  evident  intention  of  turning  his  right  flank, 
so  has  to  cut  him  off  from  Vienna :  and,  unable  to  conceal  his 
delight  at  such  a  blunder,  for  a  flank  movement  in  front  of  an 
enemy  is  one  of  the  most  hazardous  operations  in  war,  he  at  once 
announced  to  those  around  him  that  before  the  next  night,  that 
army  would  be  his  own.  The  details  of  a  battle  are  rarely  inte- 
resting, or  even  intelligible  to  any  but  soldiers.  It  is  suflicient  to 
say  here  that  Napoleon  on  this  day  displayed  more  than  his  usual 
skill ;  the  error  committed  by  the  enemy  being  the  very  same 
which  afterwards  ruined  Marmont's  army  at  Salamanca,  and  which, 
more  perhaps  than  any  other  blunder  affords  a  prompt  and  vigo- 
rous enemy  an  opportunity  for  delivering  a  dazzling  and  decisive 
stroke.  He  allowed  the  Russians  full  time  to  commit  themselves 
unmistakeably  to  their  false  movement ;  he  even  drew  back  some 
of  his  own  regiments  on  the  quarter  menaced  by  their  advance,  so 
as  to  facilitate  it,  and  lure  them  on  further ;  and  then,  when  they 
could  no  longer  draw  back,  he  fell  on  them  like  lightning  on  the 
point  which  their  manoeuvre  had  necessarily  left  most  vulnerable, 
and  which  was  also  that  where  a  blow  would  be  most  vital ;  he 
pierced  their  centre ;  isolated  the  left  advancing  wing  from  the 
rest  of  the  army :  and  the  moment  that  that  object  was  attained, 
the  victory  was  in  fact  won,  however  resolutely  the  Russians  might 
strive  to  retrieve  the  day.  Struggle  they  did  long,  and  stoutly : 
their  ablest  commanders,  Kutusofl',  and  Langeron,  the  neglect  of 
whose  advice  had  led  to  the  disaster,  did  all  that  skill  could  devise 
or  courage  dare ;  but  nothing  could  save  an  army  cut  in  two  by 
the  establishment  of  the  enemy  in  strength  in  the  centre  of  its 
position.  It  was  no  longer  an  army  that  was  fighting  a  battle  ; 
but  isolated  brigades  that  were  struggling  against  overwhelming 
odds  :  the  different  French  marshals  combining  their  attacks  against 
the  Russian  centre,  right,  and  left,  in  turns,  till,  in  spite  of  the  most 


A.D.  1806.]  THE  BATTLE  OF  AUSTERLITZ.  537 

stubborn  gallantry,  all  were  broken.  Numbers  were  slain,  still 
more  were  taken  prisoners ;  one  division  had  a  singular,  but  horriblo 
fate.  It  sought  safety  by  crossing  a  frozen  lake,  but  the  French 
artillery  broke  the  ice,  and  above  2,000  men  were  drowned. 
Napoleon  had  gained  what  he  desired,  a  victory  which  was  in- 
deed decisive.  Langeron  said,  ^  that  he  had  seen  many  battles 
lost,  but  that  he  could  not  have  formed  an  idea  of  such  a  defeat.* 
The  Russians  killed  and  wounded  exceeded  10,000 ;  nearly  twice 
that  number  were  taken  prisoners ;  180  guns  were  also  taken. 
And  the  Emperor  Francis,  seeing  clearly  that  such  a  defeat  of  his 
ally  had  placed  his  own  armies  at  the  mercy  of  the  conqueror. 
who  had  already  possession  of  his  capital,  had  no  resource  but  to 
make  peace  on  such  terms  as  the  conqueror  should  dictate. 

Napoleon  had  not  learned  generosity  from  prosperity,  and  the 
conditions  which  he  imposed  were  of  unprecedented  severity :  he 
not  only  exacted  an  enormous  contribution  in  money ;  but  he 
stripped  the  Empire  of  such  extensive  territories,  and  separated 
so  many  states  from  the  Imperial  jurisdiction,  that  Francis  pre- 
sently executed  a  formal  deed,  renouncing  the  title  of  Emperor  of 
Germany,  and  taking  in  its  stead  that  of  Emperor  of  Austria. 
And,  with  a  disregard  for  all  the  recognised  rights  of  sovereigns 
and  nations,  for  which  no  act  of  the  most  lawless  conqueror 
afforded  precedent,  on  the  ground  that  the  King  of  Naples,  who 
was  Francis's  brother-in-law,  had  meditated  joining  the  con- 
federacy against  France,  Napoleon  also  issued  a  public  proclama- 
tion, declaring  that  *  the  dynasty  of  Naples  had  ceased  to  reign  ; ' 
sent  one  of  his  marshals  with  a  sufficient  force  to  expel  the 
king  from  his  dominions ;  and  presently,  by  his  own  authority, 
conferred  the  vacant  kingdom  on  his  own  brother  Joseph.  lie 
had  already  raised  the  electors  of  Bavaria  and  Wurtemburg  to 
the  rank  of  kings,  augmenting  their  territories  at  the  expense  of 
Austria.  And  he  now  took  no  pains  to  conceal,  if  indeed  it  may 
not  be  said  that  he  took  pains  to  parade  his  resolution  to  make 
himself  absolute  master  of  the  policy  of  every  state  on  the 
Continent. 

He  was  not,  however,  at  peace.  Indeed,  his  reign  was  through- 
out one  of  uninterrupted  war,  of  which  our  space  must  forbid  us 
to  mention  more  than  a  few  of  the  most  striking  incidents.  It 
was  also  for  some  years  one  of  almost  uninterrupted  conquest, 
though  not  one  of  quite  unvaried  victory,  even  when  he  himself 
commanded  his  army.  But  though  Austerlitz  had  compelled 
Austria  to  submission,  it  had  not  extorted  peace  from  Russia :  and 
the  Czar,  whose  best  quality  waa  fortitude  under  disaster,  was  re- 
solved to  adhere  to  his  understanding  with  the  King  of  Prussia : 


538  MODERN  HISTORY,  [a.d.  1806. 

and  doubted  not  that  the  united  force  of  the  two  nations  would 
etill  be  sufficient  to  defeat  any  attempt  of  the  conqueror  to  extend 
his  encroachments  on  that  side  of  Europe. 

But  Frederic  IV.  was  fully  imbued  with  the  infamous  maxim 
which  his  predecessor,  Frederic  the  Great,  had  not  scrupled  to 
announce,  that  considerations  of  honour  were  not  arguments  to  be 
addressed  to  kings,  who  should  regard  nothing  but  their  own  in- 
terests. He  conceived  the  idea  that,  by  making  an  alliance  with 
Napoleon  he  could  gain  more  than  by  keeping  his  agreement  with 
the  Czar :  and  he  was  not  deterred  by  the  reflection  that  the  gain 
which  he  coveted  was  to  be  made  at  the  expense  of  another  sove- 
reign, who  was  both  an  ally  and  a  relation.  Accordingly,  the 
moment  that  he  heard  the  result  of  Austerlitz,  he  renounced  his 
former  policy,  and  made  a  treaty  with  Napoleon,  who  gave  him 
Hanover,  the  price  which  he  desired,  and  while  giving  it  did  not 
conceal  his  contempt  for  his  perfidy.  Indeed  Frederic,  like  the 
other  kings  who  owed  their  promotion  or  aggrandisement  to  the 
French  conqueror,  soon  learnt  that  his  title  of  king  was  not  re- 
garded as  conferring  on  him  any  freedom  of  action.  He  was 
ordered  to  close  the  ports  of  his  new  territory  against  English 
vessels,  a  measure  which  at  once  ruined  the  Prussian  commerce. 
A  month  or  two  afterwards  some  districts  on  the  Rhine  were  torn 
from  his  dominion  to  augment  the  Grand-Duchy  of  Berg,  which 
had  been  allotted  to  Murat,  Napoleon's  brother-in-law  :  and  while 
the  impression  made  by  these  acts  of  insolent  despotism  was  skil- 
fully taken  advantage  of  by  the  war  party  in  Berlin,  (for  the 
majority  of  the  Prussian  nation  was  far  from  approving  the  base- 
ness of  its  sovereign)  the  seizure  and  execution  of  Palm,  a  Nurem- 
burg  bookseller,  for  selUng  a  pamphlet  exhorting  all  Germans  to 
resistance  to  French  despotism,  wrought  up  the  excited  feelings  of 
the  whole  people  to  an  irrepressible  pitch  of  indignation.  Palm 
owed  no  allegiance  to  Napoleon ;  so  that  his  execution  was  a  law- 
less murder,  an  insult  and  a  challenge  to  every  independent  sove- 
reign, and  a  foul  wrong  done  to  the  whole  German  nation.  The 
Prussian  ministers  themselves  could  no  longer  check  the  current 
of  public  feeling :  and  before  the  end  of  September  (Palm  was 
shot  on  the  twenty-fifth  of  August)  the  Prussian  ambassador  was 
ordered  to  present  at  Paris  a  demand  for  the  redress  of  various 
grievances  in  a  tone  which  was  of  itself  a  declaration  of  war,  and 
was  regarded  as  such  by  Napoleon. 

Napoleon  was  always  more  ready  for  war  than  his  enemies; 
and  accepted  the  challenge  thus  thrown  down  to  him  with  eager- 
ness, well  knowing  that  he  had  already  a  force  in  Germany  avail- 
able for  instant  operations,  which  the  whole  power  of  Prussia 
could  not  equal.     And  he  determined  to  give  no  time  for  Russia 


A.D.  1807.]  OVERTHROW  OF  PRUSSIA.  539 

to  throw  her  sword  into  the  scale.  In  all  his  campai^s  against 
the  German  nations,  as  well  as  in  those  beyond  the  Alps,  nothinff 
is  more  remarkable  than  the  electric  rapidity  with  which  he  dealt 
his  blows  and  brought  his  wars  to  a  conclusion.  It  was  not  till 
the  twenty-sixth  of  September  that  he  quitted  Paris  to  take  the 
command  of  his  army.  On  the  fourteenth  of  October  the  Prus- 
sian army  was  annihilated  by  two  distinct  defeats  in  the  neigh- 
bouring fields  of  Jena  and  Auerstiidt.  And  the  vengeance  which 
he  took  on  the  country  far  exceeded  even  the  penalties  which  he 
had  inflicted  on  Austria.  His  plan,  from  the  beginning  of  his 
career  as  a  commander-in-chief,  had  been  to  make  war  support 
war,  or,  in  other  words,  to  extort  from  the  countries  which  wore 
the  scenes  of  his  operations  the  means  of  supplying  and  rewarding 
his  soldiers :  and  he  never  carried  out  that  principle  so  fully  as  on 
this  occasion.  No  army  could  be  interposed  to  check  his  advance 
on  Berlin  j  and  though  that  capital  offered  and  could  offer  no 
resistance,  it  may  almost  be  said  that  he  sacked  it,  so  prodigious 
were  the  contributions  which  he  exacted  from  its  citizens,  not 
sparing  even  the  tomb  of  Frederic  the  Great,  but  rifling  it  of  its 
different  relics,  his  scarf,  sword,  and  the  insignia  of  knighthood 
which  he  wore.  He  seemed  to  regard  the  king,  and  still  more 
the  queen,  who  had  indeed  been  the  head  of  the  war  party,  as 
personal  enemies ;  and  he  refused  to  listen  to  any  proposals  of 
peace,  but  chose  for  a  time  to  retain  military  occupation  of  the 
whole  country. 

Russia  had  longer  time  for  preparation,  and  at  first  made  a 
stouter  resistance ;  indeed,  in  the  great  battle  of  Eylau,  it  was 
only  the  retreat  of  the  Russian  commander-in-chief  that  enabled 
Napoleon  to  claim  a  victory  at  all,  for  his  loss  of  men  was  the 
greater  of  the  two.  But  the  perception  which  this  battle  forced 
upon  him  how  well  the  stubborn  resolution  of  the  northern  war- 
riors could  counterbalance  the  dashing  energy  of  his  own  troops, 
roused  him  to  a  display  of  even  more  than  usual  strategical  skill ; 
and  few  combinations  have  ever  been  more  brilliant  than  those 
by  which  before  midsummer  he  so  out-generalled  the  same  officer 
who  had  so  stoutly  resisted  him  at  Eylau,  that,  though  the  Rus- 
sians were  almost  in  their  own  country,  (for  Friedland  and  Eylau, 
though  in  east  Prussia,  are  but  a  short  distance  within  the  frontier,) 
his  force  on  the  day  of  battle  exceeded  theirs  by  little  less  than 
half.  But  from  Russia,  though  beaten,  he  exacted  no  contributions. 
None  of  his  kinsmen  or  marshals  coveted  dominions  or  estates  in 
that  bleak  territory;  and  Alexander,  vain,  self-important,  and 
weak,  would  be  more  serviceable  to  him  nominally  as  an  ally, 
really  as  a  tool.  The  two  sovereigns  met  at  Tilsit,  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood, a  few  days  after  the  battle.     Frederic  of  Prussia  was 


540  MODERN  niSTORY.  [A.n.  1807. 

fchere  also,  but  Alexander,  lured  by  the  prospect  of  self-agpfran- 
disement  which  Napoleon  cunningly  held  before  his  eyes,  wholly 
neglected  the  interests  of  his  ally,  who,  in  the  negotiations  which 
ensued  was  scarcely  allowed  a  voice,  or  the  slightest  influence. 

The  two  chief  negotiators  had  one  common  bond  of  union, 
hatred  of  England.  In  Napoleon  it  was,  as  we  have  seen,  one  of 
his  earliest  feelings ;  in  the  breast  of  Alexander  it  had  been  re- 
cently implanted  by  the  feeling  that  he  had  not  received  from  the 
government  which  had  succeeded  that  of  Pitt  the  aid  to  which  he 
conceived  himself  entitled.  They  had  a  second,  a  thirst  for  in- 
crease of  dominion.  Alexander,  though  very  devoid  of  his  grand- 
mother's abilities,  had  inherited  all  her  appetite  for  conquest;  and 
Napoleon  gratified  at  once  his  vanity  and  his  rapacity  by  seeming 
to  treat  him  as  the  only  sovereign  fit  to  be  his  partner  in  the 
spoils  of  the  world.  Accordingly,  imagining  that  the  humilia- 
tion of  Austria  and  Prussia  had  removed  all  obstacles  from  their 
path,  the  two  Emperors  proceeded  to  settle  together  a  plan  for 
the  subjugation  of  the  whole  of  the  Continent  to  their  will,  little 
dreaming  that,  out  of  the  very  arrangements  which  they  were 
now  making  wnth  so  much  mutual  goodwill  were  to  spring  the 
deadliest  quarrels,  the  heaviest  calamities  to  both:  the  devastation 
of  llussia,  the  burning  of  Moscow,  the  dethronement  and  exile  of 
Napoleon  himself.  Their  interests  did  not  seem  to  clash.  The 
territories  which  allured  the  Czar  were  in  the  north  and  east  of 
Europe;  the  kingdoms  which  Napoleon  still  coveted  lay  in  the 
south  and  in  the  west,  and  he  took  good  care  to  secure  the  lion's 
share.  Alexander  might  take  Finland,  the  fertile  provinces  on 
both  sides  of  the  mouth  of  the  Danube,  and  extend  his  dominions 
to  the  Balkan  ;  but  his  ally  was  to  have  Malta,  Greece,  Candia,  and 
Egypt  for  himself ;  Spain  and  Portugal  for  one  of  his  brothers;  while 
Ferdinand,  the  Bourbon  king  of  Naples,  was  now  to  be  expelled 
from  Sicily  also,  which  was  to  be  added  to  Joseph's  dominions, 
and  was  to  be  indemnified  out  of  the  spoils  of  Turkey,  provided 
any  district  could  be  found  for  him  which  neither  of  the  spoilers 
coveted  for  themselves.  With  the  dominions  of  Britain,  except 
Hanover,  which  in  fact  had  never  been  anything  but  an  encum- 
brance to  her,  they  could  not  find  any  means  of  dealing  while  she 
continued  mistress  of  the  seas ;  but  every  country  hitherto  neutral 
which  had  a  single  ship  of  war  was  to  be  forced  into  a  con- 
federacy with  the  two  great  contracting  powers,  to  wrest  that 
supremacy  from  lier ;  while  her  commerce  was  to  be  annihilated 
by  a  set  of  regulations  as  curious  in  their  political  economy  as 
ridiculous  in  their  impotence,  by  which  all  trade  with  her  was 
prohibited,  and  the  produce  of  her  manufactories  interdicted  to 
the  whole  world.     And  her  whole  coast  was  declared  in  a  state  of 


A.D.  1810.]  THE  BERLIN  DECREES.  541 

blockade  by  a  sovereign  who,  since  Trafjilgar,  had  never  ventured 
to  send  a  single  squadron  to  sea  where  there  was  any  danger  of  an 
English  one  of  half  its  numbers  meeting  it. 

How  the  cannon  of  Wellesley  defeated  the  plan  for  appropriat- 
ing the  Danish  and  Portuguese  fleets  ;  and  how  the  Berlin  decrees, 
as  the  ordinances  embodying  these  regulations  were  called,  proved 
so  impracticable,  that  Napoleon  himself  was  forced  to  sell  licenses 
to  evade  them,  we  need  not  stop  to  relate.  Unreasoning  tyranny 
is  not  the  less  odious  because  its  commands  cannot  be  carried  out 
or  because  its  malice  often  reacts  upon  itself. 

Another  event  which,  even  more  than  the  Treaty  of  Tibit, 
seemed  at  first  to  crown  his  wishes,  and  not  only  to  establish  bis 
power  but  to  give  him  a  place  among  the  old  sovereigns  of  Europe, 
did  in  the  end  also  contribute  greatly  to  his  fall  by  the  ill-grounded 
confidence  with  which  it  inspired  him.  War  again  broke  out 
between  him  and  Austria,  in  which,  though  he  suffered  one  un- 
deniable defeat,  on  the  stubbornly-contested  field  of  Essling,  he 
retrieved  it  at  Wagram,  which,  though  a  drawn  battle,  if  the 
numbers  that  fell  on  each  side  were  alone  to  be  considered,  was 
invested  with  the  character  of  a  decisive  victory  by  the  inability 
of  the  Austrian  commander,  the  Archduke  Charles,  to  hold  his 
ground  afterwards,  and  by  the  degree  in  which  his  retreat  again 
left  his  brother's  dominions  at  the  mercy  of  the  conqueror.  Na- 
poleon tried  to  conceal  how  little  the  battle  had  been  in  his  favour 
by  more  than  usual  falsehood.  Among  the  proofs  of  his  innatA 
littleness  of  mind  was  a  habitual  disregard  of  truth,  which  was 
nowhere  more  constantly  shown  than  in  the  bulletins  in  which  he 
annovmced  to  his  subjects  and  to  Europe  the  result  of  his  military 
operations.  No  success  was  so  brilliant  as  not,  in  his  eyes,  to 
require  exaggeration.  Failure  was  never  confessed  at  all.  He 
was  so  constitutionally  false  that  he  could  not  pay  his  people  the 
compliment  of  believing  them  honest  enough  to  appreciate  truth, 
and  he  had  never  sufiicient  confidence  in  their  loyalty  to  trust  to 
it  as  a  feeling  which  a  single  reverse  might  not  undermine.  He 
now  proclaimed  that  he  had  taken  20,000  prisoners  and  forty 
guns  5  though  in  fact  his  prisoners  were  but  2,000  wounded  men, 
and  were  more  than  doubled  in  numbers  by  those  of  his  own 
soldiers  whom  the  archduke  had  captured  ;  and  he  had  obtained  no 
guns  but  one  or  two  which  were  dismounted  in  the  course  of  the 
fight.  But  the  substantial  reality  of  the  victory  was  attested, 
not  only  by  the  vast  exactions  both  in  money  and  territory  to 
which  Austria  was  once  more  compelled  to  submit,  but  by  the 
still  more  extraordinary  sacrifice  made  by  Francis  when,  before 
the  end  of  the  year,  he  consented  to  Napoleon's  marriage  with  his 
dauofhter 


542  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1803. 

Napoleon  had  been  guilty  of  many  acts  of  the  most  despotic  and 
insolent  tyranny,  of  some  deeds  of  unprovoked  deliberate  cruelty, 
but  perhaps  of  none  which  give  a  worse  idea  of  his  heart,  or  rather 
of  his  absolute  heartlessness,  of  the  callous  selfishness  which 
regarded  neither  obligations  of  gratitude,  nor  ties  of  affection,  nor 
any  consideration  whatever,  save  those  of  what  he  fancied  his 
interest,  than  that  which  we  are  now  to  describe.  He  was  in- 
debted to  his  marriage  with  Josephine  for  that  which  was  the 
source  of  all  his  subsequent  greatness,  the  command  of  the  army  of 
Italy.  She  had  now  been  his  wife  for  twelve  years,  not  only 
regarding  his  person  with  the  most  sincere  affection,  his  character 
and  triumphs  with  the  most  fervent  admiration,  but  greatly  con- 
tributing to  what  may  be  called  his  social  success,  and  to  his 
popularity  in  his  Empire,  by  the  high-bred  grace  with  which  she 
presided  over  his  court ;  and,  if  she  had  at  times  pressed  upon  him 
unpalatable  advice,  her  counsels  had  always  been  those  of  modera- 
tion, humanity,  and  virtue,  of  which  he  must  more  than  once  have 
repented  the  rejection.  No  one  had  ever  been  so  entirely  un- 
spoiled by  unexpected  prosperity.  But  she  had  borne  him  no 
children ;  and,  as  all  hope  of  her  becoming  a  mother  had  now 
passed  away,  he  compelled  her  to  consent  to  a  divorce  which  the 
legal  authorities  of  France  pronounced  j  and,  in  the  spring  of  1810, 
married  the  young  Austrian  Archduchess  Maria  Louisa. 

That  the  Emperor  Francis  should  have  consented  to  give  his 
child  to  one  on  whom  he  must  have  looked  down  as  an  adventurer, 
certainly  argued  a  firm  belief  in  the  permanence  of  Napoleon's 
power  and  dynasty.  And,  apart  from  the  humiliation  which  he 
must  have  felt  in  consenting  to  such  a  match  on  the  score  of  birth, 
it  is  somewhat  strange  that  he  should  have  had  no  scruples  on 
the  grounds  of  religion  ;  for  the  divorce  was  not  sanctioned  by  the 
Pope,  to  whom  indeed  the  bridegroom  could  not  possibly  apply, 
since  he  was  actually  under  sentence  of  excommunication.  The 
Pope's  condescension  in  visiting  Paris  had  been  so  far  from  ob- 
taining for  him,  as  he  had  hoped,  the  restitution  of  the  provinces 
of  which  Napoleon  had  deprived  him,  that  his  return  to  Kome  had 
been  almost  instantly  followed  by  fresh  aggressions.  One  year 
Ancona  was  occupied  by  the  French  troops.  Another  year  Urbino 
and  other  provinces,  which  had  hitherto  been  spared,  were  wrested 
from  the  Papacy,  and  annexed  to  the  kingdom  of  Italy.  Presently, 
the  French  collectors  began  to  levy  taxes  in  Rome  itself;  and  the 
very  week  before  the  battle  of  Essling,  the  finishing  stroke  to  all 
these  aggressions  had  been  given  by  a  decree  which  annexed  the 
whole  of  the  territories  remaining  to  the  Papacy  to  the  French 
Empire,  and  declared  Rome  itself  an  imperial  and  free  city,  while 
the  tricolour  flag  was  hoisted  on  the  walls  of  St.  Angelo. 


A.D.  1809.]         NAPOLEON  SEIZES  THE  POPE.  543 

It  was  an  unequal  contest  to  which  the  Pope  was  challenged  by 
this  unprecedented  usurpation.  He  could  only  use  such  weapons 
as  were  left  to  him,  the  spiritual  thunders  of  excommunication, 
which  he  at  once  fulminated  against  the  French  Emperor,  and  all 
concerned  in  the  spoliation  of  the  Church.  Napoleon  replied  with 
arms,  which,  of  course,  were  more  effectual.  His  soldiers  burst  in 
the  doors  of  the  papal  palace,  and  carried  off  the  Pope  himself  and 
his  new  secretary  of  state.  Cardinal  Pacca,  as  prisoners.  The 
cardinal  was  treated  little  better  than  any  ordinary  criminal,  being 
kept  in  the  state  prison  of  Fenestrelles,  in  Savoy,  for  nearly  four 
years.  Pius  himself  was  treated  with  somewhat  less  rigour,  and 
was  not  put  in  actual  confinement ;  but  was  detained,  and  watched 
with  a  vigilance  which  prevented  all  possibility  of  escape,  first  at 
Savona,  and  afterwards  at  Fontainebleau,  till  the  disasters  of  the 
Russian  expedition,  with  the  consequent  multiplication  of  the  ene- 
mies of  France,  led  Napoleon  to  think  it  better  to  make  a  merit  of 
setting  him  at  liberty  than  to  complicate  the  negotiations  for  peace 
with  others  for  the  release  of  so  august  a  prisoner.  Such  treat- 
ment of  one  who,  apart  from  his  ecclesiastical  rank  and  spiritual 
authority,  was  undoubtedly  a  sovereign  prince,  with  whom  Napo- 
leon had  never  for  a  single  moment  been  at  war,  has  no  parallel  in 
Christian  history,  except  that  which  is  afforded  by  the  somewhat 
similar  treatment  experienced  the  year  before  by  the  king  ot 
Spain,  which  will  be  mentioned  presently.  It  was  another  lawless 
outrage  and  insult  to  all  sovereigns;  and,  though  it  throws  no 
additional  light  on  Napoleon's  disregard  of  religion,  since  from  the 
first,  as  we  have  seen,  he  professed  the  most  absolute  indifference 
to  all  such  considerations,  it  is  an  irresistible  proof  of  the  feeling 
of  helplessness  to  which  Francis  must  have  been  reduced,  when,  in 
addition  to  discarding  all  the  scruples  of  family  pride,  he  could 
overlook  the  insults  offered  to  the  Holy  See,  whose  especial 
champion  he  was  constituted  by  his  own  imperial  dignity. 

Napoleon  now  thought  himself  at  the  summit  of  glory,  and 
secure  in  the  permanent  establishment  of  his  authority.  Yet  at 
the  time  that  he  was  achieving  these  triumphs  of  war  and 
diplomacy  on  one  side  of  his  dominions,  on  the  other  side  blows 
were  being  struck  at  his  power  which  were  one  most  influential 
cause,  and,  it  may  be  said,  the  commencement  of  his  eventual 
overthrow.  If  the  first  week  of  July  saw  him  victorious  at 
Wagram  in  the  last  week  of  the  same  mouth  Marshal  Victor  was 
beaten  at  Talavera,  in  Spain.  A  British  araiy  established  itself 
on  the  Continent,  having  in  its  passage  of  the  Douro  displayed  a 
brilliancy  of  skill  and  vigour  of  enterprise,  and  in  the  stubborn 
fight  which  it  had  maintained  victoriously  on  the  Tagus  against 
superior  numbers,  having  borne  itself  with  an  unflinching  indomit- 


544  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1808. 

able  courage  and  tenacity,  which  were  an  omen  of  the  fortune 
which  attended  it  throughout  six  arduous  campaigns. 

The  war  in  the  Peninsula  Napoleon  had  brought  on  himself, 
even  more  than  any  other,  by  the  wantonness  of  his  grasping 
ambition.  He  had  no  cause  of  quarrel  with  Spain,  nor  indeed 
with  Portugal ;  for  Spain  had  been  almost  invariably  an  ally  of 
France ;  her  fleet  had  shared  with  his  the  disaster  of  Trafalgar. 
And,  though  Portugal  had  in  former  times  been  connected  with 
Britain,  she  was  so  no  longer,  but  had  submitted  to  all  the  de- 
mands which  had  been  made  on  her  in  accordance  with  the  Treaty 
of  Tilsit,  and  had  agreed  to  declare  war  against  England.  But  her 
compliance  availed  her  nothing.  The  King  of  Etruria,  a  puppet 
of  Napoleon's  own  creation,  was  to  give  up  his  dominions  as  an 
addition  to  the  kingdom  of  Italy,  and  was  to  be  indemnified  by  a 
new  sovereignty  carved  out  of  the  northern  provinces  of  Portugal. 
Another  principality  was  to  be  constructed  out  of  the  southern 
states ;  an  imperious  proclamation  was  issued  declaring  that  the 
House  of  Braganza  had  ceased  to  reign ;  an  army,  under  Junot, 
invaded  Portugal  to  carry  it  out;  hopeless  of  resistance,  the  whole 
royal  family  of  Portugal  fled  across  the  Atlantic  to  their  Brazilian 
dominions ;  and  for  a  while  the  whole  kingdom  was  in  the  powet 
of  the  French,  who  at  once  proceeded  to  levy  contributions  on  it 
as  much  as  if  it  had  provoked  their  vengeance  by  the  stoutest 
resistance. 

Harder  treatment,  if  possible,  was  in  store  for  Spain.  Even 
while  she  was  united  to  France  in  close  alliance  Napoleon  had 
formed  plans  for  dismembering  her,  offering  some  of  her  trans- 
atlantic settlements  to  Britain  as  the  price  of  peace,  and  Majorca 
and  Minorca  to  the  Neapolitan  Bourbons  as  a  compensation  for 
Sicil}--,  which,  as  we  have  seen,  was  to  be  annexed  to  Joseph's 
kingdom  of  Naples.  But  now  other  arrangements  were  to  be  made 
for  Naples.  Kings  and  kingdoms  were  not  only  to  be  created  at 
the  pleasure  of  the  great  conqueror,  but  were  to  be  transferred  and 
shifted  about  in  any  way  that  might  suit  his  convenience  or  caprice. 
In  truth,  he  did  not  regard  those  to  whom  he  granted  the  title  as 
kings  in  reality,  they  were  but  governors  with  the  name  of  king; 
and  the  precept  most  earnestly  inculcated  upon  them  was  that  their 
first  duty  was  to  Napoleon  himself,  their  duty  to  their  people  was 
to  be  second  and  secondary.  Yet  the  rank,  and  the  power  which  it 
conferred  of  enriching  its  possessors,  was  coveted  by  Napoleon's 
greedy  kinsmen  ;  and,  as  Murat  desired  to  exchange  his  grand-ducal 
coronet  for  a  royal  crown,  Naples  was  assigned  to  him,  and  Joseph 
was  to  be  removed  to  the  more  dignified  throne  which  Louis  XIV. 
had  so  exulted  in  securing  for  his  own  grandson.  To  obtain  pos- 
session of  Spain,  however,  was  not  so  easy  as  to  overrun  Portugal, 


A.D.  1808.]  THE   WAR  IN  SPAIN.  545 

for  iu  every  direction  the  country  bristled  with  fortresses  of  almost 
impregnable  strength,  and  more  than  one  war  had  proved  that  the 
obstacles  which  nature  had  interposed  to  extended  military  opera- 
tions were  not  inferior  to  those  of  the  engineer.  But  Napoleon 
wjis  a  man  of  many  resources.  Where  force  could  not  succeed,  he 
could  employ  cunning ;  by  a  series  of  complicated  treacheries  he 
not  only  obtained  possession*  of  some  of  the  strongest  fortresses, 
of  Pampeluna,  St.  Sebastian,  Barcelona,  and  others ;  but  he  even 
persuaded  the  king,  Charles  IV.,  and  his  heir,  Ferdinand,  prince  of 
Asturias,  to  cross  the  frontier  in  order  to  negotiate  with  him  in 
person  at  Bayonne,  and,  as  soon  as  they  were  in  his  power,  he 
compelled  Ferdinand  to  resign  the  crown  which  Charles  had 
already  abdicated  in  his  favour;  and  sent  him  and  his  family  into 
the  interior  of  France,  where  they  were  detained  for  nearly  six 
years  in  a  sort  of  honorable  confinement,  carefully  guarded  j  and 
in  June  1808  Joseph  took  possession  of  his  new  kingdom. 

At  a  later  period  Napoleon  owned  to  his  friends  that  hia  con-« 
duct  in  Spain  had  been  a  great  political  blunder,  had  indeed  been 
the  cause  of  his  ruin ;  and  he  spoke  truly.  He  had  found  it  easy 
to  expel  one  family  of  princes,  and  to  kidnap  another.  But  in 
both  coimtries  the  people  were  not  so  easily  cajoled  or  subdued. 
They  rose  in  insurrection  in  the  cause  of  their  native  princes. 
Britain,  the  only  country  over  which  Napoleon  had  gained  no  ad- 
vantage, at  length  saw  in  their  resistance  an  opportunity  of  inter- 
fering with  effect  on  the  Continent,  and,  in  the  same  week  in 
which  Joseph  reached  Madrid  Sir  Arthur  Wellesley  landed  on  the 
coast  of  Portugal,  and,  gaining  two  victories  within  a  month, 
cleared  the  whole  of  that  country  for  a  time  of  the  invader.  The 
war  thus  begun  lasted  for  nearly  six  years,  the  last  blow  being 
struck  by  the  British  general  in  the  very  same  week  in  which  the 
sceptre  was  wrested  from  him  who  had  so  wantonly  provoked  it : 
but,  with  the  exception  of  one  brief  operation  at  the  end  of  the 
firatyear,  it  was  not  carried  on  by  Napoleon  himself.  Full  of  honest 
pride  to  every  British  heart  must  ever  be  the  recollection  of  the 
unparalleled  triumphs  of  his  countrymen,  whom  no  enemy  could 
withstand  either  in  the  open  field  or  the  well  armed  fortress;  till 
realising,  in  a  sense  far  difterent  from  that  in  which  it  had  been 
uttered,  the  boast  of  Louis  XIV.  that  there  were  no  longer  any 
Pyrenees,  they  forced  their  way  into  France  itself,  and  illustrated 
their  brief  campaign  in  that  country  by  fresh  victories.  But,  as 
Napoleon  was  not  personally  engaged  in  the  war,  we  must  forbear 
to  dwell  upon  those  achievements  here ;  and  must  content  our- 
selves with  pointing  out  the  righteous  retribution  which  made  the 
country  which  had  been  the  scene  of  Napoleon's  most  wanton  ag- 
gression and  foulest  treachery,  the  scene  tdso  of  his  most  unvarying 


546  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1808. 

and  most  humiliating  disasters :  most  unvarying,  since  Wellington's 
triumphant  career  was  unchequered  by  a  single  mishap ;  most 
humiliating,  because  his  successes  were  achieved  with  far  inferior 
forces  to  those  of  the  French  marshals,  and  could  be  attributed  to 
nothing  but  the  pre-eminent  skill  of  the  general  himself,  supported 
by  the  equally  unsurpassed  courage  and  discipline  of  his  soldiers. 


A.i>.  1810.]  NAPOLEON  AND  THE  CZAE.  647 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 
A.D.  1810  —  1814. 

IN  spite  of  Napoleon's  great  capacity  and  acuteness,  he  waa 
singularly  incapable  of  learning  lessons  or  of  taking  warning : 
while  so  inveterate  and  boundless  was  his  arrogance  that  he  was 
not  in  the  least  more  careful  to  consult  the  feelings  of  his  most 
powerful  friends  and  allies,  than  of  those  princes  whom  he  had 
most  completely  subjugated.  He  might  be  excused,  perhaps,  for 
looking  not  only  on  his  brothers,  but  on  sovereigns  like  those  of 
Saxony  and  Bavaria,  though  nominally  independent,  as  mere 
satellites  of  his  will.  But  the  Eussian  Czar  was  a  potentate  of  a 
very  different  order.  The  extent  of  his  territories ;  the  number  of 
the  people  whom  they  supported,  in  both  of  which  he  far  exceeded 
any  other  sovereign  ;  his  military  resources  and  the  quality  of  his 
soldiers,  of  which  Eylau  had  given  evidence  not  to  be  forgotten, 
all  pointed  him  out  not  only  as  a  monarch  whose  alliance  it  was 
important  to  gain,  but  whose  cordial  friendship  it  was  no  unbe- 
coming condescension  to  seek  to  secure  by  uniform  consideration  and 
courtesy.  Yet  though  the  Peninsular  campaigns  of  1809  and  1810, 
on  which  the  utmost  efforts  of  Napoleon's  most  skilful  and  most 
trusted  marshals  had  been  constantly  baffled  and  ^iefeated,  gave 
sufficient  warning  of  the  quality  of  the  new  antagonist  whom  he  had 
brought  on  himself  in  that  quarter ;  the  last  month  of  IGIO  witnessed 
the  issue  of  a  fresh  edict  which  it  was  hardly  possible  for  Alexander 
to  regard  in  any  other  light  than  that  of  a  combination  of  menaced 
hostility  with  personal  insult.  Napoleon  had  already  driven  his 
own  brother  Louis  to  resign  the  crown  of  Holland,  and  now  on  a 
pretext,  of  which  his  own  decrees  formed  the  most  material  part,* 

^  The  edict  or  senatus  consultum,  The  Berlin  and  Milan  Decrees  were 

as  given  by  Alison,  c.  Ixx.  30,  states  bis  own.    The  Orders    in  Council 

in  its  preamble  that   *  the  15ritish  were  merelv  a  reply  to  them,  and 

Orders  in  Council,  and  the  Berlin  and  these  are  alleged  as  the  sole  pround 

Milan  Decrees  for  1806  and  1807,  have  for  the  annexation  to  France  of  a 

torn  to  shreds  the    public    law  of  vast  district,  equal  in  extent  to  some 

Europe.    A    new    order    of   things  kingdoms,  and  containing  a  popola- 

reigns  throughout  the  world.    New  tion  of  six  millions, 
guarantees  have  become  necessary.' 


548  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1812. 

lie  issued  an  edict  incorporating  in  hi.s  own  dominions  the  exten- 
sive and  wealthy  district  which  lies  between  the  mouths  of  the 
Scheldt  and  Lubeck,  extending  along  more  than  200  miles  of 
coast,  and  enriched  by  the  labours  of  six  millions  of  citizens :  though 
among  the  territories  thus  appropriated  was  Oldenburg,  whose 
Grand-Duke  was  brother-in-law  to  Alexander  himself.  He  even 
threatened  further  encreachments  at  the  expense  of  the  Duke  of 
Mecklenburg,  whose  eastern  frontier  was  separated  by  scarcely  200 
miles  from  the  western  boundary  of  Russia ;  and,  because  the  Czar 
made  a  formal  remonstrance  against  the  spoliation  of  so  near  a 
connection  as  the  Grand-Duke;  evinced  almost  equally  uncon- 
cealed displeasure  at  the  advance  of  the  French  frontier  to  a  point 
so  little  distant  from  his  own ;  and,  seeing  no  reason  why  he 
should  injure  himself  to  gratify  an  ally  who  showed  so  little  con- 
sideration for  his  feelings,  relaxed  the  observance  of  the  Berlin  de- 
crees which  affected  the  commerce  of  his  merchants  with  England, 
Napoleon  at  once  declared  war  against  him,  and  prepared  to  wage 
it  on  a  scale  which  revealed  his  design  to  reduce  Russia  to  as 
abject  a  condition  as  every  other  country  on  the  Continent  which 
hud  dared  to  resist  his  will. 

Alexander  at  first  behaved  with  extraordinary  pusillanimity. 
He  humbled  himself  even  with  tears  to  the  French  ambassador, 
complaining  of  Napoleon's  want  of  confidence  in  him  and  conceal- 
ment of  his  real  wishes  ;  and  protesting  that  he  had  no  desire  for 
commerce  with  England,  which  he  conceived  to  be  the  greatest  of 
all  offences  in  Napoleon's  eyes.  But  when  he  found  war  inevit- 
able, he  redeemed  his  weakness  by  the  promptitude  and  extent  of 
the  preparations  he  made  to  encounter  it,  by  the  consummate  and 
self-sacrificing  prudence  of  his  arrangements,  and  the  courage  and 
fortitude  with  )vhich  he  sustained  disasters.  And,  in  truth,  the 
contest  which  was  now  forced  upon  him  was  one  which,  if  any 
other  struggle  had  ever  done  so,  called  forth  all  the  greatest  qualities 
of  warlike  skill  and  moral  virtue  both  in  the  ruler  and  the  people. 
For  the  host  which,  in  the  summer  of  1812,  Napoleon  led  to  the 
invasion  of  Russia  was  in  numbers  and  equipment  such  as  the 
world  had  never  seen.  He  had  not  been  contented  with  making 
unusual  levies  of  troops  in  his  own  dominions.  No  country  on  the 
whole  Continent  which  was  under  either  his  power  or  his  influence 
was  excused  from  furnishing  its  contingent.  In  the  spring  of 
1811  Maria  Louisa  had  borne  him  a  son,  to  whom  he  had  given 
the  title  of  king  of  Rome ;  and  the  prospect  of  seeing  his  grandson 
hereafter  seated  on  the  French  throne  had  induced  the  emperor 
Francis  to  enter  with  a  cordiality  which,  under  other  circumstances, 
could  not  have  been  expected,  into  the  war  against  his  former  ally. 
Prussia  too,  in  spite  of  the  cruel  oppression  which  ever  since  Jena 
had  desolated  every  part  of  the  kingdom,  was  intimidated  into 


A.n.  1812.]  INVASION  OF  RUSSIA.  549 

concluding  a  defensive  and  offensive  alliance  with  lier  oppressor. 
And  thus  brigades  from  every  part  of  Germany,  as  well  as  from 
Holland,  from  Italy,  from  Switzerland,  from  Poland,  hastened  to 
swell  his  ranks,  till  the  whole  army  amounted  to  the  junheard  of 
number  of  600,000  men,  of  whom  nearly  a  sixth  were  cavalry ;  and 
who  were  accompanied  by  a  train  of  artillery  of  above  1,300  guns. 
The  whole  strength  of  the  Russian  empire  could  not  have  supplied 
so  vast  a  force ;  and  the  demands  on  the  Czar's  army  for  service 
in  his  distant  provinces,  garrisons,  and  other  purposes  did  not  leave 
300,000  men  available  for  the  conflict  with  the  invader. 

Yet  the  vast  preponderance  of  force  at  the  disposal  of  Napoleon 
did  not  save  him  from  the  greatest  disaster  which  ever  befell 
the  commander  of  an  army,  since  a  single  ship,  the  sole  relic 
of  the  host  which  he  had  led  to  Salamis,  bore  Xerxes  back  to 
the  Hellespont.^  And  though  it  is  not  always  equitable  to 
estimate  the  propriety  of  military  operations  by  their  result,  the 
Russian  expedition  is  one  which  may 'fairly  be  judged  of  in 
that  manner,  since  a  very  few  facts  are  sufficient  to  show  that  it 
could  not  possibly  have  had  any  other  end,  and  since  the  cauBes 
which  produced  that  end  might  have  been  as  easily  discerned  by 
Napoleon  who  defied  them,  as  they  were  seen  by  Alexander  who 
trusted  to  them.  Napoleon  attributed  his  losses  not  to  the  skill 
or  valour  of  the  enemy,  but  to  the  severity  of  the  winter ;  but 
that  season  in  Russia  is  invariably  inclement,  if  not  intolerable,  to 
all  who  are  not  habituated  to  its  rigour :  and  the  cold  did  not  set  in 
earlier  than  usual.  Every  one,  whether  Russian  or  French,  could 
calculate  on  the  weather.  But  what  Napoleon  failed  to  anticipate 
was  the  prudence  and  self-sacrificing  heroism  of  those  whose 
country  he  was  invading,  while  they  estimated  with  perfect 
soundness  of  judgment  both  the  resources  on  which  he  relied  and 
their  own  ability  to  deprive  him  of  them.  In  Italy  and  Germany 
he  had  been  wont  to  make  war  support  war.  He  had  ravaged 
every  country  through  which  his  army  passed  with  unsparing 
cruelty.  He  had  fed  his  men  on  the  crops,  on  the  cattle ;  and  had 
compelled  cities  and  towns  to  ransom  themselves  by  vast  contri- 
butions of  supplies  and  money.  Alexander  felt  that  the  present 
struggle  was  one  for  life  and  death :  and  therefore  resolved  that 
the  invader  should  find  no  such  resources  in  his  coimtry ;  that 
he  would  sacrifice  all  but  the  nation  itself  to  preserve  the  nation 
itself,  however  exhausted  and  impoverished,  in  independence. 

*  Sed  qualis  rediit ;  nempe  una  nave,  cruentis 
Fluctibus,  et  tarda  per  densa  cadavera  prora. 

Juv.  Sai.  X.  185. 
A  single  ship  the  flying  tyrant  bore 
Through  waves  with  corpses  chok'd,  and  red  with  gore. 


550  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1812. 

And,  accordingly,  the  plan  which  he  formed  for  the  campaign  waa 
to  retreat  steadily  before  the  enemy,  so  as  to  draw  him  further  and 
further  into  the  interior  :  encountering  him  in  occasional  conflicts 
to  prevent  his  own  troops  from  becoming  too  much  disheartened, 
but  trusting  as  little  as  possible  to  chance  for  a  success  which  even 
the  vastness  of  the  French  host  would  contribute  to  ensure  to  him. 
And  this  design,  judiciously  conceived,  was  carried  out  with 
unflinching  constancy. 

As  the  Russians  retreated  they  cut  down  the  crops  on  the  line 
of  the  French  advance,  drove  off  the  cattle,  and  even  burnt  Smo- 
lensko,  and  several  other  towns,  rather  than  allow  them  to  furnish 
shelter  to  the  invader.  The  results  of  this  policy  were  soon  seen. 
Before  Napoleon  had  crossed  the  Niemen  a  month  he  began  to  be 
straitened  for  supplies ;  and  when,  on  one  or  two  occasions,  the 
Russians  halted  to  measure  their  strength  with  him  in  the  open 
field,  it  was  clearly  seen  that  they  had  not  degenerated  from  the 
stubborn  valour  of  which  they  had  given  him  one  sufficient  speci- 
men at  Eylau,  as  they  had  not  forgotten,  though  Friedland  seemed 
to  have  effaced  it  from  his  recollection.  In  those  vast  and  level 
plains  his  superiority  of  strategical  skill  was  thrown  away ;  and  in 
not  one  of  the  actions  which  he  fought  during  his  onward  march 
did  he  succeed  in  inflicting  a  greater  loss  on  the  enemy  than  he 
himself  sustained  ;  though,  faithful  to  the  system  of  the  campaign, 
after  each  conflict  they  steadily  continued  their  retreat,  knowing 
well  that  the  further  he  advanced  the  more  surely  were  they 
luring  him  on  to  his  destruction.  Even  at  Borodino,  in  which,  a,3 
a  battle  deliberately  engaged  in  with  careful  preparation  on  both 
sides,  his  acknowledged  pre-eminence  of  genius  might  have  been 
expected  to  decide  the  contest  in  his  favour,  he  gained  no  advan- 
tage over  his  indomitable  foes,  after  a  slaughter  which  cost  both 
armies  more  than  one-third  of  their  force,  except  the  possession  of 
Moscow,  which  proved  only  the  most  fatal  of  snares.  Surely  those 
who  could  thus  sacrifice  a  city  so  honoured,  so  dear  to  the  whole 
nation,  deserved  to  conquer ;  and  before  a  people  from  whom  such 
a  loss  could  not  extort  a  single  concession,  there  was  no  alternative 
but  to  retreat.  We  may  not  impute  it  to  Napoleon  as  a  military 
error  that  he  was  too  slow  in  acknowledging  that  necessity,  though 
his  delay  in  yielding  to  it  was  the  chief  cause  of  his  subsequent 
misfortunes.  He  was  looking  at  his  position  with  the  eye  of  a 
statesman  and  a  judge  of  men  rather  than  as  a  soldier,  and  what 
he  failed  to  estimate  was  the  degree  in  which  the  conviction  that 
in  such  a  conflict  there  was  but  one  means  of  safety  had  hardened 
and  strengthened  Alexander's  character.  The  Czar  was  no  longer 
the  weak  impulsive  despot  whom  one  defeat,  and  that  not  in  his 
own  country,  had  terrified  into  submission ;  and  who,  more  re- 


A.u.  1812.]        THE  CZAR  REFUSES  TO  TREAT.  551 

cently,  had  wept  at  the  thought  of  a  breach  with  a  foreign  sove- 
reign whom  he  had  never  seen  but  on  a  single  occasion,  who  had 
never  done  him  or  his  people  a  single  service,  and  who  in  truth 
had  no  hold  over  him  whatever  but  the  influence  of  a  strong  over 
a  weak  mind.  That  weakness  Napoleon  flattered  himself  was 
unchanged.  In  one  respect,  in  spits  of  the  indecisive  character  of 
all  the  recent  battles,  he  was  justified  in  regarding  himself  as 
having  gained  a  great  advantage.  A  triumphant  entry  into  the 
capital  of  Russia  had  been  alone  wanting  to  make  up  the  list  of 
his  triumphs,  which  included  the  reduction  of  the  metropolis  of 
every  other  country  on  the  Continent  of  Europe,  except  'i'urkey. 
And,  as  his  capture  of  Vienna  and  Berlin  had  led  to  the  instant 
submission  of  Austria  and  Prussia,  he  made  no  doubt  that  his 
possession  of  Moscow  would  have  a  similar  effect  on  Russia ;  and 
that,  as  before  quitting  Paris  he  had  boasted  that  he  would  do,  he 
should  be  able  to  dictate  the  terms  of  peace  to  the  Czar  in  the 
Kremlin.  He  was  not  even  undeceived  when,  in  the  very  first 
week  of  his  occupation  of  the  city,  he  found  that  the  Russians 
preferred  burning  it,  as  they  had  previously  burnt  many  towns  of 
inferior  dignity,  in  preference  to  leaving  it  to  shelter  him  and 
his  army.  But,  as  soon  as  the  flames  were  extinguished,  he  re- 
turned, and  took  up  his  residence  among  the  ruins,  rejecting  the 
advice  and  entreaties  of  his  wisest  and  bravest  counsellors,  who 
in  vain  urged  him  not  to  delay  to  extricate  himself  and  them  from 
a  country  from  which  the  weather  would  soon  render  escape 
impossible.  He  replied  that  a  retreat  would  appear  a  flight ;  that 
political  considerations  enjoined  him  to  hold  his  ground;  that  'in 
politics  one  must  never  attempt  to  retrace  one's  steps;  that  to  con- 
fess an  error  brings  discredit,  while  to  persevere  in  it  often  makes 
it  seem  right.'  ^  At  last,  when  even  he  was  forced  to  confess  that 
no  proposition  was  to  be  expected  from  Alexander,  he  consented 
to  take  the  first  step  himself,  and  sent  one  of  his  aides-de-camp  to 
St.  Petersburg,  confessing  to  him  how  indispensable  peace  had 
become,  and  bidding  him  make  any  sacrifice  for  it,  save  that  of 
honour.'^  But  Lauriston  had  no  opportunity  of  displaying  hia 
diplomatic  talents ;  Alexander  would  not  even  receive  him,  but 
pretended  to  reprove  his  commander-in-chief,  Kutusoff,  for  granting 
an  armistice,  though  but  for  a  few  days.  But  Kutusott'  was  as 
crafty  as  he  was  brave,  he  knew  how  the  prolonged  stay  in  Moscow 
was  demoralising  and  enfeebling  the  French,  while  hia  own  army 
was  daily  acquiring  strength  by  the  influx  of  recruits,  and  the 
progress  in  discipline  of  all  his  fresh  levies.    And  it  was  not  long 

'  Segur,  liv,  viii.  c.  x.  in  fin.  pai'x  ;  U  me  faut  la  paix;  je  la  yetix 

*  *  Les  derni^res  paroles  de  I'Kmpe-      ahsolument ;  saiivez  soulement  I'hon- 
reur  h.  Lauriston  furent,  "  Jc  veux  la      neur."  '—Segur,  liv.  viii.  c.  9. 


552  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1812. 

before  both  these  considerations  forced  themselves  upon  Napoleon 
also ;  and  on  the  ninth  of  October,  even  before,  according  to  his 
most  sanguine  calculations,  he  could  possibly  have  received  the 
Czar's  answer  to  his  proposals,  he  quitted  Moscow  and  began  to 
retreat ;  not  for  a  moment  disguising  from  himself  the  effect  which 
Such  a  movement  would  have  upon  the  mind  of  Europe,  but  re- 
luctantly confessing  that  there  was  no  alternative.  He  was  too 
late  :  his  army  w^as  no  longer  able  to  support  the  hardships  of  so 
long  a  march  at  such  a  season.  And  so  strongly  was  this  im- 
pressed on  the  mind  of  one  of  his  officers,  that  Daru  advised  him 
rather  to  turn  Moscow  into  an  entrenched  camp  for  the  winter ; 
corn  and  salt,  he  said,  could  still  be  procured ;  for  me^t  they  could 
kill  and  salt  the  horses ;  and  the  return  of  spring  would  bring 
reinforcements,  which  would  enable  him  still  to  complete  the 
conquest  of  Russia. 

Napoleon  could  admire  and  appreciate  what  he  justly  called  'a 
lion's  counsel,'  but  he  dared  not  adopt  it.  He  was,  as  he  had  said 
before,  not  only  a  general  but  an  Emperor ;  and  he  had  to  think  of 
the  eflect  which  so  prolonged  an  absence  from  Paris  would  have 
on  the  citizens.  Who  could  tell  what  was  already  happening 
there,  now  that  they  had  not  heard  of  him  for  three  weeks  ,•  who 
could  calculate  the  effect  of  their  receiving  no  intelligence  of  him 
for  six  months  ?  France  would  never  accustom  herself  to  such  an 
absence.^  It  is  instructive  to  see  how  little  the  great  conqueror 
felt  that  he  could  trust  to  the  loyalty  of  the  people  which,  eight 
years  before,  had  been  almost  unanimous  in  voting  his  election  to 
the  throne.  And  his  distrust  was  justified ;  for  almost  the  first 
intelligence  that  reached  him  from  Paris  was  that  a  conspiracy 
had  been  set  on  foot  to  overturn  his  authority,  and  that  it  was 
chiefly  to  accident  that  he  was  indebted  for  its  failure.  He 
adhered,  therefore,  to  his  own  planj  and,  on  the  nineteenth  of 
October,  began  his  homeward  march. 

But  the  very  first  day  gave  sad  tokens  of  the  disasters  that 
awaited  him.  The  officers  remarked  that  the  men  '  dragged  them- 
selves along  rather  than  marched,'  The  exhaustion  was  even 
more  conspicuous  in  the  cavalry  and  artillery  than  in  the  infantry, 
and  those  were  the  very  arms  on  the  efficiency  of  which  the  safety 
of  the  rest  might  depend.  A  force  in  such  a  condition  could  not 
expect  to  reach  the  frontier  without  great  losses,  even  if  un- 
attached ;  and  there  was  no  chance  of  its  being  left  unattached. 
Kutusofi*'s  tactics  were  now  completely  changed.  When  the 
French  were  advancing  it  had  been  no  part  of  his  plan  to  hinder 
their  advance.  Now  it  was  his  first  object  to  cause  as  many 
delays  as  possible  in  their  retreat ;  since,  if  they  could  be  detained 
'  Segur,  liv.  viii.  c.  ii. 


A.D.  1812.]  KETEEAT   OF  THE  FRENCH,  553 

in  the  heart  of  the  country  till  the  snow  should  bej^n  to  fall,  the 
climate  by  itself  would  ensure  their  destruction.  Cheerinff  intel- 
ligence of  disasters  to  the  French  in  other  countries  had  recently 
reached  llussia.  The  expulsion  of  Joseph  from  Madrid  had  been 
the  first  fruits  of  Wellington's  great  victory  at  Salamanca.  The 
salutes  which  Kutusolf  now  fired  in  honour  of  the  achievement 
conveyed  the  intelligence  to  the  French  also ;  while  the  great 
English  general's  sttccess  stimulated  him  to  endeavour  to  deal  the 
common  enemy  a  blow  of  equal  importance  in  the  north  of 
Europe.  He  would  not  even  allow  him  to  choose  his  own  lino 
of  retreat ;  for  Napoleon  had  selected  a  road  more  to  the  south 
than  that  by  which  he  had  advanced,  oue  which  would  have 
taken  him  by  Kalouga,  through  a  district  not  ouly  fertile  but 
unwasted.-  But  Kutusoff  barred  his  way,  and  after  a  fierce  combat 
drove  him  back  on  the  old  Smolensko  road;  and  having  thus 
confined  him  to  a  district  which  had  been  already  thoroughly 
exhausted  by  his  passage  three  months  before,  he  gave  the  flying 
army  no  respite,  but  harassed  it  day  after  day  with  attacks  on  the 
flank  and  rear,  inflicting  such  loss  that  before  the  snow  began  to 
fall  Napoleon  had  lost  nearly  half  the  army  with  which  he  had 
left  Moscow  less  than  three  weeks  before. 

Now,  indeed,  the  French  army  felt  in  their  full  severity  of 
the  horrors  of  war.  The  whole  sky  was  enveloped  in  clouds,  the 
ground  in  dense  fogs,  the  snow  fell  in  sheets,^  as  if,  says  the 
eloquent  historian  of  the  expedition,  who  himself  bore  his  share  of 
the  miseries  he  describes,  heaven  itself  was  descending  and  joining 
itself  to  the  earth  and  to  their  enemies,  to  complete  their  destruc- 
tion. Even  fresh,  vigorous,  and  well-fed  men  could  not  have 
endured  the  exposure  to  such  weather ;  but  the  French  were  worn 
out  by  the  fatigue  of  the  campaign,  and  ill  supplied.  Every  day 
men  dropped  on  the  road  from  actual  hunger  and  weakness  ;  their 
comrades  passed  on  unheeding,  each  expecting  soon  the  same  fate 
for  himself.  Every  day  numbers  fell  beneath  the  long  lances  of 
the  Cossacks,  who  hung  unwearied  on  their  flanks ;  no  surgeons 
could  be  found  to  tend  their  wounds;  but  on  famished,  and 
wounded,  and  sick,  the  snow  fell  thickly,  till  the  intense  frost 
terminated  their  agonies.  They  soon  became  not  an  army,  but  a 
rabble,  preserving  hardly  a  semblance  of  order,  except  when  some 
attack  on  a  larger  scale  than  usual  was  made  upon  them.  On 
such  emergencies,  their  officers  did  for  a  moment  succeed  in 
restoring  discipline,  and  in  bringing  them  to  confront  the  enemy 
with  a  momentary  appearance  of  their  former  energy;  but  such 
spasmodic  efforts  could  neither  save  their  comrades  nor  themselves. 
Once  Napoleon  himself  was  almost  taken  prisoner.  But  his 
'  Segur,  liv.  ix.  c.  ii. 


554  MODERN  HISTOBY.  [a.d.  1812. 

lution  was  as  undaunted  as  ever.  All  that  courage  and  skill  could 
effect  in  circumstances  of  such  unparalleled  hardship  and  danger 
was  gallantly  done ;  and  never  was  commander  better  seconded 
than  he  by  the  heroic  exertions  of  his  marshals,  of  his  stepson 
Eugene,  of  Davoust,  of  Murat,  of  Victor,  of  Macdonald,  and  of 
Ney,  who  in  this  terrible  retreat  well  earned  the  title  his  grateful 
master  gave  him,  of  the  bravest  of  the  brave. 

But  we  will  not  dwell  on  such  horrors.  Those  fared  best  who, 
like  General  Partonneaux  and  his  division,  found  themselves  so 
completely  hemmed  in  that,  though  7,000  in  number,  they  had  no 
alternative  but  to  surrender.  Those  met  the  most  cruel  fate  of  all 
who,  when  almost  within  reach  of  the  frontier,  found  themselves 
committed  to  a  hopeless  struggle  with  a  new  element.  Full  of 
resources  as  ever.  Napoleon  had  outgeneralled  the  Russians,  who 
had  got  before  him  to  the  Beresina,  and  flattered  themselves  that 
they  had  utterly  cut  off  his  retreat;  he  had  succeeded  in  throwing 
two  bridges  across  the  river,  and,  after  a  sanguinary  conflict  in 
which  he  lost  5,000  men,  he  seemed  to  have  secured  his  passage ; 
but,  though  the  leading  battalions  passed  safely  over,  the  renewed 
fire  of  the  Russian  batteries  presently  broke  down  and  set  fire  to 
the  bridges.  The  dense  multitude  that  was  on  them  as  they  gave 
way  was  precipitated  into  the  stream.  Thousands  more  in  their 
despair,  when  they  saw  every  hope  of  escape  thus  cut  off",  precipitated 
themselves  into  the  stream  in  frantic  attempts  to  swim  to  the 
opposite  bank.  More  than  12,000  dead  bodies  were  found  in  the 
river ;  16,000,  whose  retreat  was  cut  ofi",  yielded  themselves  un- 
resistingly prisoners ;  and  when,  on  the  twelfth  of  December,  the 
remainder  reached  the  frontier,  and  crossed  the  Niemen  by  the 
bridge  of  Kowno,  the  whole  number  that  thus  reached  a  friendly 
territory  did  not  amount  to  20,000  men,  destitute  of  artillery, 
destitute  of  baggage,  destitute  almost  of  food  and  clothes.  From 
the  condition  of  one  great  officer  we  may  judge  of  the  state  of  his 
comrades  of  inferior  consideration.  Count  Matthieu  Dumas,  whom 
we  have  had  occasion  to  mention  in  connection  with  some  of  the 
earlier  scenes  of  the  Revolution,  had  long  before  given  in  his 
adhesion  to  the  imperial  government ;  and  having  borne  an  honor- 
able share  in  the  toils  of  the  expedition,  had  had  the  good  fortune 
to  escape  unhurt,  and  to  reach  Kumbinnen,  a  town  in  East  Prussia, 
where  a  friendly  physician  gave  him  quarters.  He  was  sitting  at 
breakfast  when  '  a  man  in  a  brown  great-coat  entered ;  he  had  a 
long  beard,  his  face  was  blackened,  and  looked  as  if  it  were  burnt, 
his  eyes  were  red  and  brilliant.  "  At  length  I  am  here,"  says  he ; 
"  Why,  General  Dumas,  do  you  not  know  me  ?  "  "  No ;  who  are 
you  ?  "  "I  am  the  rear-guard  of  the  grand  army.  I  have  fired 
the  last  musket-shot  on  the  bridge  of  Kowno :  I  have  thrown  into 


A.D.  1813.]       NAPOLEON  RETURNS  TO  PARIS.  556 

the  Niemen  the  last  of  our  arms ;  I  have  come  hither  through  the 
woods.     I  am  Marshal  Ney."  '  * 

It  was  not  under  the  command  of  Napoleon  himself  that  these 
miserable  relics  of  the  mi{,'htie8t  host  ever  assembled  had  crossed 
the  Niemen.  The  Russian  pursuit  had  been  relaxed  after  the 
disaster  of  the  Beresina ;  and,  a  week  before  the  French  reached 
Kowno,  their  Emperor  had  given  up  the  command  to  Murat,  and 
had  hastened  to  Paris.  He  had  been  a  true  prophet  when  he 
rejected  Daru's  '  lion-counsel '  at  Moscow.  As  has  been  already 
mentioned,  a  formidable  conspiracy  had  been  set  on  foot,  it  is 
believed  by  the  remnant  of  the  old  Jacobin  party,  and  had  very 
nearly  succeeded.  It  had  been  discovered  and  defeated  at  the  Ust 
moment,  and  the  principal  conspirators  had  paid  the  forfeit  of 
their  lives.  But  that  such  a  plot  should  have  been  concocted  and 
have  been  so  nearly  carried  out,  was  a  pregnant  warning  of  the 
sandy  foundation  of  the  Emperor's  authority,  so  far  as  it  depended 
on  the  fidelity  and  steadiness  of  the  French.  It  soon  appeared 
that  the  attachment  of  his  allies  abroad  was  equally  hollow ;  even 
of  those  who  were  most  bound  to  him  by  personal  obligations  or 
even  by  ties  of  relationship.  The  first  indication  of  the  disposition 
to  desert  his  fortunes,  or,  to  express  the  feelings  of  the  Princes 
themselves  more  correctl}^,  to  deliver  themselves  from  the  shackles 
in  which  he  had  so  long  held  them  came  from  his  own  brother-in- 
law  Murat,  who,  soon  wearied  of  a  command  in  which  his  own 
dashing  valour  had  no  opportunity  of  displaying  itself,  threw  up 
his  command,  and  retired  to  his  kingdom  of  Naples,  provoking 
Napoleon  to  such  a  pitch  of  irritation  that  he  threatened  not  ob- 
scurely to  dethrone  him.  Murat,  however,  had  not  yet  decided  on  his 
course :  nor  can  it  be  denied  that  the  advice  which  he  gave  his  im- 
perial kinsman,  concluded  in  the  form  of  the  most  eaniest  entreaty, 
to  give  peace  to  the  world,  was  counsel  that  might  have  been  dic- 
tated by  the  most  faithful  attachment  and  the  soundest  judgment. 
But  others  whose  adherence  or  assistance  was  far  more  important 
than  that  of  the  great  cavalry  officer  were  more  openly  releasing 
themselves  from  their  bondage.  Frederic  of  Prussia  indeed  pro- 
fessed a  personal  unwillingness  to  exchange  his  alliance  with 
Napoleon  for  one  with  Alexander ;  nor  can  it  be  denied  that  if  he 
had  reason  to  hate  the  one  potentate  he  had  equal  cause  to  distrust 
the  other  j  but  the  unanimous  voice  of  his  people  overruled  his 
hesitation  j  and  in  the  beginning  of  March  he  signed  a  treaty  with 
the  Czar.  While,  though  his  daughter  was  sharing  Napoleon's 
throne,  the  Emperor  Francis  withdrew  his  troops  from  further  co- 
operation with  the  French ;  and  while  proffering  Ids  mediation  to 
all  the  belligerents,  came  at  the  same  time  to  a  secret  understand- 
^  Memoirs  of  Dumas,  \o\.  ill).  A.2i.     Erg.  Trans. 


556  MODEEN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1813. 

ing  with  Alexander,  which  left  it  little  doubtful  what  part  he 
would  eventually  take  if  his  attempts  to  effect  a  pacification 
should  fail. 

But  the  more  every  one  else  desired  peace  the  more  obstinately 
Napoleon  seemed  bent  on  war.  By  great  exertions,  by  anticipating 
the  levies  of  future  years,  and  withdrawing  some  large  divisions 
from  the  army  in  the  Peninsula  which  could  ill  spare  them,  he 
had  again  collected  an  army  of  above  200,000  men  ;  of  which  at 
the  beginning  of  the  spring  he  once  more  put  himself  at  the  head : 
and  advanced  with  all  speed  to  the  plains  of  Saxony,  where  as  yet 
the  new  allies  had  no  force  equal  to  his  own  to  bring  against  him. 

The  campaign  which  he  opened  has  no  equal  in  the  number  or 
the  magnitude  of  the  battles  which  were  fought  in  the  course  of 
the  next  six  months.  But  if,  in  the  conduct  of  his  military  opera- 
tions Napoleon  displayed  all  his  old  brilliancy  of  skill,  he  exhibited 
in  at  least  an  equal  degree  the  most  extraordinary  political  blind- 
ness :  stimulated  it  may  be  by  the  fatalism  which  had  always  been 
his  fiivourite  doctrine.  There  never  was  a  moment  when  he  might 
not  have  secured  peace  by  a  few  concessions  which  would  have 
cost  nothing  to  either  himself  or  France;  by  simply  restoring  to 
Austria  and  Prussia  a  portion  of  the  provinces  of  which  he  had 
despoiled  them.  But  he  still  believed  in  his  star  and  in  the  weak- 
ness of  Alexander ;  and  the  chief  use  which  he  endeavoured  to  make 
of  the  first  advantage  which  he  gained  was  to  open  a  secret  nego- 
tiation with  that  monarch  to  detach  him  from  his  allies. 

There  was  no  doubt  that  Alexander's  firmness  was  of  no  high 
order.  Had  it  been  he  would  not  have  been  much  alarmed  as  we 
know  that  he  was  at  the  issue  of  the  first  battles  of  the  campaign. 
Napoleon  had  indeed  displayed  all  his  wonted  energy  and  all  his  old 
skill  in  those  sanguinary  combats.  One  great  battle  was  fought  at 
Lutzen,  already  consecrated  by  the  victory  and  death  of  the  great 
Gustavus,  a  week  after  his  arrival  at  Mayence ;  another  at  Bautzen, 
only  a  fortnight  later ;  and  in  both  he  remained  master  of  the  field 
of  battle ;  though  it  can  hardly  be  said  that  he  gained  any  other  ad- 
vantage from  either  of  them.  His  loss  had  been  at  least  as  great  as 
that  of  his  enemies  :  and  Peter  the  Great  would  rather  have  derived 
encouragement  from  the  gallant  stand  which  his  troops  and  those 
of  his  allies  had  made,  and  from  the  steady  discipline  of  their 
retreat,  than  have  been  disheartened  at  the  fact  of  a  retreat  being 
necessary.  Alexander,  however,  was  of  a  less  manly  temper  than 
his  ancestor ;  he  was  thoroughly  alarmed :  but  at  the  same  time  the 
recollection  of  the  vengeance  which  Napoleon  had  intended  to  take 
for  his  former  opposition  was  fresh  in  his  memory ;  but  his  fear 
now  led  him  not  again  to  humble  himself  at  the  victor's  feet,  but 
to  the  wiser  resolution  of  holding  more  closely  to  the  alliance 


A.D.  1813.]  THE  BATTLE   OF  DRESDEN.  557 

which  alone  could  protect  him  against  a  repetition  of  such  humi- 
liation. 

Little,  however,  as  Napoleon  was  really  inclined  for  peace, 
except  on  terms  which,  after  the  disasters  of  the  Itussian  expedi- 
tion, were  wholly  inadmissible,  even  he  saw  the  impossibility  of 
refusing  to  consider  proposals  of  accommodation,  and  an  armistice 
was  presently  agreed  upon  for  a  limited  time,  to  give  time  for 
negotiations,  which  undoubtedly  everyone  but  he  himself  hoped 
might  lead  to  such  a  consummation.  Indeed,  there  were  circum- 
stances which  might  well  have  made  him  more  anxious  than  any 
other  of  the  belligerents  to  terminate  the  war.  For,  in  the  very 
week  that  the  armistice  was  agreed  to,  his  brother  Joseph  was  a 
second  time  driven  from  Madrid,  and,  though  he  was  far  from 
anticipating  the  overwhelming  rout  of  Vittoria  which  soon 
followed,  it  was  already  plain  that  Spain  was  lost.  Yet  when  the 
negotiators  met,  he  was  as  unyielding  as  if  no  British  army  were 
driving  his  marshals  before  it  in  the  Peninsula,  or  as  if  Friedland 
and  Jena  and  Wagram  were  the  events  freshest  in  the  recollection 
of  the  sovereigns  to  the  east  of  the  Rhine.  He  professed  to  make 
it  a  point  of  honour  to  relinquish  nothing  that  he  had  ever  gained. 
He  would  keep  all,  or  lose  all.  With  fine  phrases  about  *a 
dishonoured  throne,  and  a  crown  without  glory,'  he  rejected  all  the 
conditions  proposed  by  others.  He  would  not  even  bring  forward 
any  courted  project  of  his  own  till  the  armistice  had  expired  ;  and 
when  it  did  expire  Austria  was  at  once  added  to  the  list  of  his 
enemies,  Bavaria  followed  her,  and  by  the  middle  of  August, 
France,  with  no  ally  but  Denmark,  whose  aid  could  not  possibly 
be  of  the  slightest  use,  stood  single-handed  against  the  world  in 
arms.  Yet  his  first  battle  was  a  victory  as  brilliant  as  had  ever 
graced  his  arms.  In  one  point  of  view  the  accession  of  Austria  to 
the  alliance  brought  it  almost  as  much  weakness  as  strength,  since 
the  chief  command  was  given  to  the  Austrian  general,  Prince 
Schwartzenberg,  who,  though  not  destitute  of  professional  know- 
ledge, nor  of  courage,  was  ignorant  of  the  value  of  time  in  war, 
and  always  lacked  energetic  resolution  when  the  moment  arri%^ed 
to  deal  a  decisive  blow.  The  instant  that  the  armistice  was 
broken  off",  the  main  army  of  the  allies  marched  upon  Divsden,  and 
might  at  once  have  captured  that  beautiful  city,  had  not  the 
prince,  though  he  had  100,000  men  beneath  its  walls,  resolved, 
against  the  urgent  advice  of  all  the  other  commanders,  to  wait  for 
further  reinforcements  which  were  known  to  be  on  their  way.  He 
gave  time  not  for  Klenau  to  join  him,  for  that  general  did  not 
arrive  till  the  battle  was  over,  but  for  Napoleon  to  come  to  the 
rescue,  as,  the  moment  that  he  heard  of  the  danger  of  a  city  which 
was  so  important  to  his  plans  for  the  campaign,  he  did  come  with 


558  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1813. 

130,000  men,  witli  whom  lie  at  once  resolved  to  bring  the  allies  to 
action,  judging  that  the  possession  of  so  strong  a  fortress  in  his 
centre  would  more  than  compensate  for  his  inferiority  of  niimhers. 
And  his  calculations  were  verified  by  a  most  decisive  victory, 
gained  by  more  tactical  skill  than  he  often  displayed,  and  especially 
by  the  magnificent  prowess  of  the  cavalry  under  Murat,  who  had 
again  joined  him,  and  attested  by  a  long  train  of  13,000  prisoners, 
and  other  trophies  of  war,  such  as  cannon  and  standards.  It  was 
a  memorable  day,  as  being  the  last  victory  on  a  great  scale  which 
he  ever  gained.  On  the  rare  occasions  on  which  during  the  rest  of 
his  career  he  obtained  the  advantage,  the  actions  were  on  too 
trifling  a  scale  to  affect  the  fortunes  of  a  campaign.  But  Dresden 
did  for  a  moment  seem  to  show  that  his  star  was  as  bright,  as 
certainly  his  genius  was  as  pre-eminent  as  ever. 

But  it  was  only  for  a  moment  that  his  fortune  thus  seemed  in 
the  ascendant.  The  allies  had  scarcely  commenced  their  retreat, 
and  he  had  scarcely  resolved  on  the  measures  to  be  taken  to 
pursue  them,  when  both  sides  learnt  that  it  was  not  at  Dresden 
only  that  battles  had  been  fought  in  this  eventful  week,  and  that, 
however  irresistible  Napoleon  had  still  proved  where  he  commanded 
in  person,  his  lieutenants,  though  one  of  them,  Macdonald,  had  had 
an  army  but  little  inferior  to  his  own,  had  been  everywhere  beaten. 
On  the  very  same  day  that  he  himself  was  scattering  his  enemies  at 
Dresden,  Blucher  routed  that  marshal  on  the  Katzbach,  gaining 
trophies  (18,000  prisoners  and  about  100  guns)  such  as  Napoleon 
himself  had  ravely  surpassed.  Four  days  later  Vandamme  was 
beaten  at  Culm ;  and  at  the  end  of  next  week  the  dauntless  Ney 
himself  sustained  at  Dennewitz  a  defeat  but  little  inferior  to  that  of 
Macdonald.  Even  Napoleon's  unyielding  spirit  could  not  conceal 
from  himself  that  his  enemies  were  too  many  for  him ;  that  France, 
exhausted  by  twenty  years  of  warfare,  could  not  cope  with  all  the 
rest  of  Europe.  And  he  began  to  talk  to  his  generals  of  contenting 
himself  with  taking  up  a  strong  defensive  position  on  the  Saale, 
and  there  watching  his  opportunity  to  force  his  enemies  to  a 
peace. 

So  singularly  during  this  and  the  preceding  year  had  the  great 
events  of  the  Spanish  war  coincided  with  critical  moments  in  the 
Russian  and  German  campaigns,  that  on  the  very  day  on  which  he 
held  this  conversation  his  enemies  on  the  other  side  of  his  do- 
minions were  dealing  him  a  blow  which  could  not  fail  to  exert  no 
small  influence  on  any  subsequent  negotiations.  On  the  seventh 
of  October,  Wellington,  having  defeated  Soult  in  a  whole  series  of 
battles,  and  forced  his  way  triumphantly  across  the  Pyrenees, 
crossed  the  Bidassoa,  and  established  himself  on  French  soil.  But 
those  who  were  in  arms  in  Saxony  scarcely  needed  the  encourage- 


A.D.  1813.]  NAPOLEON  PREPARES  TO  RETREAT.     559 

ment  that  the  invincible  British  general's  marvellous  achievements 
supplied.  Napoleon  had  long  had  around  him  all  the  troops  which 
France  could  furnish ;  they,  on  the  other  hand,  had  been  receiving 
reinforcements  ever  since  their  defeat  at  Dresden ;  others  were 
approaching ;  and  in  the  very  district  which  he  was  mentally  ap- 
propriating as  the  base  of  his  own  operations,  and  one  which,  by 
its  central  position,  would  enable  him  to  deal  a  decisive  blow  to 
the  first  of  his  antagonists  who  should  allbrd  him  an  opportunity; 
a  host  was  rapidly  being  collected  which  the  allies  were  warranted 
in  believing  irresistible.  He  refused  to  think  so,  and  maintained 
that,  for  the  battle  which  all  saw  to  be  imminent,  out  of  five 
chances  four  were  in  his  favour,  and,  though  he  could  not  conceal 
from  himself  that  his  army  was  now  outnumbered  by  above 
100,000  men,  he  occupied  himself  in  planning  an  advance  upon 
Berlin,  and  a  transference  of  the  seat  of  war  to  the  banks  of  the 
Oder.  But  even  his  bravest  marshals  unanimously  opposed  them- 
selves to  such  a  scheme.  In  their  eyes  it  was  indispensable  to 
retreat,  and  to  seek  winter  quarters  in  their  own  country  even  if 
peace  should  be  found  to  be  unattainable,  and  if  it  should  prove 
necessary  to  resume  operations  with  the  return  of  spring. 

lie  yielded,  for  the  first  time  in  his  life  that  he  had  ever  been 
guided  by  counsel  adverse  to  his  own  opinion  or  ^vish.  But  in 
fact,  even  if  he  had  not  deferred  to  those  warning  entreaties,  he 
would  have  found  it  impossible  to  advance,  as  he  did  find  it  im- 
possible to  retreat  unmolested ;  for  the  allies  had  placed  them- 
selves between  him  and  the  Khine,  in  the  sanguine  hope  of  cutting 
ofl"  his  retreat  altogether.  And  their  confidence  was  better  founded 
than  his.  His  was  inspired  by  that  fatalistic  belief  in  his  good 
fortune,  his  star,  as  he  called  it,  which  still  suggested  that  the 
difficulty  of  handling  unprecedentedly  large  bodies  of  troops,  and 
the  jealousies  of  the  commanders  of  different  nations,  might  lead 
his  enemies  into  blunders  of  which  he  might  take  advantage. 
Theirs  arose  from  a  consciousness  of  their  overwhelming  numbers; 
for,  by  the  fifteenth  of  October,  they  had  2i)0,000  men  and  1,300 
guns  around  and  to  the  south  of  Leipsic,  which  he  was  approach- 
ing as  the  first  stage  in  his  retreat ;  while  the  French  were  fewer 
by  115,000  men  and  nearly  GOO  guns.  lie  had  commanded  as 
laro-e  an  army  at  Wagram ;  such  a  host  as  the  allies  had  must^'red 
for  the  battle  neither  he  nor  any  other  general  had  ever  seen  on  a 
single  field  since  the  first  crusade.  It  was,  as  it  were,  a  new 
crusade  against  an  enemy,  the  continuance  of  whose  supremacy 
they  felt  to  be  as  dangerous  to  the  liberties  of  all  Europe  as  that 
of  Soliman  oi:  Saladin  could  have  been  to  its  religion.  To  a 
battle  between  forces  so  disproportioned  in  strength  there  could  be 
but  one  result  Neither  the  French  Emperor's  superiority  of  skill, 


560  MODEEN  HISTOSY.  [a.d.  1813. 

nor  the  most  persevering  valour  of  his  troops,  could  save  him  from 
the  most  overwhelming  defeat.  The  very  prisoners  who  fell  into 
the  hands  of  the  allies  would  have  composed  as  large  an  army  as 
that  which  fought  at  Salamanca.^  The  number  of  killed  and 
wounded  is  hardly  known ;  but  it  was  with  less  than  90,000  men 
that  the  defeated  Emperor  now  hastened  towards  the  llhine ;  and 
even  that  number  was  reduced  before,  on  the  first  days  of  Novem- 
ber, it  crossed  the  great  river. 

To  everyone  but  himself  it  was  plain  that  France  had  no  longer 
any  means  of  carrying  on  the  war.  It  was  not  only  that  the  army 
had  suffered  enormous  losses,  but  that  the  population  itself  was 
exhausted  by  the  continued  drain  of  twenty  years  of  warfare ;  and 
a  large  proportion  of  the  recruits  recently  raised  were  far  too 
young  to  endure  the  toil  and  hardships  of  a  campaign.  Yet 
Napoleon  himself  still  breathed  nothing  but  war.  He  would 
revenge  himself  on  Russia ;  he  would  chastise  Bavaria,  which  had 
j  ust  renounced  his  alliance  ;  and  the  first  speech  which  he  made 
to  the  covmcil  of  state  on  his  return  to  Paris  was  a  demand  of  a 
fresh  levy  of  300,000  men.  Money  he  did  not  ask ;  for  he  had 
already  issued,  by  his  own  sole  authority,  decrees  imposing  a 
number  of  additional  taxes.  But  he  concluded  by  indignantly 
reproaching  the  whole  nation  for  speaking  of  peace  'wliile  all 
around  should  resound  with  the  cry  of  war.' 

Y'et  a  continuance  of  the  war  was  so  far  from  being  forced  upon 
him  that  the  allies  almost  ostentatiously  proclaimed  their  desire 
to  treat.  And  we  cannot  form  a  just  estimate  of  Napoleon's  in- 
domitable and  unaccountable  obstinacy,  unless  we  bear  in  mind 
that  during  the  next  three  months  there  was  not  one  day  on  which 
he  might  have  obtained  peace  on  honorable  terms:  on  terms 
which  would  not  only  have  secured  to  his  own  dynasty  permanent 
possession  of  the  throne,  as  far,  at  least,  as  it  depended  on  foreign 
powers,  but  which  would  also  have  left  him  a  more  extensive 
dominion  than  had  been  enjoyed  by  any  former  sovereign  of  France 
since  Charlemagne.  Our  own  government  even  offered  to  restore 
to  France  all  the  colonies  of  which  our  fleets  had  stripped  her. 
But  he  adopted  the  idea  that  his  glory  required  that  not  only  he 
himself  should  not  abandon  one  of  the  conquests  which  he  himself 
had  made ;  but  that  some  of  the  dominions  which  he  had  wrested 
from  other  princes  and  had  bestowed  on  his  own  family  should 
be  preserved  to  them  ;  and  the  very  last  proposal  which,  as  late  as 
the  middle  of  March,  he  submitted  to  the  allies,  embraced  a 
stipulation  not  only  that  he  himself  should  retain  Flanders  and  all 

^  Alison  enumerates  them  as  of  baggage ;  and  besides,  also,  23,000 
45,000  ;  besides  the  King  of  Saxony  ;  sick  and  wounded  in  Leipsio,  who 
41  generals,  250  guns ;  vast  quantities      all  fH'  into  the  conquerors'  hands. 


A.D.  1814.]  THE  ALLIES  INVADE  FIlA^'CE.  561 

the  Dutch  provinces  to  the  west  of  the  Rhine,  bnt  that  his  step- 
son, Eugene  Beauhamais,  should  become  King  of  Italy  and  should 
have  the  Netherlands  added  to  his  dominions,  with  other  equally 
preposterous  and  inadmissible  conditions.  The  only  concessions 
which  he  made  being  the  release  of  the  Pope  and  Ferdinand  of 
Spain  from  the  captivity  in  which  he  had  so  long  detained  them, 
but  which  he  now  made  a  merit  of  terminating,  not  without  a 
secret  hope  that  Ferdinand's  reappearance  in  his  kingdom  might 
cause  some  trouble  to  our  government  by  the  fresh  aspect  which  it 
might  give  to  Spanish  politics. 

Such  unreasonable  obstinacy  might  almost  warrant  his  detrac- 
tors in  denying  him  the  gift  of  statesmanlike  sagacity.  But  it 
must  be  admitted  that  if  a  superiority  of  warlike  genius  could  be 
an  excuse  for  such  presumption,  he  never  displayed  that  more 
undeniably  than  in  the  brief  campaign  of  the  following  year.  He 
was  fortunate  in  his  antagonists.  The  Austrian  general,  Prince 
Schwartzenberg  was  a  military  pedant,  too  cautious  to  be  energetic 
or  even  resolute,  easily  alarmed ;  and  somewhat  hampered  in  his 
operations  by  a  belief,  which  probably  was  not  unfounded,  that 
his  royal  master  had  no  desire,  if  it  could  be  avoided,  to  crush 
Napoleon  so  as  to  endanger  the  eventual  succession  of  his  grand- 
son to  the  French  throne.  The  Prussian  commander.  Prince 
Blucher,  who  had  also  one  or  two  Russian  divisions  attached  to 
this  army,  was  a  warrior  of  unwearied  energy  and  dauntless  re- 
solution, but  with  only  one  idea  of  strategy  or  tactics ;  Marshal 
Frowards  was  the  nickname  given  him  by  hia  men :  and  he  was  far 
too  eager  to  be  constantly  advancing  to  be  cautious  or  even  prudent. 
And  Napoleon,  who  well  knew  the  characters  of  the  two  col- 
leagues, saw  in  the  difference  between  them  a  prospect  of  defeating 
both.  Yet  they  were  no  trifling  odds  which  he  had  to  encounter. 
When,  at  the  beginning  of  the  next  year,  the  allies  crossed  the 
Rhine,  and  began  to  force  their  way  through  the  frontier  pro- 
vinces, the  whole  amount  of  the  forces  wliich  he  could  collect  to 
resist  their  advance  did  not  exceed  100,000  men ;  scarcely  more 
than  a  third  of  the  number  of  his  enemies. 

The  campaign  may  be  said  to  have  opened  in  the  last  week  of 
January ;  and  in  the  first  days  of  February  a  congress  of  diplo- 
matists met  at  Chatillon,  to  endeavour  to  effect  a  peace.  Caulain- 
court,  a  man  of  great  ability,  was  Napoleon's  representative ;  and 
not  one  of  the  statesmen  assembled  was  more  desirous  of  attaining 
tliat  object  than  he.  But  he  was  constantly  baffled  by  his  master^s 
obstinacy  and  bad  faith.  While  he  was  negotiating,  Napoleon  was 
fighting;  and  in  Napoleon's  eyes  every  fluctuation  of  fortune  in 
his  favour  justified  a  change  in  the  conditions  in  which  he  was 
willing  to  make  peace.     On  tlie  first  of  February,  when  Blucher 


562  MODERN  HISTOEY.  [a.d.  1810. 

had  overpowered  him  at  La  Rothiere,  he  consented  to  give  his 
ambassador  full  powers  to  agree  to  whatever  terms  the  conquerors 
might  impose.  On  the  tenth,  when  he  had  gained  a  trifling  advan- 
tage over  a  Russian  brigade  which  only  consisted  of  5,000  men,  he 
recalled  those  powers :  forbad  Caulaincourt  to  sign  anything ;  and 
boasted  to  some  of  the  prisoners  that  he  should  soon  dictate  peace 
to  the  Czar  on  the  Vistula.  And  each  succeeding  combat  in- 
creased his  confidence.  In  every  one  he  took  guns,  he  took  pri- 
soners ;  but  the  glory  which  he  reaped  from  his  success  was  worse 
than  barren,  it  was  costly :  since  a  trifling  diminution  of  his  force 
was  a  greater  injury  to  his  small  army  than  a  heavy  loss  to  that 
of  his  enemies.  And  though  Schwartzenberg  was  for  a  moment 
too  much  disheartened  to  perceive  this,  and  began  a  retreat  which 
could  not  have  failed  to  be  the  parent  of  disaster,  he  was  soon  over- 
ruled by  the  greater  pertinacity  of  Blucher  and  the  firm  remon- 
strances of  the  British  minister.  Lord  Castlereagh,  who,  though 
Secretary  of  state,  had  adopted  the  unusual  though  judicious  and 
beneficial  step  of  crossing  over  to  Chatillon  to  conduct  the  nego- 
tiations in  person. 

And,  again,  the  signs  of  vacillation  in  the  Austrian  policy  as 
indicated  by  their  general's  movements  and  by  the  circumstance 
of  the  Emperor  addressing  a  private  letter  of  courtesy  to  Napoleon, 
were  productive  of  further  injury  to  Napoleon  by  filling  him  with 
an  elation  which  led  him  to  place  his  pretensions  still  higher  than 
before :  while  the  rise  in  his  demands  led  the  allies,  on  the  other 
hand,  to  abate  the  concessions  which  they  had  previously  been 
willing  to  make,  from  the  conviction  which  it  forced  upon  them 
that  the  motive  which  dictated  many  of  his  proposals  was  a  reso- 
lution to  renew  the  war  at  the  first  opportunity.  They  now  re- 
fused to  treat  at  all,  except  on  the  footing  of  reducing  France  to  her 
{mcient  boundaries;  and  though  he,  in  reply,  declared  that  for  him 
to  agree  to  such  conditions  would  be  not  only  disgrace  but  treason 
to  France  ;  and,  though  he  called  on  the  whole  nation  to  rise  in  arms, 
as  the  Spaniards  had  risen  four  years  before,  his  own  French  coun- 
sellors were  still  far  from  sharing  his  opinions,  and  besought  him 
again  and  again  to  accept  the  peace  which  was  still  off'ered  to  him. 
The  minister  of  Austria,  Metternich,  pressed  the  same  advice  ; 
with  the  significant  warning  that  his  throne  was  at  stake :  but  his 
resolution  was  immovable.  All  or  nothing  was  still  his -motto.  On 
the  twenty-first  of  March  the  congress  of  Chatillon  was  broken  up, 
and  from  that  moment  all  hope  of  his  retaining  his  crown  may  be 
said  to  have  been  virtually  extinguished.  Indeed  the  end  was 
nearer  than  any  one  in  either  army  anticipated.  For  a  day  or  two 
he  still  manoeuvred  as  skilfully  and  fought  as  bravely  as  ever :  but 
he  himself  was  unable  to  achieve  any  success :  while  some  divi- 


A.D.  1814.]  PARIS  CAPITULATES.  563 

eions,  which  he  was  not  commanding,  were  defeated  with  heavy 
loss.  As  a  last  resource,  he  tried  to  alarm  tlie  allied  generala  for 
their  communications  by  marching  towards  the  Ilhino.  The 
Austrians  and  Prussians,  now  united  on  one  line,  replied  by  march- 
ing on  Paris.  The  great  city  had  no  means  of  resistance :  a  com- 
bat gallantly  maintained  by  Marmont,  and  the  scanty  garri»on, 
which  was  all  that  Napoleon  had  been  able  to  leave  for  its  de- 
fence, only  showed  how  really  defenceless  it  was.  Jofeph,  who 
had  been  driven  from  Spain  by  Wellington's  victory  at  Vitt^ma 
in  the  preceding  year,  and  who  was  now  acting  as  governor  of  the 
city,  had  no  resource  but  to  capitulate,  and  Paris  was  now  sur- 
rendered to  the  enemy. 

Now,  at  last.  Napoleon  gave  Caulaincourt  full  powers  to  treat 
and  to  conclude  a  treaty,  but  it  was  too  late.  France  itself,  at 
least  all  of  France  that  was  not  the  army,  was  weary  of  him. 
Talleyrand  himself,  that  old  revolutionist  who  had  so  long  enjoyed 
nis  confidence,  was  now  the  first  to  urge  his  dethronement,  declar- 
ing that  the  continuance  of  his  reign  was  incompatible  with  the 
peace  of  Europe ;  and  a  provisional  government  was  at  once  esta- 
blished, which,  it  was  from  the  first  seen,  could  only  lead  to 
the  restoration  of  the  Bourbons.  Burning  with  disappointment 
and  indignation,  Napoleon  called  his  chief  followers  around  him ; 
denouncing  the  capitulation,  and  proposing  to  rally  all  that  re- 
mained of  the  army,  and  to  raise  the  war  cry  of  the  independence 
of  the  country  in  the  provinces.  To  his  dismay,  he  found  that  even 
his  marshals  were  unanimous  in  protesting  against  a  continuance 
of  war.  Even  Ney  was  weary  of  fighting.  There  was  no  resource 
but  negotiation ;  and  negotiation  meant  submission  to  whatever 
terms  the  conquerors  might  dictate.  In  little  more  than  a  week 
his  fate  was  settled.  He  himself  had  been  in  the  habit  of  saying 
that  ^  from  the  sublime  to  the  ridiculous  was  but  one  step.'  And 
his  words  could  never  have  been  more  completely  veriUed  than 
they  were  when,  by  a  formal  treaty,  he  stipulated  to  retain  the 
title  of  Emperor,  and  consented  to  exchange  the  dominion  of 
France  for  that  of  Elba,  a  petty  island  off"  the  coast  of  Tuscany, 
which  though  its  Tery  existence  was  previously  unknown  to  all 
biit  a  few  miners,  was  now  suddenly  elevated  to  a  place  among 
European  principalities. 

How  truly  Talleyrand  had  spoken  when  ho  asserted  to  the 
sovereigns  at  Paris  the  desire  of  the  bulk  of  the  nation  to  be 
delivered  from  his  government  was  strikingly  shown  by  the  events 
which  took  place  during  his  journey  to  the  coast.  The  peasants 
of  the  difi*erent  provinces,  the  citizens  of  the  different  towns  had 
reaped  no  benefit  from  his  victories ;  war  to  them  had  meant  only 


564  MODEEN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1815. 

the  levying  of  enormous  imposts,  tbe  conscription  of  husbands 
and  brothers  and  sons  to  recruit  his  battalions  j  and  they  had 
lonp;  felt  that  the  object  pursued  was  not  the  prosperity  of  the 
country,  but  the  gratification  of  the  lust  of  conquest  in  one  man. 
Those  who  felt  this,  rejoiced  in  his  fall,  and  with  a  base  ferocity 
collected  on  his  road  to  insult  and  revile  him.  Some  would  even 
have  murdered  him ;  and  more  than  once  he  was  so  alarmed 
that  he  quitted  his  carriage,  .and  assumed  the  disguise  of  an  aide- 
de-camp  or  a  courier,  not  feeling  really  safe  till  he  reached  Frejus, 
and  embarked  in  an  English  frigate  for  his  new;  sovereignty. 

It  was  not  likely  that  he  would  stay  there.  The  assignment  of 
such  a  residence  to  him  was  the  shortsighted  act  of  the  Czar,  whose 
weak-minded  vanity  was  allured  by  the  opportunity  afforded  him  of 
making  a  parade  of  sentimental  generosity.  And  it  was  instantly 
protested  against  by  Lord  Castlereagh,  who  was  unluckily  absent 
when  it  was  proposed,  but  who  foresaw  and  pointed  out  the 
certainty  that  Napoleon  would  not  long  remain  in  contentment  or 
inactivity  in  a  spot  so  near  to  France  as  to  be  a  constant  tempta- 
tion, not  only  to  himself,  but  to  every  one  whom  the  aspect  of 
affairs  in  France,  or  the  slightest  personal  or  political  grievance  might 
render  discontented.  And  it  was  easy  to  foresee  that  many  inci- 
dents connected  with  or  flowing  from  a  restoration  must  inevitably 
create  discontent.  The  feeling  which  the  sagacious  British  minister 
predicted  was  soon  sown,  and  soon  ripened ;  in  less  than  ten  months 
IS^apoleon  thought  the  pear  once  more  ripe;  he  quitted  Elba,  with 
a  few  companies  of  his  old  guard,  whom,  by  an  imprudence  as 
unaccountable  as  that  which  gave  him  his  principality,  he  had 
been  allowed  to  retain  in  his  service  ;  landed  on  the  French  coast, 
and  at  once  began  to  march  towards  Paris.  His  reception  as  he 
passed  on  afforded  a  curious  specimen  of  the  innate  levity  and 
fickleness  of  the  French  people.  In  1814  his  life  was  hardly  safe  : 
In  1815  the  populace,  who  would  have  torn  him  to  pieces  as  he 
was  departing,  hailed  his  return  with  acclamations.  The  troops 
who  were  sent  to  arrest  his  progress  joined  him,  shouting  his 
name,  and  often  even  weeping  for  joy.  Ney  himself,  who  a  year 
before  had  been  one  of  the  most  outspoken  and  decided  in  his 
protests  against  sacrificing  the  nation  to  the  ambition  of  one  man, 
yielded  to  the  general  enthusiasm,  and,  though  he  had  accepted  a 
command  from  Louis  XVIII.  on  purpose  to  arrest  his  progress, 
joined  him  with  his  whole  force.  The  march  to  Paris  was  one  long 
triumph.  Louis  XVIII.  fled  to  Ghent  and,  on  the  twentieth  of 
March  Napoleon  reached  Paris;  and  resumed  the  occupation  of  the 
Tuileries  with  as  little  opposition  as  on  the  day  when  he  first 
placed  the  Imperial  crown  on  his  head. 

Everywhere  on  his  march  he  had  spoken  of  himself  as  bringinp^ 


A.D.  1815.]  THE  ALLIES  DECLARE  WAR.  665 

the  country  no  lonp^er  war  but  peace.  lie  had  professed  to  hail 
it  as  an  omen  of  his  future  reign  that  the  boat  which  bore  him 
from  the  ship  to  the  shore  was  moored  to  the  trunk  of  an  olive- 
tree.  Pie  had  confessed  to  the  people  of  Grenoble  that  in  fonner 
days  he  had  been  too  fond  of  war,  and  had  promised  to  wn}?e  it 
no  longer.  He  had  won  Ney  by  declaring  that  there  should  be 
no  more  war.  His  language  to  the  chief  bodies  in  Paris,  to  the 
most  influential  individuals,  and  even  to  the  troops  breathed  the 
same  spirit.  But  the  maintenance  of  peace  did  not  depend  on 
him ;  or  rather  it  was  incompatible  with  the  position  in  which  he 
had  placed  himself.  A  congress  of  ambassadors  from  every  state 
in  Europe  was  sitting  at  Vienna  when  he  landed  in  France. 
Every  sovereign  instantly  declared  war  against  him  :  every  army 
was  again  put  on  a  war  footing ;  and  in  a  few  weeks  those  which 
were  first  ready,  an  army  of  Prussians  under  Blucher,  and  a  mixed 
force  of  British,  Ilanoveiians,  Dutch  and  Belgians,  under  the 
Duke  of  Wellington,  were  collected  in  and  around  BrusselB, 
waiting  for  the  development  of  his  plans.  From  his  first  arrival 
in  Paris,  Napoleon  had  met  with  greater  difficulties  then  he  had 
expected.  Each  of  the  different  political  parties,  however  wide 
the  diversity  of  the  opinions  on  other  subjects,  agreed  in  en- 
deavouring to  extort  from  his  necessities  concessions  favorable  to 
their  views,  while  the  royalists,  who  had  never  been  extinguished 
in  La  Vendue,  at  once  rose  in  insurrection  to  maintain  the  cause 
of  Louis  XVIIL,  who  had  fled  to  Ghent.  Against  the  VendAins 
the  restored  Emperor  at  once  sent  a  small  army,  which  easily 
defeated  them.  The  politicians  he  postponed  dealing  with  till 
the  result  of  his  own  campaign,  of  which  he  was  very  sanguine, 
should  strengthen  his  hands.  Meantime  he  applied  himself  with 
his  habitual  vigour  to  the  task  of  organising  a  body  of  troops  for 
instant  operations.  And  so  judicious  were  his  measures,  and  so 
eager  the  enthusiasm  of  the  army,  that  by  the  beginning  of  June 
he  had  130,000  men  and  350  guns  ready  to  open  the  campaign  in 
Flanders ;  and  nearly  as  many  more  on  different  parts  of  the 
Rhenish  frontier.  I  have  said  that  he  was  sanguine  of  the  result 
of  his  first  operations,  and  it  is  not  improbable  that  the  antagonists 
to  whom  he  was  first  to  be  opposed  were  exactly  those  whom  he 
would  have  preferred.  He  had  long  established  his  superioritj 
over  all  the  continental  generals  :  a  victory  over  the  great  English 
commander,  to  whom  all  his  most  skilful  marshals  had  successively 
proved  unequal,  was  the  only  thing  wanting  to  the  consummation 
of  his  military  glory ;  and  he  was  quite  aware  that  Wellington 
was  taking  the  field  under  great  disadvantages.  A  large  portion 
of  his  Peninsular  army  was  absent  in  America  j  and  more 
than  half  of  the  force  which,  at  the  moment  he  had  under  his 


566  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1816. 

orders,  consisted  of  Dutch,  Belgians,  Brunswickers  and  Ha- 
noverians, many  of  whom  Napoleon  with  reason  believed  to  be 
unwilling  to  fight  against  him.  Even  of  the  British  regiments 
many  were  made  up  for  the  most  part  of  new  levies;  men  whom 
Napoleon  had  good  reason  to  hope  would  make  but  a  feeble  stand 
against  his  veterans;  so  that  when,  on  quitting  Paris,  he  ex- 
claimed that  he  was  *  going  to  measure  himself  with  Wellington,' 
lie  no  doubt  felt  assured  that  he  had  rarely  entered  on  a  campaign 
under  more  favorable  auspices.  Of  Blucher  he  made  but  little 
account.  The  campaign  of  1814  had  naturally  given  him  a  very 
mean  opinion  of  the  old  marshal's  skill ;  and  he  could  not  foresee 
how  circumstances  would  render  the  veteran's  indomitable  courage 
as  efficacious  as  the  most  brilliant  genius. 

In  one  point  Wellington  had  an  advantage  over  him,  of  which 
he  was  not  aware.  In  the  preceding  autumn  the  duke  had  made 
a  minute  survey  of  the  country  ;  and  had  especially  remarked  a 
plain  in  front  of  the  village  of  Waterloo  as  afibrding  an  unusually 
favorable  position  for  an  army,  if  hereafter  it  should  be  necessary 
to  protect  Brussels  against  a  French  invasion.  So  highly,  indeed, 
had  he  estimated  it,  that  he  had  employed  the  engineer  officers  on 
his  staff"  to  make  a  careful  plan  of  the  plain  and  the  adjacent 
ground  :  and  he  was  now  destined  to  reap  the  advantage  of  his 
foresight.^ 

On  the  twelfth  of  June  Napoleon  left  Paris,  and  on  the  four- 
teenth reached  Avesnes :  a  fortress  not  many  miles  from  the 
Flemish  frontier ;  where  his  army  was  eagerly  waiting  his  arrival. 
He  lost  no  time.  Of  the  allies  the  Prussian  army  was  the  most 
advanced  ;  being  spread  over  a  line  of  cantonments  just  within  the 
frontier  :  the  British  outposts  were  almost  equally  forward ;  but, 
as  Wellington  had  to  cover  not  only  Brussels  but  Ghent,  and  as  not 
fewer  than  five  roads  led  from  the  district  occupied  by  the  French 
to  those  great  cities,  he  was  .forced  to  keep  his  head-quarters  at 
Brussels  till  the  line  of  Napoleon's  advance  should  be  distinctly 
pronounced.  Some  skirmishes  on  the  fifteenth  revealed  the  Em- 
peror's design  :  Blucher  fell  back  to  Ligny.  Wellington  moved 
forward  to  support  his  outposts  at  a  small  hamlet  known,  from  the 
manner  in  which  at  that  point  the  road  from  Lille  to  Namur 
crosses  the  road  from  Charleroi  to  Brussels,  as  Les  Quatre  Bras. 
And  on  the  sixteenth  the  great  battle  may  be  said  to  have  begun, 
than  which  the  whole  revolutionary  war,  full  of  struggles  and 
triumphs  as  it  had  been,  had  seen  none  on  which  the  future  for- 
tunes of  the  world  had  so  much  depended. 

The  object  of  Napoleon  was  to  separate  the  two  allied  armies, 

^  A  facsimile  of  a  part  of  the  plan  is  given  in  the  author's  life  of  the 
Duke  of  Wellington,  vol.  i.  p.  564. 


i.D.  1815.]  THE  BATTLES  OF  LIGNY  AND  QUATRE  BRAS.  567 

which  as  yet  were  in  close  communication  :  and  on  the  afternoon 
of  the  sixteenth,  he  fell  on  the  I'russians  with  a  force  equal  to  their 
own:  sending  Ncy  with  a  stout  division  of  18,000  men  to  attack 
the  British  advanced  guard,  which  as  yet  was  all  that  had  been  seen 
at  Quatre  Bras,  and  keeping  another  strong  division  in  reserve  to 
support  either  himself  or  Ney,  whenever  assistance  might  be  needed. 
Blucher  was  decisively  beaten ;  his  arrangements  were  so  unskilful 
that  Wellington,  who  visited  him  in  the  morning,  warned  him 
that  his  defeat  was  inevitable :  and  the  warning  was  justified, 
though  the  old  marshal  redeemed  his  want  of  skill  by  the  most 
heroic  gallantry.  But  Wellington's  repulse  of  Ney's  attacks 
counterbalanced  that  disaster :  and  enabled  him  still  to  keep  open 
the  communication  between  the  two  armies  ;  and  still  to  continue 
his  operations  with  his  indomitable  ally.  Blucher,  who  had  been 
driven  from  his  position  at  Ligny,  had  fallen  back  on  Wavre  :  his 
retreat  rendered  a  corresponding  movement  desirable  for  Welling- 
ton, though  victorious ;  who,  accordingly  drew  back  his  army  also ; 
and,  on  the  evening  of  the  seventeenth,  took  up  his  position  on  the 
very  ground  which,  ten  months  before,  he  had  selected  as  a 
battle-field.  The  whole  history  of  war  affords  no  similar  example 
of  skilful  foresight  so  completely  realised. 

He  had  no  doubt  that  on  the  next  day,  his  and  his  comrade's 
positions  would  be  reversed :  that  he  should  now  have  to  bear  the 
brunt  of  Napoleon's  attack:  and,  expecting  to  be  outnumbered, 
and  aware  of  the  inferior  quality  of  many  of  his  troops,  he  sent  a 
message  to  Blucher  to  explain  to  him  that  he  designed  to  give 
Napoleon  battle  where  he  stood,  provided  the  prince  could  come 
to  his  support  with  one  division  of  his  army.  Blucher  replied,  that 
he  would  come  not  with  one  division  only,  but  with  his  whole 
force  ;  and  Wellington,  knowing  well  how  implicitly  he  might  bo 
relied  on,  began  at  once  to  make  his  arrangements  to  avail  himself 
of  the  few  advantages  which  the  ground  offered  ;  occupying  one  or 
two  farmhouses  in  front  of  his  line  j  loopholing  the  walls ;  erecting 
barricades  across  one  or  two  roads,  and  employing  every  expedient 
which  ingenuity  could  suggest  to  enable  his  troops,  many  of 
vk'hom  needed  every  support  and  encouragement  that  could  be 
desired,  to  meet  the  coming  storm. 

How  terrible  that  storm  would  be  no  man  knew  better ;  for,  as 
no  man  had  ever  lived,  both  from  knowledge  and  from  candour, 
more  capable  of  appreciating  skill  in  an  enemy  than  Wellington, 
80  no  man  had  ever  entertained  a  higher  opinion  of  Napoleon's 
genius.  Napoleon  himself,  on  the  other  hand,  had  one  Tery 
dangerous  weakness,  a  proneness  to  despise  and  disparage  his 
antiigonists.  He  knew  that  he  was  superior  in  numbers  to 
Wellington,  by  some  thousands  of  men,  and  by  nearly  ICO  guns. 


568  MODEEN  HJSTOEY.  [a.d.  1813. 

And  when,  having  kept  cjose  to  the  British  army  in  its  retreat 
during  the  whole  of  the  seventeenth,  on  the  morning  of  the 
eighteenth  he  saw  them  in  battle  array  awaiting  his  attack,  he 
spoke  of  his  triumph  over  them  as  confidently  as  if  the  battle  was 
over.  '  At  last,'  said  he,  *  at  last  I  have  them,  these  English.' 
And  when  Soult,  who  was  by  his  side,  warned  him  that  he  had 
never  yet  met  an  infantry  such  as  the  English  who,  *  would  die  ere 
they  quitted  the  ground  on  which  they  stood,'  and  when  the 
warniag  was  re-echoed  by  more  than  one  of  those  who  had  tried 
in  vain  to  stand  against  them  in  Spain  and  Guienne,  they  elicited 
no  reply  but  a  disdainful  smile. 

In  one  point  of  view  the  battle  was  fought  in  a  manner  favorable 
to  Napoleon.  He,  as  I  have  had  occasion  to  mention  before,  was, 
even  in  the  eyes  of  his  warmest  admirers,  but  a  poor  tactician. 
Wellington  had  never  had  an  equal  in  the  art  of  handling  troops 
under  fire,  and  more  than  one  of  his  battles  had  been  gained 
mainly  by  his  pre-eminent  superiority  in  that  branch  of  skill. 
But  at  Waterloo  there  was  but  little  room  for  display  of  tactics. 
The  French  relied  on  a  repetition  of  assaults  made  on  the  British 
line,  in  great  strength,  and  with  the  most  brilliant  impetuosity  of 
valour.  The  object  of  the  British  commander  was  simply  to  with- 
stand and  repel  those  attacks  till  the  Prussians  should  join  him,  when 
he  might  quit  his  attitude  of  defence,  and  become  the  assailant  in 
his  turn.  And  thus,  from  before  midday  till  late  in  the  afternoon, 
the  battle  raged.  The  superior  artillery  of  the  French  keeping  up 
a  ceaseless  fire  ;  Ney  leading  on  heavy  columns  of  infantry  against 
the  British  line  ;  Kellermann,  the  hero  of  Marengo,  Milhaud,  and 
other  generals  of  equal  skill  and  gallantry,  bringing  up  their 
cuirassiers  to  charge  regiment  after  regiment,  which,  throwing 
themselves  into  squares,  repelled  their  assailants  with  the  most 
deadly  fire  to  which  cavalry  had  even  been  exposed.  In  such  a 
conflict  science  was  but  slightly  called  forth.  It  was,  as  Wellington 
said  to  those  around  him,  'hard  pounding,'  adding,  however,  that  his 
men  *  would  pound  the  longest.'  At  last  the  leading  battalions  of 
the  Prussians  began  to  appear  on  the  right  flank  of  the  French  ;  and 
both  the  commanders  saw  that  the  critical  moment  was  come. 
Wellington's  victory  was  assured,  if  he  could  hold  his  ground  for 
a  brief  time  longer  till  his  allies  should  have  come  up  in  strength 
sufiicient  to  take  an  active  part  in  the  fray.  All  hope  was  gone 
from  Napoleon,  unless  he  could  break  the  British,  not  one  regiment 
of  whom  had  yet  given  w\ay  throughout  the  day,  before  the 
arrival  of  the  new  reinforcement.  All  that  could  be  done  he  did. 
He  detached  a  brigade  of  guards  under  Count  Lobau,  one  of  his 
most  experienced  oflicers,  to  hold  the  Prussians  in  check.  And  he 
Bent  Ney,  the  hero  of  the  Russian  retreat,  the  bravest  of  the  brave, 


A.D.  1816.]  THE  BATTLE  OF  WATERLOO.  569 

with  the  reserve,  the  flower  of  the  army,  the  Old  Guard,  inDintry 
and  cavalry,  to  make  one  last  eflbrt  for  victory. 

On  they  came ;  a  cloud  of  skirmishers  preceding  thera  and 
screeninjy  their  movements  by  tlie  smoke  of  their  ceaselesH  fire ; 
but  Wellington  had  foreseen  this,  as  he  had  foreseen  the  direction 
of  Napoleon's  other  most  vigorous  efforts.  lie  met  the  assailanta 
in  front  with  his  heavy  infantry.  His  light  infantry  was  wheeled 
round  upon  their  flanks ;  and  in  a  few  minutes  the  whole  of  the 
advancing  force  was  thrown  into  confusion  and  routed  so  com- 
pletely that  even  Napoleon  himself  could  not  rally  them.  Wel- 
lington, seeing  that  the  Prussians  were  by  this  time  beginning  to 
make  themselves  felt,  gave  them  no  time  to  recover,  but  led  on 
his  whole  army  to  the  charge.  The  events  of  the  day,  the 
unvaried  fruitlessness  of  all  their  efforts  had  disheartened  even 
those  French  brigades  "which  were  as  yet  unbroken.  Not  one 
could  make  a  stand  against  the  exulting  onset  of  the  British.  It 
was  in  vain  that  Napoleon,  undaunted  as  ever,  threw  himself  into 
one  of  the  squares  of  his  guard  in  the  vain  hope  that  they  might 
yet  stem  the  torrent.  In  a  few  minutes  they  too  were  driven 
back ;  and,  exclaiming  that '  All  was  lost  for  the  present,'  he  at 
last  rode  slowly  from  the  field. 

We  need  not  pursue  his  career  further.  His  abdication  of  an 
authority  of  which,  since  his  return  from  Elba,  he  can  hardly  have 
been  said  ever  to  have  had  legal  possession,  met  the  fate  which  lie 
must  have  foreseen  for  it,  and  was  entirely  disregarded.  His 
attempts  to  escape  to  America  were  baffled  by  the  English  cruisers. 
Finally,  he  surrendered  to  an  English  ship  of  war;  and,  by  the 
English  government  was  detained  for  the  rest  of  his  life  in  the 
island  of  St.  Helena,  with  the  unanimous  sanction  of  every  nation 
in  Europe  who  had  learned  by  bitter  experience  that  peace  was 
incompatible  with  his  liberty.  With  how  little  magnanimity  he 
bore  his  fall ;  how,  though  he  was  magnificently  treated,  though 
he  was  allowed  the  society  of  some  of  his  favourite  officers  and 
their  families,  and,  indeed,  every  indulgence  that  was  compatible 
with  his  safe  detention,  he  vexed  Europe  and  degraded  himself 
by  childish  and  impotent  querulousness,  it  isneedless  to  recapitulate. 
After  a  captivity  of  six  years  he  died  of  a  cancerous  complaint, 
of  the  same  nature  as  the  disease  which  had  proved  fatal  to  his 
father,  leaving  behind  him  in  his  will  a  sad  proof,  not  so  much  of 
his  undying  animosity  to  England,  as  of  his  continued  disregard 
for  every  principle  of  honour  and  humanity,  by  bequeathing  a 
large  legacy  to  a  wretch  named  Chatillon,  only  known  by  ao 
attempt  to  assassinate  the  Duke  of  Wellington. 

The  character  of  one  who  rose  so  high,  who  fell  so  completely, 
and  whose  elevation  and  fall  were  so  entirely  owing  to  his  own 


570  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1815. 

genius  and  his  own  errors,  it  is  not  easy  to  portray :  though  less 
difficult  now  than  in  his  lifetime  during  which  he  exercised  so 
strange  a  fascination  over  the  minds  of  his  contemporaries,  that 
even  in  Britain  he  had  admirers  so  enthusiastic  that  they  could 
hardly  wish  success  to  the  arms  of  tlieir  own  country  when  warring 
against  them.  But  now  that  half  a  century  has  elapsed  since  he 
•was  removed  from  the  vrorld,  when  those  who  marvelled  at  his 
victories  and  those  who  groaned  under  his  severity  have  alike 
passed  with  him  from  the  scene,  it  is  not  too  soon  to  expect  from 
history  a  calm  and  unprejudiced  verdict. 

As  a  general  he  has  had  no  superior,  and  probably  but  one  equal. 
No  one  has  ever  had  such  vast  masses  of  troops  under  his  com- 
mand ;  no  one  has  ever  guided  the  operations  of  far  smaller  armies 
with  more  consummate  strategical  skill.  Wellington,  who  alone 
can  be  compared  with  him,  had  no  opportunity  of  displaying  his 
strategy  on  so  grand  a  scale.  On  the  other  hand,  if  his  pre-eminent 
genius  achieved  some  unequalled  triumphs  ;  if  it  opened  to  him  the 
gates  of  every  capital  on  the  continent  of  Europe  as  its  conqueror, 
it  is  equally  notorious  that  he  met  with  disasters  such  as  no  other 
commander  of  the  first  class,  not  even  Frederic  the  Great,  ever 
incurred,  and  that  they  were  solely  attributable  to  his  own  want 
of  judgment,  and  to  his  failure  to  proportion  his  enterprises  to  his 
means.  In  tactical  ability  he  was  far  inferior  to  his  British  rival. 
And  in  j  udgment  he  must  be  pronounced  equally  inferior  to  him 
who  never  lost  a  battle ;  who,  in  six  successive  campaigns,  wrested 
Portugal  and  Spain  from  his  grasp,  defeating  all  his  ablest  mar- 
shals ;  and  finally  crowned  his  exploits  by  the  victory  over  the 
Emperor  himself,  which  has  j  ust  been  recorded.  Napoleon  has  him- 
self said  that  in  war  the  game  is  with  him  who  commits  the  fewest 
faults.  And,  if  we  allow  the  brilliancy  and  orginality  of  genius 
displayed  in  Napoleon's  early  campaigns  in  Italy,  in  those  which 
led  to  Austerlitz  and  Friedland,  and  in  his  contest  against  the 
overpowering  hosts  of  the  allies  on  the  plains  of  Champagne,  so  to 
counterbalance  his  undeniable  blunders,  his  loss  of  his  army  in 
Russia,  and  his  deficiencies  as  a  tactician,  as  to  place  him  on  a  level 
with  Wellington,  his  warmest  admirers  cannot  justly  ask  for  him 
a  more  candid  judgment  nor  a  higher  rank. 

But,  as  we  have  seen,  he  was  not  only  a  general.  He  was  a 
ruler  of  a  great  kingdom.  And,  in  one  respect,  he  might  have 
been  regarded  as  exceptionally  fortunate  in  the  circumstances 
under  which  he  attained  a  power  to  which  he  had  not  been  born, 
had  it  not  been  for  his  wanton  perversity  of  disposition ;  inasmuch 
as  he  acquired  the  supreme  authority  without  having  been  in  the 
least  implicated  in  the  foul  and  horrid  crimes  which  had  left  the 
throne  vacant.    lie  had  not  murdered  his  sovereign  like  Cromwell, 


A.D.  1815.]  CHARACTER  OF  NAPOLEON.  571 

nor,  whatever  opinion  may  be  formed  of  the  intrigues  and  violence 
by  which  the  consulate  was  founded,  can  his  assumption  of  the 
Imperial  dignity  be  called  an  usurpation.  On  the  contrary,  it  waa 
conferred  on  hira  by  the  almost  unanimous  voice  of  the  people, 
fascinated  by  his  military  glory,  and  eager  for  any  government 
which  promised  stability  and  tranquillity.  It  was  the  mere 
wantonness  of  contempt  for  all  restraints  of  national  law,  of 
humanity,  of  religion,  and  of  public  opinion,  that  induced  him, 
when  he  might  have  sat  on  an  unstained  throne,  to  defile  his  new 
dignity  with  the  murder  of  a  royal  prince,  and  to  shed  innocent 
blood  for  no  other  object  than  that  of  striking  terror,  and,  as  he 
said  himself,  of  showing  the  world  of  what  he  was  capable  if  en- 
dangered or  even  irritated.  And  the  consideration  of  this  most 
unprovoked  atrocity  leads  us  to  remark  his  one  great  pervading 
fault,  which  goes  far  to  neutralise  all  his  brilliant  abilities,  to  efface 
all  his  great  deeds,  and  which  indeed  is  incompatible  with  real 
greatness.  lie  was  not  cruel,  but  he  was  utterly  selfish,  heartless, 
callous ;  he  measured  everything  by  its  bearing,  real  or  fancied, 
on  his  personal  interests.  The  feeling  is  hardly  so  fully  shown  in 
his  slaughter  of  his  prisoners  at  Jaffa  (an  act,  but  little  inferior  in 
its  heinous  ferocity  to  Cromwell's  massacres  at  Drogheda  and  at 
Wexford),  as  in  the  defence  which  he  was  wont  to  make  for  the 
deed :  as  if  the  mere  chance  of  his  being  inconvenienced  by  the 
release  of  the  captives  were  to  be  accepted  by  all  the  world  as  a 
sufficient  reason  for  their  murder :  a  crime  so  horrible  and  so  need- 
less that  some  even  of  his  own  officers  recoiled  from  taking  pait 
in  it. 

It  was  this  same  invariable  and  inveterate  selfishness  which  led 
him  to  such  acts  of  meaunets  and  perfidy  as  the  foi^ery  attempted 
in  the  Concordat ;  the  unparalleled  hypocrisy  with  which,  in  E^pt, 
he  professed  himself  a  Mahometan  ;  the  detention  of  the  British 
travellers  ;  the  kidnapping  of  the  Spanish  princes.  And  to  it  we 
may  also  trace  that  habitual  disregard  of  truth  which  tain  ed  his 
conversation,  his  despatches,  and  even  his  familiar  letters;  and 
which  constantly  led  him  to  endeavour  to  throw  the  blame  of 
every  blunder  and  mishap  on  others,  as  well  as  the  shameleBsneas 
which  made  him  perfectly  indifferent  to  detection. 

As  we  have  seen,  he  professed  a  desire  to  be  remembered  by 
posterity  rather  for  his  triumphs  of  peace  than  for  those  of  war. 
And,  though  he  probably  never  was  less  sincere  than  when  he  said 
so,  no  estimate  of  him  would  be  fair  which  left  out  of  sight  his 
labours  as  a  jurist  and  a  legislator,  or  the  comprehensive  view 
which  he  took  of  the  measures  best  calculated  to  promote  the 
general  advance  of  the  nation  in  material  prosperity.  Even  if  his 
policy  in  these  matters  was  prompted  by  a  view  to  his  own 


572  MODERN  HISTORY.  [a.d.  1815. 

aggrandisement,  to  the  increase  of  his  own  power  and  glory,  yet 
selfishness  itself,  when  thus  exerted  for  the  benefit  of  a  nation, 
either  ceases  to  be  a  vice,  or  so  closely  resembles  virtue  as  to  dis- 
arm our  blame.  Nor,  in  regarding  I^apoleon  as  a  ruler  of  men, 
should  we  overlook  that  force  jf  character  by  which  he  bent  all 
those  with  whom  he  came  in  contact  to  his  views,  even  the  leaders 
of  different  parties  in  France  whose  professed  principles  were  in 
the  most  direct  antagonism  to  his  authority :  nor  his  singular 
fascination  of  manner,  which  often  won  over  those  whom  neither 
respect  for  his  genius  nor  even  fear  of  his  authority  could  subdue. 
To  those  who  solely  regard,  as  for  many  years  his  countrymen 
solely  regarded  his  bravery,  his  genius  for  war,  his  energy,,  his  ex- 
tensive capacity  for  government,  it  is  not  strange  that  he  appeared  a 
hero  of  unequalled  greatness.  To  those  who  fixed  their  eyes  on  his 
selfishness,  his  want  of  magnanimity,  his  callous  contempt  for  the 
rights  of  nations,  and  of  humanity ;  his  acts  of  perfidy,  meanness, 
and  falsehood,  we  cannot  wonder  that  he  seemed  one  of  the  worst 
and  most  detestable  of  tyrants.  But  it  is  the  province  of  history 
to  correct  such  precipitate  and  one-sided  judgments.  And  the 
equitable  candour  of  posterity,  following  many  of  his  exploits 
with  deserved  admiration,  and  not  refusing  to  make  some  allow- 
ance for  his  faults,  in  consideration  of  the  utter  demoralisation  of 
his  adopted  country,  and  of  the  age  in  which  he  lived,  will  pro- 
nounce him  certainly  not  the  worst  of  great  men,  but  rather  the 
greatest  of  bad  men.^ 

*  There  sank  the  greatest,  nor  the  -worst  of  men. 

Byron,  Childe  Harold,  iii.  36. 

The  authorities  for  this  and  the  ence.      The    Jlemoirs  of  de  Bour- 

two  preceding  chapters  are  almost  rienne,  Savar}',  Las  Cases,  Matthieu 

too  numerous  to  quote.    Among  the  Dumas,    la    Duchesse    d'Abrantts ; 

most    important    are     Ilistoire    de  Se'gur's  Russian  Expedition ;  Alison's 

Napoleon   ler,  par  P.  Lanfrey  (of  History   of  Europe  ;   Thiers's    Con- 

which  only  four  volumes  are  yet  pub  sulat  et  I  ^Empire  ;  Memoires  de  Con- 

lished)  J    the  Napoleon    Correspond-  salvi,  par  M.  Creteneau-Joly,  &c.  &c. 


D.  Appleton  &  Compamfs  Publications. 


EIGHTEEN  CHRISTIAN  CENTURIES. 

By  the  Rev.  JAMES  WHITE, 

AXTTHOE  OF  A  niSTOKY  OP  FEANCE. 

1  vol.,  12mo.    Cloth.    538  pages $1.76. 


OOKTTElSrTS. 

I.  Cent.— The  Bad  Emperors.— II.  The  Good  Emperors.— III.  Anarchy  and 
Confusion.- Growth  of  the  Christian  Church.— IV.  The  Eemoval  to  Constantinople. 
—Establishment  of  Christianity.— Apostasy  of  Julian.— Settlement  of  the  Goths.— 
V.  End  of  the  Roman  Empire. — Formation  of  Modern  States. — Growth  of  Ecclesi- 
astical Authority.— VI.  Belisarius  and  Narses  in  Italy.— Settlement  of  the  Lom. 
bards.— Laws  of  Justinian.- Birth  of  Mohammed.— VII.  Power  of  Kome  supported 
by  the  Monks.— Conquests  of  the  Mohammedans.— VIII.  Temporal  Power  of  the 
Popes.—The  Empire  of  Charlemagne.- IX.  Dismemberment  of  Charlemagne's 
Empire.— Danish  Invasion  of  England.— Weakness  of  France.- Reign  of  Alfred.— 
X.  Darkness  and  Despair.— XI.  The  Commencement  of  Improvement— Gregory 
the  Seventh.— First  Crusade.- XII.  Elevation  of  Learning.— Power  of  the  Church, 
—Thomas  k  Becket.— XIII.  First  Crusade  against  Heretics.— The  Albigenses.— 
Magna  Charta.— Edward  L— XIV.  Abolition  of  the  Order  of  Templars.- Rise  of 
Modern  Literature.— Schism  of  the  Church.— XV.  Decline  of  Feudalism.— Agin- 
court. — Joan  of  Arc— The  Printing-Press.— Discovery  of  America. — XVI.  Tho 
Reformation.— The  Jesuits.— Policy  of  Elizabeth.— XVII.  English  Rebellion  and 
Revolution.— Despotism  of  Louis  the  Foiu'teenth.— XVIII.  India.— America.— 
France. — Index. 


OPINIONS    OF    THS:    PRE^S. 

Mr.  White  possesses  in  a  high  degree  the  power  -^f  epitomizing— that  faculty 
which  enables  him  to  distill  the  essence  from  a  mass  of  facts,  and  to  condense  it  in 
description;  a  battle,  siege,  or  other  remarkable  event,  which,  without  his  skill, 
might  occupy  a  chapter,  is  compressed  within  the  compass  of  a  page  or  two,  and 
this  without  the  sacrifice  of  any  feature  essential  or  significant.— CWi^wry. 

Mr.  White  has  been  very  happy  in  touching  upon  the  salient  points  in  the  history 
of  each  century  in  the  Christian  era,  and  yet  has  avoided  making  his  work  a  mcra 
bald  analysis  or  chronological  table. — Providence  Journal. 

In  no  single  volume  of  English  literature  can  so  satisfying  and  clear  an  idea  ot 
the  historical  character  of  these  eighteen  centuries  be  obtained. — Home  Journal. 

In  this  volume  we  have  the  best  epftome  of  Cheistian  Histobt  extaxt. 
This  is  high  praise,  but  at  the  same  time  just.  The  author's  peculiar  success  is  in 
making  the  great  points  and  facts  of  history  stand  out  in  sharp  relief.  His  style 
may  be  said  to  bo  stebeoscopic,  and  the  effect  is  exceedingly  Impressive.— i^wci' 
dence  Press. 


THE  LIFE  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER, 

By   GEORGE    TICKNOR   CURTIS. 

Illustrated  with  elegant  Steel  Portraits,  and  Fine  Woodcuts  of 
Different  Views  at  Franklin  and  Marshfield. 

In  two  vols.,  small  8vo Price,  $6.00. 


OPINIONS  OF  THE  PRESS. 

From  the  London  Saturday  Revieic. 
"  We  believe  the  present  work  to  be  a  most  valuable  and  important  contribution  to 
the  history  of  American  parties  and  politics." 

Fr(mi  the  New  York  Tribune, 
"  Of  Mr.  Curtis's  labor  we  wish  to  record  our  opinion,  in  addition  to  what  we  have 
already  said,  that,  in  the  writing  of  this  book,  he  has  made  a  most  valuable  conti-ibution 
to  the  best  class  of  our  literature." 

From  the  New  York  Journal  of  Commerce. 
"  The  author  has  made  it  a  very  readable  volume,  a  model  biography  of  a  most  gifted 
man,  wherein  the  intermingling  of  the  statesman  and  lawyer  wiih  the  husband,  father, 
and  friend,  is  painted  so  that  we  feel  the  reaUty  of  the  picture." 

From  the  Boston  Post. 
"Mr.  Curtis  has  accomplished  his  labor  with  a  fidelity  that  demonstrates  how  truly 
it  was  inspired  by  love.  From  earliest  boyhood,  through  his  protracted  professional  and 
public  career,  he  has  followed  the  rising  and  expanding  fortunes  of  his  distinguished 
subject,  sketched  the  growth  and  operations  of  liis  mind,  portrayed  his  domestic  life, 
shown  the  power  of  his  speech  over  courts.  Senate,  and  people,  and  given  us  Webster 
more  as  he  was  than  we  have  had  him  before  us  since  he  disappeared  from  the  sight 
of  men.  This  'Life  of  Webster'  is  a  monument  to  both  subject  and  author,  and  one 
that  will  stand  well  the  wear  of  time." 

From  tJie  Boston  Courier. 
"  It  may  be  considered  great  praise,  but  we  think  that  Mr.  Curtis  has  written  the 
life  of  Daniel  Webster  as  it  ought  to  be  written." 

From  the  Boston  Journal. 
"  Mr.  Curtis,  it  will  be  remembered,  was  one  of  the  literary  executors  named  by 
Mr.  Webster,  in  his  will,  to  do  this  work,  and  owing  to  the  death  of  two  of  the  others, 
Mr.  Everett  and  President  Felton,  and  the  advanced  age  of  Mr.  Ticknor,  Mr.  Curtis 
has  prepared  the  biography  himself  and  it  has  passed  under  Mr.  Ticknor's  revision. 
We  believe  the  work  will  satisfy  the  wishes  of  Mr.  Webster's  most  devoted  friends." 

From  the  Chicago  Journal. 
"  I  rejoice  that  the  life  and  character  of  Webster  are  so  large  and  so  precious  an 
inheritance  to  us  all.  Mr.  Curtis  has  handled  his  task  with  judgment,  and  made  an  ef- 
fective and  exceedingly  satisfactory  book,  one  to  take  its  unquestioned  place  with  the 
Invaluable  memorials  of  American  progress  which  we  owe  to  Palfrey,  Bancroft,  and 
other  American  historical  writers  of  the  first  rank." 

From  the  Springfield  Daily  BepuUican. 
"■  In  the  execution  of  his  task,  which  he  truly  calls  a  labor  of  love,  Mr.  Curtis  has 
done  his  best,  and  his  success  is  greater  than  we  had  reason  to  expect.    The  book  is 
interesting — it  could  scarcely  be  otherwise — and  gives  much  information  that  is  either 
new  or  had  been  generally  forgotten." 

From  the  St.  Louis  BepuUican. 
"It  is  a  work  which  will  eventually  find  its  way  into  every  library,  and  almost 
every  family." 

D.  APPLETON  &  CO.,  Publishers,  New  York. 


D.  APPLETON  &  CO.'S  PUBLICATIONS. 


THE  ONLY  COMPLETE  AND  UNIFOEM  EDITIO 


LORD  MACAULAY'S  WORKS, 

EDITKO   BT  UIS  8ISTEB, 

LADY    TREVEIL.YAN. 

8  Vols.,  larg-e  8vo.     Price,  cloth,  $32.00  ;   half  calf  extra, 

$48.00  ;  full  calf  extra,   $52.00.    Beautifully  printed  in 

largre  clear  type,  on  thick  toned  paper,  with  a  fine 

portrait  engraved  on  steel  by  W.  Holl. 


In  preparing?  for  publication  a  complete  and  uniform  edition  of  Lord 
Macaulay's  Works,  it  has  been  thought  right  to  inchulo  some  portion  of  what 
he  placed  on  record  as  a  jurist  in  the  East.  The  papers  selected  are  the  Intro- 
ductory Report  on  the  Indian  Penal  Code,  and  the  Notes  appended  to  that  code, 
in  which  most  of  its  leading  provisions  were  explained  and  defended.  These 
papers  were  entirely  written  by  Lord  Macaulay.  but  the  substance  ol  them  was 
the  result  of  the  joint  deliberAtions  of  the  Indian  I^w  Commission,  of  which 
he  was  President.  They  are  by  no  means  merely  of  Indian  interest,  for  while 
they  were  the  commencoraent  of  a  new  system  of  law  for  India,  they  relate 
chiefly  to  general  principles  of  jurisprudence,  which  are  of  universal  applies- 
tion. 

The  contents  are  arranged  in  this  edition  as  follows :  Yols.  I.  to  IV.,  History 
of  England  since  the  Accession  of  James  the  Second;  Vols.  V,  VI.,  and  VII., 
Critical  and  Ilistoriciil  Essays,  Biographies,  Report  and  Notes  on  the  Indian 
Penal  Code,  and  contributions  to  Knight's  Quarterly  Magazine;  VoL  VIIL, 
Speeches,  Lays  of  Ancient  Fiome,  and  Miscellaneous  Poems. 

This  last  division  of  the  work  is  completed  by  the  insertion  of  the  Cavalier's 
Song  and  the  Poetical  Valentine  to  the  Hon.  Mary  C.  Stanhope,  two  pieces 
which  weie  not  included  in  previous  editions  of  Lord  Macaulay's  miscellaneoua 
writings. 

"  Every  admirer  of  Lord  Macanlay's  writings  fand  their  name  is  leelon) 
will  heartily  thank  Appleton  &  Co.  for  having  produced  this  elegant  edition  o( 
his  works.  It  seems  almost  idle  to  sa}' any  thing  in  praise  of  the  gieat  his- 
torian to  the  American  reader,  but  wo  cannot" forbe.arexpressin<.'  our  admiration 
of  the  physical  as  well  as  mental  strength  so  manifest  in  his  diction  and  style. 
.  .  ,  .  But  it  is  not  our  intentionto  write  a  critique  on  the  man  whose 
memory  holds  so  prominent  a  placo  in  the  heart  of  the  reading  worUL  The 
volumes  before  us  should  till  a  niche  in  every  public  and  private^ library  in  our 
land."— G^/e»  Falls  Journal. 

"  His  writings  and  his  speeches,  arranged  in  chronoloj^cal  order,  exhibit  Um 
developments  of  a  mind  always  more  or  less  powerful,  and  announce  the  ex- 
tfiut  of  his  reading  and  the  tenacity  of  his  memory.  His  coniributions  to  tb« 
History  of  British  India  show  how  usefully  his  time  was  spent  during  bis  8o- 
j,>urn  at  Calcutta." 

^F*  D.  Appleton  &  Co.'s  Descriptive  Catalogue  m«y  be  bad  gratuitously 
en  application. 

D.  APPLETON  &  CO., 

Publishers,  Booksellers,  &  Stationers, 

«;4Q  dr*  SSI  BroadzMYt  Nrm   York. 


A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 


EIG^IITEENTH    CENTURY. 

By  WILLIAM  EDWARD  HARTPOLE  LECKY, 

Author  of  "  History  of  the  Rise  and  Influence  of  the  Spirit  of  Rationalism  in 
Europe,"  "  History  of  European  Morals,  from  Augustus  to  Charlemagne,"  etc. 

2  vols.,  12mo.    Cloth,  $5.00. 


Some  Topics  selected  from  the  Contents. 


Whigs  and  Tories. 

Godolphin  and  Marlborough. 

Literature  under  Anne. 

Sacheverell  and  the  Clergy. 

Oxford,  Bolingbroke,  Swift. 

Nonconformists — Quakers. 

Parliamentary  Corruption  and  Tyranny. 

Irish  Penal  Code. 

Robert  Walpole. 

Drunkenness — Gambling. 

Fleet  Marriages. 

Newspaperfe. 

Architecture,  Painting,  Music,  and  the 

Drama. 
English  Laborers. 
North  American  Colonies. 


Commercial  Restrictions. 

Slave-Trade. 

Scotland:  The  Highlands,  Scotch  Re- 
ligion, Progress. 

Ireland :  Resources,  Country  Life,  Pol- 
itics, Religion,  Emigration. 

Priest-Hunting,  1711-1730. 

The  Duke  of  Newcastle. 

Pitt— Fox. 

Conquest  of  Canada. 

Conquest  of  Hindostan. 

Religious  Revival. 

Observance  of  Sunday. 

Wesley— Whitefield. 

Religion  in  Wales. 


Other  writers,  and  among  them  notably  Lord  Stanhope,  have  published  works 
covering,  in  great  measure,  the  same  period  which  Mr.  Lecky  has  here  chosen 
to  treat  of;  but  the  plans,  objects,  and  the  classes  of  facts  on  which  the  present 
history  especially  dwells,  are  so  very  different  from  all  preceding  histories  as  to 
constitute  an  entirely  distinct  production.  Next  to  impartiality,  nothing  has  so 
distinguished  Mr.  Lecky  as  his  power  of  massing  facts,  and  preserving  their  due 
relation  and  subordination.  The  strict  order  of  chronology  he  in  some  cases 
departs  from,  for,  as  he  observes,  "  the  history  of  an  institution,  or  a  tendency, 
can  only  be  written  by  collecting  into  a  single  focus  facts  that  are  spread  over 
many  years,  and  such  matters  may  be  more  clearly  treated  according  to  the  order 
of  subjects  than  according  to  the  order  of  time."  This  is,  indeed,  the  philosophy 
of  history;  and,  instead  of  giving  a  dry  narrative  of  events  year  by  year,  it  has 
been  Mr.  Lecky's  object  "  to  disengage  from  the  great  mass  of  facts  those  which 
relate  to  the  permanent  forces  of  the  nation,  or  which  indicate  some  of  the  more 
enduring  features  of  national  life,  and  to  present  the  growth  or  decline  of  mon- 
archy, the  aristocracy,  and  the  democracy,  of  the  Church  and  of  Dissent,  of  the 
agricultural,  the  manufacturing,  and  the  commercial  interests;  the  increasing 
power  of  Parliament  and  of  the  press ;  the  history  of  political  ideas,  of  art,  of 
manners,  and  of  belief;  the  changes  that  have  taken  place  in  the  social  and 
economical  condition  of  the  people;  the  influences  that  have  modified  national 
character;  the  relations  of  the  mother-country  to  its  dependencies,  and  the 
causes  that  have  accelerated  or  retarded  the  advancement  of  the  latter." 

D,  APPLETON  &>  CO.,  549  6^  551  Broadway,  N.  V. 


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